Optimal Trace Unites Business and IT at LogicaCMG

How does a London-based IT services provider ensure its Netherlands division translates client needs into high-quality, highly effective technology? It starts the project off right by capturing business requirements with Compuware Optimal Trace.

If a company can operate more efficiently, it can improve profitability without needing to increase sales or output. Putting this theory into practice isn’t always easy, especially when it requires two very different teams—business and IT—to work together more effectively.

 LogicaCMG Netherlands is the Dutch arm of the large global IT services provider. Its focus has historically been on IT and business consultancy, but increasingly it is turning to project work and outsourcing. LogicaCMG can call on the resources and skills of its employees from anywhere around the globe. In India, for example, it has a large team of engineers focusing on software coding and development. What the company sought, however, was an automated and efficient way for business analysts to translate a customer’s requirements into a format the IT teams and other stakeholders could understand.

Optimal Trace Bridges the Business/IT Divide

By chance, Joris Sauter, a consultant in the public sector division at LogicaCMG Netherlands, discovered an article on Optimal Trace, a leading business requirements management solution. "I looked them up on the web and what I saw sparked my interest so I downloaded a trial version," he says.

The good thing about Optimal Trace is you can describe software requirements in different ways. Optimal Trace also automates processes for us that are not available in other products, so it assures quality and efficiency of requirements for us every step of the way, — Joris Sauter Consultant, Public Sector Division, LogicaCMG

"We proposed using it in a project we were working on for one of our customers," he continues. "They agreed and we immediately saw an increase in the quality and efficiency of our requirements. This gave us enough reason to look for more opportunities to use Optimal Trace in our projects division."

LogicaCMG examined other requirements analysis and project definition tools on the market. In the end, however, it concluded that Optimal Trace was by far the most suitable for its needs.

"Optimal Trace supports the creation of structured requirements to a greater extent than Requisite Pro does," explains Sauter. "The good thing about Optimal Trace is you can describe software requirements in different ways, for example, through a visual storyboard. Optimal Trace also automates processes for us that are not available in other products, so it assures quality and efficiency of requirements for us every step of the way.

"Optimal Trace gives us flexibility to publish information in a wide variety of formats and layouts, so it’s easier for us to customize information in a format that suits the relevant stakeholder," he continues. Optimal Trace provides organizations with a library of templates from which they can generate and customize different documents for different stakeholders. Although everyone on a project works toward the same goal, it can slow down the process if each stakeholder is given a detailed update of its development. At best, it can be confusing; at worst, it can create conflict. "With Optimal Trace, we can include less or more information as appropriate or format it in a different way," explains Sauter. "Before, we had one document and it caused problems as it would include details that both groups didn’t need to see. Now we can send the customer a simplified version of requirements, which makes it easier to understand. While our IT teams can receive the detailed technical version."

Many business analysts at LogicaCMG Netherlands involved in capturing and managing project requirements now use Optimal Trace as their standard requirements tool. With Optimal Trace, they can generate activity reports based on the quality and status of requirements to obtain updates on a project’s development and completeness. "It is very easy to implement Optimal Trace, so our analysts had no problems in using the tool," adds Sauter.

Generating Significant Gains in Productivity and Customer Service

"Optimal Trace helps our business and technical people work together more effectively because the quality of requirements is better," says Sauter. "We have seen a significant increase in productivity."

During the pilot phase, LogicaCMG carried out an ROI test to see if the investment was viable. "We tried to estimate how long it takes to create a requirements document and then assessed the quality of the document at the end," explains Sauter. "We found that although an analyst can create a document faster in (Microsoft) Word, it becomes complicated to use in the later stages of a project when a customer might change his requirements. Word becomes tedious to use because you have to check that you have changed everything manually. Optimal Trace does a lot of this automatically and it is much easier to navigate around the project and its associated documents. "We also can tailor the tool for our own needs," continues Sauter. "For example, our native language here is Dutch, but our Indian colleagues don’t speak Dutch. Optimal Trace lets us write requirements multilingually. We can send the requirements to the customer in Dutch and to our team in India in English and Dutch."

Looking ahead, LogicaCMG plans to integrate Optimal Trace more closely with its testing tools. "Once you input your requirements, you need to test the software to check it meets these requirements," says Sauter. "Optimal Trace helps by automatically generating test cases— before we would write test cases by hand—which means we can support our customers better."

Besides integrating Optimal Trace with its test and modeling tools, LogicaCMG plans to roll out Optimal Trace to its outsourcing division next. "We recently won a few big outsourcing deals and are currently deciding what tools to select, but Optimal Trace will definitely be beneficial in capturing and managing all those project requirements," reveals Sauter.