Measuresoft Development

3 . Problem Definition & Objectives

Background to Problem/Opportunity

The software industry sometimes suffers from the fact that the product is essentially intangible. There have been some fairly high profile contract development disasters, because the project has gone off the rails in terms of deadlines or cost. Managing the development process and the relationship with the customer is critical for Measuresoft to operate successfully in the market.

Fergal Cassidy, the Managing Director of Measuresoft had the following to say on the matter, “in my own experience, the success of a software project depends a lot on expectation. There are three things – time, cost and quality. It’s that triangle that you have to manage expectations around.”

Typically the process begins with a customer outlining a particular objective and a deadline for achieving it. The software contractor will then produce an initial user requirements document based on the context of the project and initial indications of what’s required.

Fergal underlined the need for this to be an interactive process with significant customer involvement, “It’s not as simple as the customer then rubber stamping this document. The customer needs to be fully involved in the review of that document and throughout the process of defining the specification that meets requirements.”

The user requirements document can go through many iterations and the process can take anything from a number of weeks to a number of months before a final sign off on the spec is achieved. The process is not straightforward. There is a good deal of passing documents backwards and forwards.

It is also crucial that the software contractor manage the requirements phase as efficiently as possible. The customer will generally have specified a deadline for the completion of the project at the outset but the time between the client receiving the specification and approving it is dead time.

According to Fergal “you’ll try to get the team to do something. You might know there are certain areas that they’ll
be working on so you can get people to go off and investigate those areas but you’re still taking some degree of risk. You’re working on unapproved requirements and the customer is not going to pay you for going off and investigating something that hasn’t been signed off on.”

Once the specification has been signed off the customer needs to be kept informed of the progress of the project. They need to track progress and have an indication of how much is complete and how much has yet to be done. At the outset the customer is provided with a project plan and updates on work done are collated and presented to the customer at regular intervals. This is a time consuming process that involves collecting various metrics – hours worked, objectives completed – and preparing a report for the customer.

As Measuresoft began to expand and move into new markets, it became apparent that its operational systems for dealing with customer sign-offs and project updates needed an overhaul.

Fergal explained, “from 1994 to 1998 we concentrated on getting the product out the door. Then we needed to tidy up the house and ensure we were a professional outfit. Solid operational systems would also help us to grow the business in a controlled way and this was very significant. For example, we knew we’d get new projects and more revenue if we had a solid quality system accreditation.”

Therefore, in 1998 Measuresoft developed an online system for quality management. The original system did not use web technology. The business objective was to achieve ISO9000 within a time frame of 13 months. The quality control system was implemented for support and development activities. Once it was working and accredited, it allowed Measuresoft to bring bigger projects in house and to sell not only software products but also services and support as well.

The original implementation of the quality system required an investment of about £70,000. However it enabled the company to achieve new business of at least £500,000.

Once the operational systems had been streamlined Measuresoft began to investigate the idea of automating them further and making them web-enabled.

Fergal commented as follows; “we could see the automation limitations to our systems and the opportunities which would be created by making them automated and web-enabled. In theory this would mean a person could be working off site or at Start of case study and still operate as if in the office. Another motivation was to provide customers with a view of a project as it progresses and to participate in the review process online.”

The company decided to avail of the Enterprise Ireland eBusiness Accelerator grant programme in order to
progress the project further.

The specific objectives were twofold.