Software as a Change Agent

About CSK Software

CSK Software is a new company built upon the foundation of Quay Financial Software which has a 10 year reputation for being at the forefront in delivering high performance real-time financial solutions based on leading-edge technologies. Our development center in Dublin, Ireland holds ISO 9001 and TickIT status and we pride ourselves in our ability to deliver consistently high quality solutions, on-time. Continuous innovation is the key to meeting the rapidly-changing requirements of the financial community. The company's philosophy is to forge lasting partnerships with its clients as evidenced through the progressive relationships maintained with over 150 of the world's leading financial institutions.

Why Lotus Notes?

At the time Notes was initially deployed in CSK Software, there were few other tools available providing the ability to use a single system for both internal/external mail and information repository. The deployment of Notes as a corporate information system was prompted by rapid expansion in the company and the need to provide a controlled central forum for storing all information related to specific projects. One of the major benefits of Notes is the ease of access to information via modem connection, making it trivial for developers/support to work from a customer site and still have available all information relating to a specific product. Over time, the need for more structured information moved the effort towards designing in-house Notes database templates for various organisational groups within the company. These templates evolved to match the business workflow of each group. Today, Notes is the backbone of all activities in CSK Software, including development, QA, project management and metric analysis.

Impact of using Lotus Notes

As with all tools, deployment can be difficult if the tool is not seen to support and supplement current work practices. One of the major impacts of using Lotus Notes in CSK Software was the need to define the workflows and role interactions so that Notes databases could be tailored to support routine tasks. In doing so, we identified many areas where work processes were unclear or poorly understood. Thus, our deployment of Notes ran very much in tandem with many process improvements. As the roles involved in specific work practices had direct input into requirements for Notes design, there was a considerable amount of buy in from staff in general, enhancing the view of Notes as an enabling or change agent. In essence, this was CSK Software's first step towards ultimate ISO9001/TickIT approval.

Involvement in the ALCAST (Automated Life Cycle Approach to Testing) project sponsored by ESSI over an 18 month period from January 1994 to June 1995 was instrumental in formalising CSK Software's approach development. During this period, our Development Notes database format was consolidated to include all aspects of the STEP development methodology. This had an immensely positive impact in terms of visibility into development. For instance, the availability of requirements and design documents to all interested parties meant that QA, development and Client Support resources had exposure to information at an early stage of projects and hence could plan their strategies for testing and support much earlier in the development lifecycle. Also, as this template was utilised on all development projects in CSK Software, resources could move between projects and still be aware of the location of key documents relevant to that project. The result of this greater visibility was a reduction in defects by 50% whilst application complexity increased 30%. The Notes support was critical in implementing the new lifecycle and attaining these improvements.

Benefits

From a corporate perspective, the greatest benefit from deploying Notes is that CSK Software is virtually a paperless office. All of our day to day work is conducted on Notes and as such, there is an audit trail of all tasks performed. This is extremely useful in terms of maintaining ISO 9001/TickIT status. Also, it obvious when defined work practices are not being followed as there will be little or no activity in the Notes forms which support that practice. Thus, it is trivial to identify areas that require attention.

One of the most powerful aspects of Notes is the integration of Database and mail support. Because of this functionality, automatic mail agents can be configured for individual databases. One example of where this is a powerful tool is in terms of document review - agents can be created to mail various people alerting them that they are required to review a specific document in a database. An automatic reminder is then mailed to them daily until the document has been satisfactorily assessed. This is a very effective method.

In terms of using Notes as a change agent, the ability to enforce specific formats on certain documents is of great benefit. This is especially useful in terms of general documents where content varies greatly depending on author. For instance, there is no definitive format for a Test Plan, but as a Manager, you may wish that a number of key areas are addressed, such as resources, number of test cycles, risk areas etc. It is trivial on Notes to create a generic Test Plan form which has various fields for each key area of interest. Then, these fields can be made "mandatory" which means that the document cannot be saved until that field is completed. This method is a very easy way of focusing users on the critical aspects of any document.

Notes also provides the ability to allow access to specific databases for external customers. For instance, quite often CSK Software will undertake development work with strategic partners. In this case, we can allow the partner access to the relevant Notes database, but also choose to restrict access to certain areas of that database. An obvious example would be where allowing the partner the ability to create "Defect Reports" or "Change Requests" is desirable, but restricting their access to in-house information, such as costing analysis and schedules is equally important.

An area that has become increasingly important for all software development operations, is the ability to prove that due care and attention has been taken during software development and, in particular, testing. This whole area has been highlighted by Year 2000 issues where the threat of litigation is a major consideration. Notes allows CSK Software to export all testing documents, test procedures and most importantly, execution histories, into a standard format or into e-mail for distribution when required. The ability to provide this level of information quickly is an extremely powerful tool, especially when pursuing new sales opportunities.

The Future?

As with all tools developed "in-house", the more widely used the tool becomes within an organisation the greater the level of maintenance the tool requires. CSK Software has recognised for some time that Notes is a tool that supports our revenue generating operations. To this end, we have monitored the market for many years for a Notes based solution that would provide us with similar support to that of our in-house database templates. Aimware (www.aimware.com), have been identified as the organisation providing the most elegant Notes Database templates for software development whilst providing functionality matching the needs of CSK Software. Deployment of Aimware templates has been successful, is on-going , and Aimware would provide an excellent starting point for anyone wishing to further pursue Notes as an organisational tool.

As the Internet becomes an integral aspect of corporate strategy for all companies, the emergence of Domino technology greatly enhances the power of Notes. Domino allows users to access notes databases from the web. CSK Software are exploring options using Domino to update current information contained in Notes databases automatically onto our corporate web site. Also, in the future, this technology will allow external users to update information in Notes databases via the web, eliminating completely the need for any Notes software at the client end of the transaction.

In conclusion, CSK Software recognises that Lotus Notes has been instrumental in our ability to support our development infrastructure, enhance customer support and maintain ISO9001/TickIT accreditation. Also, the continual evolution and of Notes technology provides us with an excellent forum for improving our business methods in the future.

Information:

CSK Software,
Lisle House,
33 Molesworth Street,
Dublin 2,
Ireland.

Ph: +353 1 6046300
Fax: +353 1 6622195
Web: www.csksoftware.com

Brian Farrelly is Product QA Manager for CSK Software and can be contacted via e-mail at bfarrelly@csksoftware.com.