It’s National Send A Card To A Friend Day 2018 today 7th February.
Send a Card – National Days In these days of e-based everything, the number of people sending physical cards has declined. Placing a card, selected, bought and handwritten, on the mantelpiece or shelf is still more special than viewing a Tweet/Instagram/FB Message.
Send a Card to a Friend
If you’re a friend of 3SL’s Cradle and would like to wish 3SL a happy 30th Birthday you could send us a card. Include your company name and website and we’ll feature some of the best in future blog updates*.
Featured cards will be at the sole discretion of 3SL (Structured Software Systems Ltd.) and will exclude any defamatory or promotion of products/services that are contrary to 3SL’s ethos.
You can show a hierarchy diagram in Web Access, but first of all it needs to be set up.
You can create dynamic and static HIDs in WorkBench. By right clicking the item of interest and then following Links->Hierarchy Diagram (HID) . Once displayed the properties for the diagram and the item types on it can be set.
If you want to return to these display settings, this ‘template’ can be saved.
The diagram will expand as defined in the settings and show in the item tab. The ‘Save’ option will now be available for the diagram itself. At the top of the HID Sidebar there is the option to make the HID static this results in the entire diagram being saved as a frozen snap shot. Leaving it un-ticked the diagram will remain dynamic. Next time you open the diagram all the links will be checked and redrawn. This is most useful when tracking how your project items and their links are growing.
Setting up a HID
Running Saved HIDs
Now that the named HID exists, it can be run from the Project Sidebar under the Hierarchy (HID) node in the project tree . You can run a query to return HIDs in the same way you can any other item type. If you write a query that returns only one HID item, it can be added to a phase with a run query and open item action. This makes it easy to control what users see and use from the project phases.
Web Access
Once you have a named HID available in Cradle it can be run from the sidebar in Web Access. The main item form will show a hierarchy diagram in Web Access. Additionally the ‘expand diagram’ icon allows the user to see the diagram in a separate scrollable window.
Blighted with cloud and rain for most of the evening on the 31st, we see the last remnants of the super blue blood moon over Barrow-in-Furness on the morning of 1st February. Many more world wide had much better views.
Super blue blood moon 2018 – Barrow-in-Furness
Pinch Punch
“Pinch Punch First of the month”. Were you fast enough to catch someone in your office today? If they are claim you are acting strangely, perpetrating mild violence in the office, try blaming it on the full moon….
Whether you are a current or prospective customer we want to ensure all our customers (current and future) have the support they need this coming year.
We are committed to your successful use of Cradle and provide a range of support services to ensure that Cradle delivers optimal benefit to your projects.
Options
Prospect Support
We’ll help you get your evaluation up and running and assist with questions on setting up for your company’s process.
Single User Products
These extremely competitively priced products come with 7 days active support. After that you can use the LinkedIn discussion groups, online help, online videos and bundled user manuals. Users may upgrade to any point.point releases denoted by their licence, e.g. 7.3 users may install 7.3.1 and 7.3.2
Enterprise Support
Enterprise products with maintenance are covered by unlimited active support from 3SL and their partners. They also have access to online material as above. Users can upgrade for free to any later product versions during their maintenance period. Users with Named User Licensing are able to request a number of user changes each year for free. Additional licences for extra features or personnel may be purchased at any time.
Product Re-instatement.
Whilst we wish all our customers have continued use for Cradle, we do understand that some long term projects go through design quiet phases. It may be that during these lulls following product design/development or test software tools are ‘parked’. 3SL will endeavour to re-instate any old projects and bring users up to the latest version of Cradle once the maintenance gap is filled, or a later version of the product purchases. We strive to ensure a full upgrade path and compatibility of all you historic Cradle data.
Training
We can supply a number of off the shelf Cradle training courses. However, to ensure you get the best benefits from these, we will consult with you to tailor the course for your company’s needs.
Bespoke Development
Whilst Cradle offers a full suite of products that cover most of our customers needs, some functionality requests are very bespoke. For example if you are using the WebAccess product and require customised pages with your company logo, you’re free to alter the templates. If, however, you have not got the expertise in-house, 3SL would undertake funded work to do this. Custom applications and new product features are also undertaken and 3SL will be happy to discuss your requirements.
Contact
Our UK technical support help-desk is available from 09:00 until 17:00 UK time (GMT/BST), Monday to Friday and excluding UK national holidays.
You can contact the help-desk by any of the following:
Tel: +44 (0) 1229 838867 Fax: +44 (0) 1229 870096 E-mail: support@threesl.com Website: www.threesl.com Post: Support 3SL Suite 2 22a Duke Street Barrow in Furness Cumbria, LA14 1HH UK
Please log all questions, concerns, problems and requests with the 3SL Support Department as above. You’ll be given a call reference and can then use this to keep track of its progress.
Don’t worry if your not in the UK, customers outside the UK can log calls with the Support Department as above, or with their local support representatives, either local 3SL support or local 3SL partner support, as appropriate. Our partners bring the additional benefits of speaking your language and being in your time zone. They have full assistance from 3SL and the complete range of Cradle products. Please see the Contacts Page for additional contact information.
For more information on our support and services please see the following page of our website.
3SL (Structured Software Systems Limited) are pleased to announce a new dedicated ‘fibre to the premises’ (FTTP) link to 3SL Headquarters, here in the UK.
We now have a 100 MBits/sec bi-directional connection to the ether, some five times faster than the previous contract fibre! Go on – give it a go, download one of our white papers, or the latest version of Cradle.
Faster Fibre
We’re happy to say our ISP services are still provided by Zen Internet, it’s just the new transport mechanism installed by BT can support better transfer rates. So wherever you are in the world, you can reach us here in Barrow-in-Furness at the edge of the English Lake District in Cumbria.
The art of a carefully crafted sentence with beautiful ink on a crisp page is becoming a rarity. Handwriting day serves to remind us of that skill.
These days we can even create ‘handwriting’ in our electronic documents with cursive fonts. We can Digitally sign documents using a pass-phrase. However, there is still room for a quick hand written posty note, a card or a signature on a document as a stamp of authority.
Storing Handwriting in Cradle
There are a few ways that you could store hand written information in Cradle.
Whether it is a handwritten requirement / letter / alteration from your customer or an authorisation signature, you can store them in Cradle. As part of Change Management you may wish to record a picture of a whiteboard discussion, a snapshot of the back of that envelope or even a scan of the letter sent by a customer.
In this month’s newsletter we asked you to email us when you last “hand wrote a date”. There’s still time to drop us a line and get a mention next month. Or if you really want to practice your writing for handwriting day 2018, drop us a letter.
When you have a complex problem, it is always good to ‘set some bounds’1, ‘divide and conquer’2 and ‘place a line in the sand’3. That’s 3 so far on the cliché count, but they are all true reflections of baselines and configuration management processes.
Baselines and Configuration Management. No real life project is static, it never has all the answers available up front and even the most basic of tasks is likely to have a change to its requirements. Changes can range from an alteration of delivery date or change of colour, to a whole change in direction caused by a change in circumstances, finance or regulation. If we’re not careful, project managing this changing landscape4 the ever changing goal posts5 puts project completion at risk.
We need to be clear that the proposed system requirements matched up to the user requirements at a particular point in time. Recording a baseline is that proverbial ‘line in the sand’. A baseline records the conditions at a point in time. The initial user requirements right at the beginning of the project would make an ideal baseline. It gives us a foundation to work from6. From there we can record, measure and control how the project develops. Far from being the ‘End’ of a project lifecycle, a baseline is a really good beginning.
Point of Decision
Now that we have our foundation, we can decide whether it is solid enough to build on. At present it may be more akin to a trench with some hardcore in the bottom, and nothing ready for a wall. However, we can now discuss these baselined requirements/or characteristics before moving on.
Foundations“Is the wall definitely in the right direction?”, “Is the wall to terminate at the end of the garden and no further?” (Setting the bounds) “Are you happy for us to quote for the full wall on this basis, or do we need to set a half-way house7 at the first course and then re-evaluate?” (Divided and hopefully conquered).
If all is well we can specify the system requirements and get the concrete poured. This firming up of the foundations8 would be another good baseline point.
Managing Change
“The neighbours have complained, the wall is too short to keep the dog in”. Back to the drawing board? Not quite, we can go back to the baseline and check what the agreed characteristics of the foundations were. We can’t build the wall higher in solid blocks as the foundations were not laid with sufficient margin for the extra weight. However, building the top part of the wall in decorative open block-work will meet the changed requirement and satisfy the user. Costs adjusted, new quantities calculated and time to take a new baseline.
Whilst ideally the project would have been planned from start to finish, before the first components were laid, this is not always possible or practical in real life. Recording when and why changes were made will help us make decisions based on firm ground9, rather than walking on sinking sand10.
Garden Wall
Far from being end points, baselines should be seen as stepping stones to your goal11. However, they should not be seen as a linear path. There may be more than one path across the river12, and not all routes will lead successfully to the other side. Assume the neighbour decides to move and takes their dog with them. We can rewind to the baseline taken at the foundation stage and progress down the original planned height in solid bricks as we have the record that this was a possible solution at that point in time12.
Baselines and Configuration Management (CM)
CM is a process that aims to establish and maintain the quality and consistency of a system’s performance, functional, and physical attributes throughout its life. It is tightly linked to the Quality Management System (QMS) and Requirements Management System (RM/REQM) employed on a project. Deciding when and whether items should be baselined, would generally be subject to review (QMS). Providing traceability through the project’s lifecycle also a QMS function. Gathering, eliciting, and decomposing requirements is an RM function. Dealing with change, would need elements of all three. Whilst it may be fun playing cliché bingo, it really is time to place a stake in the ground13 and record milestones in your project14. Don’t delay baseline TODAY!
Happy #ThesaurusDay or Should that be “Convivial greetings to all celebrating alternative onomasticon listings day” ?
In pure terms a list of equivalent words or synonyms helps enrich our language. The thesaurus may list a number of alternatives that are subtly different.
Requirements ambiguity
When writing a requirement we have to be careful that we are unambiguous in both our language and meaning.
Language Construct
“The value displayed shall be the total time expended for each activity of a particular type divided by the count of all activities of each type”. Could be interpreted as A1 2mins, A2 1min, A3 4mins = 7 mins for type A B1 3mins, B2 4mins, B3 8mins, B4 1min = 16 mins for type B
Value to display for A = (7 mins / 7 ) = 7 Value to display for B = (16 mins / 7) = 2.3
or as intended
Value to display for A = (7 mins / 3 ) = 2.3 Value to display for B = (16 mins / 4) = 4
In this case we could have removed the ambiguity by using an equation as a synonym for the language.
Choices in language can mean different things to different people. This is especially true where suppliers and customers work in different fields. The Customer’s Requirement is their end goal, for the supplier it is the starting point. The Customer asks that the “After the office upgrade and IT installation users should have a clear desk”. Maybe unhindered or unobstructed would have served better?
Clear Desk – What was envisaged & what was delivered
Stay SMART(U)
So to celebrate thesaurus day 2018 : Do your best to keep your requirements Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. Oh and of course Unambiguous, but rich with language.
Have you got used to writing that on a cheque yet? Oh dear, showing my age, can anyone remember when they last wrote a cheque? Come to think of it, when was the last time you actually WROTE the date, rather than just clicking a calendar icon on an app……. Answers on a postcard to 3SL at the usual address.…. or social-handwritten_dates@threesl.com for a chance to get a mention in next month’s newsletter.
With regard to cheques and all things banking just another reminder to check you’ve updated 3SL banking details, in accordance with the changes brought into UK banks through the ring fencing process, posted here.
New Year’s Resolution
We all make promises to ourselves, many we find hard to keep. Yet another sucker falls for the gym membership sign up and then decides binge watching that box-set is easier/more enjoyable/cheaper. It does really seem like the worst time of year to be making decisions to be getting out and about exercising. (Apologies, again, to our customers on the other side of the globe – read this again in 6 months !).
Data Exchange Microsoft® Project / Cradle
One resolution that should be easier to keep is to start afresh with plans for current and new projects. We’ve had time to allow our heads to clear over the Christmas break and should be facing work with a new vigour. Planning is the key to ensuring schedules and expectations are met. This may seem like a very un-Cradle® plug, what’s planning got to do with modelling and requirements? The answer is in fact quite a lot. Without a project management plan and schedule how would the capture, design, review and test be achieved in the right order? A Work Breakdown Structure can be used to segment activities, and component parts of a project into manageable chunks. The ability to link a plan from Microsoft® Project brings together the planning and implementation elements of your project. For more information see the Cradle Help on Project Capture
GDPR
GDPR
If you missed our initial update on the new general data protection regulations, you may like to look in December’s Newsletter. Please don’t forget to look out for requests to opt into communication updates from 3SL.
Social Media
Twitter
We pondered whether anyone could model the human gut / brain interface with System Engineering techniques.
Each query can have an initial View associated with it. Each time this query is run, it will apply the view. This is the best way of controlling your initial view for a particular query.
Shown in the screen shot below the project view ‘results‘ has been set in the query ‘My Results‘ each time this query is run the columns specified in the View Details are shown. There’s nothing to stop a user selecting a different view in the ribbon later.
Initial View Settings
Remember that View
WorkBench is designed to remember the last view you used for a particular item type. It’s likely that next time you run a query for the same item type, you’ll want the same view. Even if you close all your tabs, within the same session you are controlling your initial view of each query by the last choice you selected.
Initial Influence
You can control the initial view selected for a query in a project by associating a view with an item type in the project’s schema. Open Project Setup and select the item type and an appropriate view. When starting Cradle, this will be the view selected for this item type, the first time it it is queried. Thereafter, WorkBench will switch to “Remember that View”.
Initial View – Schema
QAB Queries and Views
The Quick Access Bar at the bottom of WorkBench as some auto generated queries and auto generated views for speed. If one of these is selected then the the view that is ‘remembered’ will be the last one of the Automatic views.
![A Trench excavation at Winterbrook Oxfordshire - Bill Nicholls [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://www.threesl.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Trench_excavation_at_Winterbrook_Oxfordshire-1-300x239.jpg)
