BackgroundSPK was contacted by a software company that provides healthcare cost optimization through a web platform. Their mission is to provide customers with a method to reduce spending while maintaining quality healthcare for their employees. With an expanding...
Automotive
Reducing Software Deployment Time and Necessary Engineer Effort through Custom Automation and UI Implementation
BackgroundA major fintech and financial services firm implemented Electric Flow (now known as CloudBees CD) for software deployment. The organization spent too much money on man hours for weekend and overnight hours due to the need for engineers to “babysit” software...
Continuous Delivery pipeline with CloudBees CD for major insurance carrier
The ClientFounded in the early 1900’s, this major insurance provider administers health benefits to more than 4 million individuals. Because of the types of services this client provides to its customers, they are heavily reliant upon software technology and technical...
Test Management in Windchill RV&S (PTC Integrity)
The importance of test management, especially in highly-regulated industries, cannot be overstated. Efficient management of testing requirements leads to safer products, effective production, and satisfied customers. The PTC Windchill Requirements Validation &...
Is The IT Department Really “Dead?”
“It’s Time to Get Rid of the IT Department.” That was the title of an opinion piece recently published in the Wall Street Journal. Provocative? Sure. My answer to this is not “yes,” but many of the author’s points are valid. The Same Old IT Department? No, the IT...
Agile Development in Regulated Environments Part 2: Key Practices
In Agile Development in Regulated Environments -- Part 1: Yes, it can work, I covered the common misconceptions about Agile Software Development -- specifically in highly-regulated industries like medical device. The common myth that regulators would not accept Agile...
An Overview of PTC Integrity Test Management
Major portions of any PTC Integrity Solution are the test artifacts. Many customers when they initially start to look at PTC Integrity Lifecycle Manager are generally looking at it as way of managing their requirements, or as a way of maintaining compliance in highly...
Podcast: Oleg Shilovitsky Discusses the Difficulty of BOMs Across Engineering Disciplines
SPK and Associates co-founder Chris McHale speaks with PLM expert Oleg Shilovitsky, founder of BeyondPLM.com, to get his insight on the difficulty of BOMs across engineering disciplines. The pair will soon follow up with another podcast talking about the...
Podcast: Peter Thorne Discusses Hot Trends in Product Lifecycle Engineering Tools
SPK and Associates co-founder Chris McHale speaks with Peter Thorne, director at Cambashi, a Cambridge, England-based independent industry analyst firm. With his over 30 years of experience as a software engineer user, vendor, and now analyst, Peter's in a great...
Leveraging PTC Integrity as a Medical Device Solution
When you first purchase PTC Integrity Lifecycle Manager, what you are getting is pretty much a blank canvas. To assist you in getting your operation off the ground, PTC also provides a number of different pre-built solutions. These solutions have been designed to...
What Are The Key Agile and Lean Software Development Practices?
Agile and Lean Software Development approaches came into favor in the late nineties and beginning of the 21st Century in reaction to the many issues with traditional plan-driven, heavyweight software development processes. However, many of the practices embodied in...
Agile Development in Regulated Environments – Part 1: Yes, it can work
The value system and practices that embody Agile Software Development have been around for well over a decade, and have been touted as having "crossed the chasm" by organizations such as the Agile Alliance, Gartner, and Forrester Research. Numerous studies indicate...