The solutions offered by Osellus have always been methodology-agnostic. We continue to have the same approach going into the second generation process authoring/automation tooling introduced by us. 

One example of this is our ongoing efforts to create and offer an OpenUP/Basic VSTS process template. This will be helpful to teams that are using VSTS as the development platform of choice and would like to use a methodology such as OpenUP/Basic during enactment. As you know, Content Bridge for VSTS already offers an easy low-overhead way to move RUP content into VSTS. 

I believe that by extending Content Bridge to support EPF processes customers will have a choice that results in significent cost saving while ensuring wider inter-operatibility between processes and execution environments. Stay tuned for more announcements on this in the coming weeks.

We are officially releasing Content Bridge for VSTS ! Here is the full press release.

Here is some more information in Content Bridge for VSTS:

http://www.osellus.com/products/contentbridge/contentbridge_for_vsts.html

There were 1548 attendees at the SEPG event this year. Most of them are involved in some kind of process - definition, management or improvement - activities in the organizations they represent. Many of the visitors to the Microsoft booth were already aware of advanced process-specific capabilities introduced by Visual Studio Team System (VSTS). This was a good opportunity for the partners in the VSTS eco-system to showcase their offerings in this area.

For Osellus this meant highlighting IRIS Process Author with its collaborative, enterprise-grade process architecting capabilities. The feedback received from visitors to the booth was a good validation of the single-minded focus we have in providing a team-based un-complicated way to author or tailor processes. Our methodology-agnostic approach means we support processes based on homegrown methodologies or well-known methodologies and frameworks such as MSF, RUP, Macroscope, EssUP, ITIL and others. To give you an idea of the change I noticed in this domain, I never once had to say that “one process does not fit all projects”! This is a given. All I had to do was show how this can be done in a low-cost, collaborative team based environment. Oh and by the way, using IRIS Process Author, the cost of creating VSTS Process Templates is almost zero as we support out-of-the-box generation of these templates ! I had a lot of questions on how these processes, once modeled are consumed. This was a good plug for me to show our second-generation enactment solution.

It seems that the days of a single monolithic dominant methodology are truly over as users realize that these printed tomes or published websites are relegated as shelf-ware by most practioners in real projects. This is where the second generation tooling offered by IRIS Process Live comes into play. We have offered the first generation of this tooling for a few years now, and based on the lessons learned we have made a significant change to this tooling. Offered with an underlying platform such as VSTS, we have sucessfully bridged the gap between the theory around process improvement pattern of author-enact-measure-improve with actual tool based implementations in real projects. This would also deliver on the promise of data-based process improvement initiatives as well as help interested organizations in areas such as project simulations, project forensics and skills and competency improvement initiatives. Watch this blog for more information on this area over the next few months…

Here are some pictures from the conference:

From left to right: Serge (Fujitsu), Eric (Ivar Jacobson), Kamal (Osellus), Juan (Personify Design), Ajoy (Microsoft), Clementino (Microsoft), Chandra (Osellus)

Kamal, Chandra

Monday, 26th March was the first day at SEPG 2007, Austin. A quick dash from Austin airport to be in time for the exhibitor hall opening at 5 PM !

After a very bumpy (lot of turbulance) ride over to Austin the Osellus team - represented by Chandra Bhople and I started setting up our booth at the exhibitor hall. As I had mentioned earlier, we are sharing a booth with Microsoft along with two other partners. Ajoy and Clementino are representing Microsoft. Serge from Fujitsu Consulting and Eric from Ivar Jacobson Consulting are in kiosks next to us within the overall Microsoft booth. Juan from Personify Design is also here. I knew Ajoy, Clementino, Serge and Juan from earlier interactions and it was nice to meet Eric. All I can say there is a formidable process-specific brain trust residing in booth 515 over the next 3 days…..We got the booth setup before the exhibitor hall opening at 5.00PM on Monday evening.

The first day saw many familiar faces visiting the Osellus kiosk at the Microsoft booth. It was nice to get the opportunity to update them on the next generation tooling we have built with new versions of IRIS Process Author and IRIS Process Live and Metrics. This being an SEI event, it also gave a chance to show some of the CMMI specific functionality including reporting functionality built within our tools and also get some feedback on extending and adding more report formats to get out-of-the-box reporting from our tools.

The buzz I got from the day was a need to get processes out there, in the field, in a quick manner, preferably in a way that supports incremental development of these processes on getting feedback from practioners rather than a herculaen or big-bang approach in creating/introducing processes….more on this later.

Osellus is getting ready to showcase its second generation process automation suite IRIS and other related offerings at the upcoming SEPG show in Austin.

We are sharing the Microsoft booth to demonstrate our latest collaborative offerings around Microsoft’s Visual Studio Team System. There is a lot of theory (around process automation) going into practice with this next generation toolware and I am very excited to share this advancement of art with the process pioneers attending this conference.

Here are our coordinates at the show:

Event:  SEPG 2007
Date: March 26-28th
Location: Austin, Texas
Exhibit: 515 - Sharing the Microsoft booth

I will be blogging about the show but in case you are in Austin, do come and drop by to say Hi.