Software Engineering Tools

These are tools I use in my work. I have found them to be "best of breed" for the kind of facilitating I do. Most of my consulting and facilitating is done using a "workshop" approach to team learning. Instead of a training class, I train the team who have a job to do "just in time" using their real problem as the example. A workshop will produce "real" deliverables (not always the complete deliverable). To accomplish this I use a laptop and an overhead projector panel.

The software tools I use must be commercially available so that they can be purchased if the target team wants to continue using the techniques demonstrated in the workshop. I also have lean toward tools which are available on multiple platforms (Macintosh and Windows) with the ability to share files between platforms. Lastly, the tool must be able to be used in an interactive session (like a workshop). The tools below are the ones I currently use and recommend. I have pointed to the tool venders home page when appropriate.

Process Engineering

Most of the processes I document are ones dealing with "intellectual" or "analysis" type processes as opposed to manufacturing type processes. Because of this, things like storage, transportation, and inspection are not activities which are important to model. The real costs of "ideas" have little to do with the "space" they take up or moving them from one work station to the next. The main "objects" of intellectual work are:

Tasks
Meetings
Milestones
Decisions
Reports/Deliverables

I use the process modeling tool called TeamFlow. This tool will not only model a process, but can also instantiate a generic process and define the actual dates and costs. It can then be used as a project management tool to manage both the process and the deliverables. The multiple views and reports include gantt charts.

Unlike other "flow" type tools, the tool is designed for one method only and doesn't have endless object shapes and customizable rules. You either use the method and rules that the tool is designed for or you buy another tool! Because you can't customize objects and rules, you won't find endless "improvements" by end-users. You'd be surprised on how may teams want to improve the documentation process and not their actual work processes!

The tool not only models process flows, but also documents TeamNets. TeamNet is a term used to describe the method of using networks of people which cross normal boundries to solve a problem of common interest. TeamFlow runs on both the Mac and under Windows. Databases (models) created on one platform can be used by the other, which is nice for sites with both platforms.

QFD Tools

Still under construction as of 12/5/96....I haven't written this section yet.

Return To SOFTE

Software Engineering Tools, Ver 01/03/02 17:22 , Tom Gilchrist, CSQA, CSQE. For updates, suggestions, and corrections, please contact tomg@tomgtomg.com . The opinions and views expressed in SOFTE are my own and do not reflect the views of my employers. There is no financial connection with the products and services mentioned in SOFTE unless otherwise indicated.