Votes/Polls/Reviews

Well no one can say it hasn’t been an interesting month for politics. To start our November 2020 newsletter, we offer congratulations to Joe Biden, expected to be confirmed as the President-Elect of the United States.

Polls and votes are a method of gathering opinion. A consensus or agreement may be in a majority, or unanimous. Just as there is undeniably more than one way to run a country, there is usually more than one way to solve a requirement.  Configuration management is a method of recording the status of a project at a particular point in time. This could be a simple snapshot, but is more meaningful if there is a recorded agreement between stakeholders that a consensus was also reached. We term this a review, and you can read about why they are important in our article The Value of Reviews.

Cradle Review Options

Cradle reviews follow a workflow for each item type. That workflow is used  to control how an item after a review is allowed to proceed.

It’s unlikely you’d be able to mandate all electorate turn out to vote, and in the same way you can choose how many reviewers must make a decision. You certainly can’t ask all the electorate to vote the same way, and a review must allow you to accept a less than unanimous decision.

The supported options in Cradle are:

Reviewers required for decision –All, Any, Several, Majority, Most
Decision method – Unanimous, Any approve, Any reject, Majority, Most.

You can find out more information in Cradle Help

Results

At the end of September, Structured Software Systems Limited, completed its latest financial year.

Managing director Mark Walker said, “We are pleased to say that this has been our most successful year in 3SL’s 30 year history.”

highlights:

• • Turnover increased 15%,
  • Turnover split equally between 3SL here in the UK and our worldwide network of partners
  • Exports amounted to 67% of turnover
  • Our new SaaS services amounted to 7.5% of turnover in its first full year
  • Over 95% of customers renewed their maintenance
  • Every one of our customer feedback surveys compliments our support as among the best in the industry, both for responsiveness and depth of knowledge

We would like to thank all of our customers, both those new to 3SL and those we have been serving for 20 or more years. We continue to work to help you all to derive maximal benefit from Cradle!

Public Training Courses

Whilst 2020’s courses were all online, we will begin to look ahead to 2021’s public courses and offer as appropriate online or training room based sessions.

Our last course for 2020

Public training options are ideal if only a few people in your organisation need to be introduced to a Cradle topic. It also allow you to share the experience with other users and there’s always the benefit that they may ask a question you’d not thought about!

Whether it is  Requirements Management, or Systems Engineering, Document Publishing or Loading our training can cover everything “Cradle” and the aspects of RM and SE. Of course we will create bespoke and in depth training for any customer who wishes to tailor training to their company process, however, if there is a topic you would definitely like to see offered in one of our public courses, please drop us a line: salesdetails@threesl.com

Social Media

Twitter

We liked the way that some engineering just keeps on ticking, simple and effective, Loch Sloy Hydro  power station can reach full capacity within 5 minutes from a standing start! The SSEHeritage‘s tweet about it celebrates 70 years since inception.

Don’t forget to share you favourite engineering stories with #LoveEngineering

We also tweeted about the flexibility of Cradle definitions remember your tools should work for your business processes and not the other way round.

And Finally

Whether you are commemorating foiling the Guy Fawkes plot or celebrating Thanksgiving this month, operate fireworks safely.

Back-To-School?

It’s been a challenging year for all. One of the biggest impacts has been in the education sector and we hope all students have now had a month to to settle into a new ‘normal’ as schools, universities and colleges return. Some have found the various lock-downs an opportunity to learn a new skill, study an online course or just get round to reading all those trade and profession journals that appear to mount in our in-boxes.

Learning should never stop, whether in the classroom, online, or as you work from your peers. One of the other vital learning opportunities is from evaluations during and after a project. Call it “Learn from your mistakes” or “Process improvement” the results should be the same; a closed feedback loop is essential. In Cradle you could add a new item type, add a frame to an item or set up a separate evaluations project. The important point is that the data coming out of the discussions and evaluations is recorded and linked to the items giving rise to that feedback. Too often ‘wash-ups’ can be seen as a tick in a management check-box. The lessons can be completely forgotten next time a similar project is undertaken. By recording this information linked to the original project, they can form input to your next design.

Public Training Courses

Fortuitously, we’ve just mentioned ‘learning’ so its a good time to remind you to book onto one of the #Cradle 2020 Public Training courses

Cradle Release

We’ve held onto the current release Cradle 7.6, mentioned last quarter, in order to complete some performance enhancements. This means these improvements will be released at the same time as the new Risk Management and Test Execution and Recording features.

Staying Safe

We could write our own article about security and staying safe online when working at home, but we thought this article by the BCS – (British Computer Society) – said it all!
www.bcs.org/content-hub/how-to-avoid-being-hacked-in-the-era-of-covid-19/

G-Cloud 12

3SL are pleased to announce that Cradle is available as a packaged SaaS through the latest UK government digital marketplace G-Cloud 12.

The UK marketplace offers Cloud Software applications and other services, over a wide range of topics to fulfil central and regional government contracts, government agencies’ work and local authority use. Read the full article here.

For full details of  Cradle’s facilities follow these links

Social Media

Twitter

We looked at the way robotics have been changing and adapting to applications that are not as “standard” and “repeatable” as traditional areas.
We reminded users there are different ways to view your data in lists, tables, trees or document views.

We celebrated the culture of sharing knowledge on #SwapIdeasDay you can still send us your ideas and we may publish them. That’s all for the October 2020 Newsletter.

“All We Hear is Radio….”

Our August 2020 newsletter takes you back in time 65 years ago this month….

Do you remember the Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation? They  completed production of Japan’s first portable transistor radio the TR-55. It contained 5 transistors, which they developed themselves. Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo K.K. was renamed in 1946 to the more familiar Sony. The success is attributed to having that base level control – the design and development of their own transistors in addition to the circuit board. Transistors at the time didn’t have the characteristics or reliability or stability that they needed.

These days it is unlikely a consumer product manufacturer would set out designing their own discrete components. Customisation is done at a much higher level, as specifications to component manufacturer or firmware / software control on top. Knowing where to draw the line is crucial, knowing your own strengths and weaknesses is vital to your product’s success. On one hand there is no point re-inventing the wheel, but neither is there any point using less than optimal components if that is crucial to your design.

It is important to think about the problem first, rather thinking in terms of a solution. As we note in this article on Functional and Non-Functional requirements there are a number of ways to cross a road. There is little point designing a Belisha Beacon based system only to find that there is no power available at the site! However, if the specification does require lights your solution may need to include solar power – but it is unlikely you’ll be designing your own cells. However, if you are designing an electric vehicle, making your own batteries may be a world leading break through. Happy designing!

JOSCAR

3SL were pleased to announce their  JOSCAR accreditation . Using JOSCAR can determine if a supplier is “fit for business”. It is a collaborative tool used by the aerospace, defence and security industry to act as a single repository for pre-qualification and compliance information.

A Word from 3SL

Whether it is remote access to a SaaS solution, or building new processes or designing new products 3SL and Cradle are here to help. We’re ready and waiting to take your email / webinar request / call.  In other words, it’s business as almost usual at 3SL. Just because the staff are not all in the physical office we’re still ready and waiting to make sure Your project + Cradle = Success

Social Media

Twitter

We looked at the precursor to today’s 3 pin UK power plug. This initial design BS 546, was born out of the need to have a safety earth. The modern square pin version is still one of the safest plug designs in the world.
We reminded users there are different ways to view your data in lists, tables, trees or document views.

“I’ve got it, yes it’s so clear now. It was just when you said…….”

What we might call a water-cooler moment – a discussion with a colleague, sometimes about something completely unrelated, gives that neural spark.  An idea for a new project, a way to solve the current conundrum,  these interactions are often the start of a new path forward.
Aside from the fact, here up North in England, we call a ‘Water cooler’ the ‘Tap’, because that’s where water comes from. No fancy machine with a bottle atop!   With many people isolated in spare rooms and on dining tables some of these interactions will inevitably be lost. Arranging a video call is much more formalised and sterile compared to the often relaxed off the cuff old brew table.

How is your business ensuring ideas keep flowing? Are you back at work attempting to hold conversations 2m apart, or speaking muffled through a mask, or still working remotely? Zoom, Skype / Teams, GoToMeeting etc. may have seen a surge in use, but can they truly replace the water cooler interaction?

We think it is important to maintain social interaction as well as formal meetings. Some ideas you could try:

• Set up a Skype Group Chat amongst the office staff, called “Morning” and ask everyone to type “Hello”/”Morning”/”Yo!” when they ‘arrive’ at work, mimicking arriving at the office. You’ll inevitably get a few other light hearted text conversations which can help the team stay in touch.
• Choose to make an audio call to a colleague rather than a text or email. If you would normally have wandered over to a colleague’s desk to chat about an issue, then make the call. It is often easier to judge reaction by tone of voice than tone of text in an email ping-pong. Follow up with a summary email for traceability if applicable.
• Consider a virtual lunch. If you use video conferencing, once a week opt to have an open meeting. Make it clear this is definitely NOT a working lunch and just use it to mimic the break we should all be taking to replenish. However, if you want to discuss last night’s telly, or what Susannah has in her sandwiches today that’s perfectly fine.
• Play lists, if you are working from home the usual restriction of a music licence for the work premises would not apply, why not suggest your top 10 work-a-long  songs?
• Suggest your own social-customer@threesl.com

Discussions

We often leave notes for colleagues, whether as a sticky yellow square, or a text or social media message. Whilst these are very useful to record thoughts and reminders, they lack context. Cradle Discussions allows you to add thoughts and point to note database items. Whether it an action to complete, a question about the colour of a part or a lightweight review and approval mechanism, you’ll find them more comprehensive than a simple sticky.

Training

Public Requirements Management Course coming in October, and Document Publisher in November – For this year’s calendar see Public Training Courses 2020 Of course if you would like your own bespoke training, we can arrange it, please contact support@threesl.com

Twitter

We were reminded we have been tweeting about #3SL, #Cradle and general engineering for 11 years!  Why not choose you favourite engineering Tweet and copy us in @threesl using the #LoveEngineering

We marvelled at the ability to receive a signal 0.1 ­billion-billionth of a watt from Voyager I.

…and Finally.

Did you know Friday 17th July is World Emoji Day?  😉

3SL recognise trade marks of Zoom - Zoom Video Communications Inc, Skype - Microsoft and GoToMeeting LogMeIn Inc. No association is either made or implied.

It’s June Already

Life is certainly different since the last Newsletter. We’ve been locked away in bedrooms and dining rooms ensuring 3SL can continue to develop the upcoming 7.6 release and provide email support and webinars. A good thing about not having a webcam on your work computer, is that we can get away with t-shirt and shorts rather than normal office attire! Some staff are looking a little different, beards down to their knees, as they feel no need to shave, and that’s just the women……. We hope you too are coping with the changes.

Coming Soon……

As mentioned above Cradle 7.6 is lining up for release. We can’t wait to show you some great new facilities in Risk Management and Test Execution & Recording. Keep an eye out for release notifications.

A Word from 3SL

As lock-down eases, you’ll be getting to grips with the ‘new normal’, and making choices about the future of your business.

We just wanted to let you know we are right by your side, to help you navigate what’s next, with experience, support and technology to help. From remote access to a SaaS solution, to building new processes or designing new products in Cradle.

We have a range of online training courses. With a Document Publisher opportunity in June.

However, if there’s more we can be doing to support you, please let us know here. Let’s face the next steps together.

Spam Safe

We have recently updated authentication of our emails. Your mail systems should find communications from 3SL (threesl.com) make use of  DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)  which adds PKI signature verification and  DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) – which combines SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM together. This should reduce the likelihood of 3SL communications mistakenly being marked as spam.

Social Media

Twitter

We noted the birth of the first electromechanical programmable computer, and how things have moved on.

We noted that engineering is not just about making the product it is also about making the machines to help assemble it.

And Finally

Did you know June 23rd is Typewriter day? (The anniversary of the granting of the U.S. patent to Christopher Latham Sholes in 186).  Do you clatter away on a responsive full travel 101/102 or 104/105 Key layout or a 78-80 key light travel laptop key or a flat touch haptic button. Are you a single finger prodder, a one hand and one finger keyer, or a fully trained typer? Why not have a go at uniqcode.com/typewriter/