Reka is an economist with an MBA and 10+ years of experience in ICT with ERP, SCM, web, and mobile applications, as well as skills in international business development, consulting, and project management. You will find her blog posts on a variety of subjects from application lifecycle management and software quality standards to Agile methods.
Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI ) achievement quick and lean with code Beamer! CMMI for Development at Level 2 and 3 can be achieved by SMEs easily. Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) is a process improvement and appraisal program implemented by Carnegie Mellon University. The certified level of Capability Maturity is required by many US and European customers especially in government or elsewhere in…
Risk management is especially important for safety critical industries such as healthcare (with the design and manufacturing of medical devices), aviation & aircrafts, transportation, as well as the automotive industry due to the risks associated with the design of cars. Increasing complexity of such safety critical products increases risk for manufacturers as serious injuries or death could…
Nowadays chips, tags and applications are all around us, embedded into cars, medical devices and home appliances, all to ensure a more comfortable life. As users we enjoy the increased functionality and how it makes our lives easier, providing entertainment possibilities, power saving features or even features that can save lives. Behind the scenes, these…
It’s Summer time and hot, many people are on holiday or are planning to go on holiday soon, the less lucky are already returning from holiday. During holidays you have time to read funny stories on entertaining websites they are not strictly related to your work. I was reading a great website during my holiday…
Traceability as a phrase is used across many industries for example, within Supply Chain Management where transparency on processes, and ability of accurate tracking of changes is essential. In the software development lifecycle (SDLC) traceability primarily means the traceability of requirements throughout application development, ensuring that the delivered software fulfills all requirements and therefore prevent…
The new buzzword for industry in Germany is Industry 4.0. This term is used for Germany’s high tech strategy, subtitled “the success of the German economic performance”. Deutsche Bank recently published a research report with the title “Upgrading Germany’s industrial capabilities on the horizon”. The report begins with the fact that Germany has been and will remain…
Adaptability and Experience are key to success with Agile and Kanban. In a survey among experts carried out by Intland Software, the following question was asked. How much depends on a team experience and adaptability in achieving efficiency and higher productivity with Scrum or Kanban? One of the commenter suggested the question be tackled in two parts:…
In 2014 Intland Software executed a survey among its clients and partners to collect feedback regarding Maturity levels of Requirements Engineering. Based on an analysis of responses, Intland gives 7 tips for requirements engineers and managers on how to increase efficiency and solve the most common problems of software requirements management. 1. Integrate the evaluation of requirements quality…
Issue management, tickets on Kanban with escalation status IT Operations teams have to manage several parallel IT applications internally within the enterprise, or alternatively by providing IT application management services to external customers (ISPs). The main issue for those teams that have an easy to use monitoring and controlling system for issue tracking, is how to…
Kanban was originally implemented in production, but today it is widely used in other business areas including software development where its benefits have been realized improving efficiency and productivity. Kanban is based on the principles of a pull system, pioneered in Lean manufacturing. Lean thinking helps to refine and improve development in areas such as process flow,…
Nowadays, the real added value of engineered products is the embedded software. Software development complexity is a new experience in the engineered product world. Businesses that were quick to adapt have gained a clear advantage over competitors, however it is not too late for the rest. What does complexity mean in the embedded industry? Complexity…
Plan with Waterfall, execute with Agile, and speed up the whole process. Hybrid model is mentioned as a marriage of Agile and Waterfall methods. At the first look it might seem that these two methods are fundamentally so different that they could not possibly used together within in the same project. Although there are fundamental…
There are always discussions about how to use Story points to compare or measure performance. Is it better than effort based performance evaluation or not? Can it replace effort based performance management or not? In a recent blog I demonstrated the practice of using Story points for comparing and measuring performance. Simply put, using Story…
Demand Management Systems are on the front end of Project Management or Project Portfolio Management. Therefore, they are usually the first automated, workflow based solution that goes into the business value chain. Demand Management Systems are focused on demand – capturing ideas and managing the evaluation and approval process by providing support rating, vote ranking…
What are the benefits of Scrumban + What Kind of Work is Agile Scrumban Best Suited For? The Agile Scrumban approach combines the use of Scrum and Kanban and is commonly used in development and maintenance projects. It contains the best features of both methods with the fundamental elements of Scrum’s Agile working in combination…
Requirements Management tools can increase staff productivity, decrease operation costs which leads to better sales performance. Those are general statements but let’s look at the ROI elements of Requirements Management tools. How Can Requirements Management Tool Pay for Itself at Your Company? Return On Investment (ROI) is a popular method of measuring the success of…
In advanced Test Management solutions, parametrized testing supports the re-use of test cases and the importing or defining of test parameters for test runs with many different parameters. Parameters are attributes with different values that describe the live environment. Without parametrization, users need to replicate test cases with each and all parameters, which requires a…
Kanban is a very popular for collaborative task management and the Kanban Board is widely used task Management tool in all areas of business, including front and back office activities. The Kanban method comes from production, and was first deployed in project management, then later many other areas of business explored the added value of Kanban…
The shift towards social media communication channels and user generated content has created a challenge for marketing professionals, how to respond quickly enough to this trend and generate sufficient relevant content. Can Agility help marketing teams to handle this challenge? Download our case study and learn how we built a successful agile marketing team. Building an…
Risk Management is a top priority in the medical and automotive industry, where malfunctions in software can cause recalls and serious injuries or death of users. Software embedded in cars and medical devices is one of the most critical parts of functional safety. Application Lifecycle Management tools therefore has to support risk management and measurement, risk…
Requirements Engineering is a process that aims to define, document and maintain software requirements along the entire application development lifecycle. When working with the Waterfall method, it is usually done at the beginning of the development, whereas with Agile method requirements’ definition and subsequent changes are continuously occurring throughout the incremental development process. Requirements re-use…
Kanban as a method has its roots in production and is an important element of both Kaizen and Lean production. Kanban is focused on the pull strategy, with resources allocated based on where and when they are needed to support just-in-time delivery. But how can Kanban be applied in software development and what are the…
At Embedded World 2014 in Nuremberg we not only exhibited but collected useful feedback from people about their use of Agile practices. We asked the embedded industry to share their views about how Agile increases productivity and reduces time to market and about version control system and what importance the different modules (Requirements Management, Software…
Intland Software demonstrates codeBeamer ALM at Embedded World 2014 We exhibited at embedded world 2014, the largest tradeshow in Germany dedicated to embedded solutions. Thousands of exhibitors and visitors attended the expo that took place between 25th until 27th February in Nuremberg.
Intland Software exhibited and introduced codeBeamer Medical ALM solution at the two days conference and exhibition AgileMed + AgileCar in Munich 19-20 February 2014. The two day conference was dedicated to discussion about Agile practices and to share experiences of the medical and automotive industries. It was nice to see hundreds of experts from both…
“Internet of Things,” – IoT is the buzz word of the last few years in innovation and technology research. IoT is focused on intelligent devices, equipped with RFID tags, wireless sensors connected via wireless network, or over the internet. Understanding how it effects industries and ensures economic growth is essential in the new era of…
Is Agile better fit for fast growing, small development companies or is it for software giants? The answer is of course both, but implementation happens differently. In the case of Spotify it seems that successful implementation of Agile lead to quick and manageable growth. Scrum is mentioned as the key for success in competition with technology giants…
The ITIL – ISO 20000 standard describes all the procedures that must be in place for highly predictable, reliable IT service provision. ITIL is usually referred to as a robust, but complicated standard that requires a lot of training and implementation effort. Regardless of how the ITIL ISO 20000 is viewed, this standard is required…
Airlines and the aviation industry as a whole are heavily reliant on large scale, robust, mission – critical applications. Fierce competition among national airlines, charter companies and cheap carriers has resulted in extreme cost reduction pressure on all areas of airline operations including IT. Although cost cutting is a must, both safety and security still remain…
What is the most frequent cause of failures in software development? It’s the lack of definition and change management of requirements. This is what causes most of the catastrophes experienced in software development. Most IT practitioners are aware of this, but achieving a well-managed system of requirements is difficult. The most common cause of requirements management failures is the inadequate…
Customized development support tool for Medical Software Development Intland presenting at AgileMed 2014 – 19th February Munich Intland developed a project template for Medical Devices Producers, to support the embedded software development process by customized ALM functionality. IEC 62304 standard requirements can be fully cover by codeBeamer medical ALM. codeBeamer Medical ALM contains specific medical trackers for requirements…
Intelligent Transportation Systems solution addresses the challenges associated with planning, development, deployment, and lifecycle management of transportation software and solutions. Project teams develop and deploy their software successfully when they manage requirements, design, changes, quality assurance, operations with the traceability and are compliant with the standards (eg. ISO 26262) of the transportation industry. The increased…
Statement: „Agile projects are successful three times more often than non-agile projects, according to the CHAOS report from the Standish Group.“ The statistics define success, when software development projects are implemented within the given timeframe, on-budget and with the requested features. Does it mean that agile methods are the universal key to success? Is Agile better than Waterfall?…
3 months ago, when we started to use Scrum in marketing, I set up my agile marketing manifesto after reading many gurus’ recommendations: Short time planning Rapid iterations Test/Do/Change Performance I expected quickly tangible results, full transparency, having a happy and motivated team. My recommendations to other “agile marketers”: Apply an agile support tool! With…
Dean Leffingwell released the Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®) in 2012 as a publicly available framework for implementing Lean|Agile practices at enterprise scale. Agile methods are widely applied in software development at the team level, SAFe® defines how to take Agile principles above team level into program and portfolio level. The main objective of SAFe® is…
The engineering of medical devices requires compliance with intentional standards. Medical devices often contain software-controlled applications, the failure of which to function correctly could result in death or serious injury to the patient treated by them. Despite this increased danger, medical software standards still continue to reflect only the rigor of low-risk applications with potentially…
Automotive SPICE compliance is required along the automotive supply chain. The standard covers all aspects of software development quality, and requires full traceability throughout the application lifecycle. At large embedded software providers, developers need the proper support tools are required to implement and maintain their standardized procedures and are necessary to produce high quality automotive…
Embedded systems are one of the fastest growing technology areas in the world today. Cars, aircrafts, medical devices are equipped with software applications, providing more features for comfort and safety. A significant part of these applications are mission critical, especially in healthcare and aviation industries. Software for industrial products require even more complexity, the increasing…
Do you feel that you are an agile marketer? Below I highlight some similarities between how software development and marketing teams work. You might find these insights to be true for your own teams as well and help you identify if your team are agile working or not. My statements are in reflection upon reading…
Benefits of Using Scrum: Agile Scrum Benefits Overview Scrum certified trainer Kenny Rubin, author of the best-selling book entitled “Essential Scrum: A Practical Guide to the Most Popular Agile Process” published his blog post highlighting the main benefits of using Scrum method. Kenny highlighted the main benefits of using Scrum processes and tools in development, which means…
I’m in marketing. I recognized that SCRUM is not only for software development project managers. I’m also using it. Do you have a similar experience? I’m a coordinator of a small marketing and business development team. Initially, when I first met with SCRUM methodology I was sure it was only applicable for software development. The…
The new version of codeBeamer has extended features focusing on demand management. Before designing a support tool for demand management, it’s important to define the critical issues throughout the demand management lifecycle. Intland collected the following issues that usually need to be tackled by a demand management tool and are necessary to support both demand…