A product capability is synonymous with product features. Product features are comprised of many product functions. When implementing Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) software there is thinking that you do not need to test all the functions of the COTS because 1) it was already tested by the software manufacture and 2) typical project constraints (time, money & scope). I used to think similarly. However, since implementing Content Management Systems (CMS) for a decade, I found that not testing more of the functions in a system can be harmful to the end solution. In testing terms, we would say we want to increase the function / test coverage ratio.

Typical testing on a project is called functional testing. Functional testing, tests business documented features, e.g. create content, that are written into some sort of systems documentation. During the content creation scenario, we test a variety of functions, e.g. menu -> file -> new, WYSIWYG editor and a save function. In addition, we probably tested some immediately ancillary functions like a cancel link. As a side note, the ancillary tests are called alternative scenarios. As I have noticed this is usually where testing stops. Bearing a positive test result, the testers and business believe that the feature they tested acts as expected. However, we did not test other ways the systems allows for content creation.

Very relevant with content management systems, many product functions perform similar actions against content. For example, there can be several ways to perform a content creation function, e.g. “My Work area,” “My workflows,” “My Content” and “Watched Content.” Each navigation to the content create function may act differently, e.g. “My Workflows” may produce a new piece of content form with limited form fields while the “My Work area” content create function may display workflow options. Stakeholders of the content management process will expect that if the software allows for the edition of content through these multiple ways that each content create function would perform similarly. Testing all these “extra” function is called capability testing. Capabilities are functions available to users that were not explicitly written in the system specifications. There are some testing techniques that can help increase your testing coverage, e.g. combinatorial and pairwise testing but that is a start of a different post.

Even though, I used a simple example there are some extreme results to not testing all capabilities. For example, deployed content to production websites that was not reviewed by the correct persons. This deployment could have posted a 10-k without CxO approval.

Capability testing is difficult to test because testers will need to hunt for these special forms of product features. It is important that test scripts are written to cover many if not all capabilities of the system not just the ones including in functional testing as per system specification. This thoroughness has implications to both the test process and the entire project. Project teams need to work with stakeholders to make sure that capabilities in the system are appropriate. It is not uncommon for the project team to discover these “extra” capabilities and then turn them off. The trick is to make sure you find them all because if you don’t the users will.

Here is an image from the my play breakdown

This is very interesting for me because now one company now owns the software for many of the systems that I have, am implementing. Do not get me wrong; I also work with software from Big Blue’s and other open source products but my core experiences have been with Sun, Oracle, and BEA. Now it is all Oracle.

save some money in 2009: Cancel your maintenance and support (M&S) contracts with your CMS and enterprise portal vendors

I very much agree with his analysis and perspective on the value of these contracts. These contracts are nowhere near an insurance policy. I’ll also agree with his view on finding a local company that can assist you in your time of need. All that said Janus’ analysis is meaningful for organizations that have a solid support infrastructure. I have not found too many organizations that contain the type of support organization required to support these enterprise systems without an M&S contract. If you do not have a solid support organization then you may be stuck with M&S contracts because your support group doesn’t contain the necessary skills required to sustain these complex systems.

For those that do have a good and reliable support organization, over the years I’ve learned that some vendors have been known to prorate your M&S contract to get your licenses valid if you want that next major upgrade. So, if your M&S contract costs 100k per year and your contract has lapsed for 3 years and you want that next 10.1 upgrade, then vendor may charge you $300k to get your license valid. This is good because new licenses could cost $1M. However, I’d highly recommend that if you feel you support organization is solid enough to do without M&S contracts then you should look at the great open source portals and cms’s. Take a look at the Java CMS report and the CMS Watch’s open source portal report.

You know what to do! So do it!

Some of you may be aware I’m currently in an Executive Master of Business Administration program right now. It is pretty exciting and I’m learning a ton. I’m currently in our marketing seminar. While I’m nearly complete with the class, I picked up a book I read a few years back. Beyond Software Architecture: Creating and Sustaining Winning Solutions by Luke Hohmann.

I liked the book very much because it really gets you to think of the customer of your software solution (as us IT folks have a tough time doing sometimes). As software or solution architects we need to make sure that we have a good solution for our customers on day 1 and on day 400. The book didn’t discuss in detail how to lead development teams as it is written from a product managers view of software. Product Managers should be considered marketeers in software product companies. The book describes brand, usability, software GA & Beta release cycles, technical ease concerns (like installation and patch management) but after reading the book felt I need more and something maybe be missing.

Well I what was missing in my MBA marketing seminar. I wouldn’t recommend this book outside of a graduate level program but we are walking through Marketing Management: United States edition by Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller, take a look here. I’m sure there are other books that get to the point quicker. I found that this book in combination of the Hohmann book has really given me some good insight to Creating and Sustaining Winning Solutions. I knew many of the components prior to reading either book or being in the class but its been really nice to see how it all fits together.

Currently, in software companies, all the rage is a new marketing book title Blue Ocean Strategy. I haven’t read it yet as the MBA keeps me reading a lot but it’s on my book shelf for when I get a break.

Think. Thank. Thunk.

Think responsibly.

You Try to win $25 bucks!

If you’d require some assistance with your Web 2.0 initiatives and are considering Drupal please contact me.

Here is the session details:

Drupal recently became a winner of CNet’s Webware 100 award in the publishing category. Drupal is a Free and Open Source Web Content Management software and a web application framework. It is highly used and has been included in the Google Summer of Code (SoC) project. The Google SoC reference’s Drupal as being the poster child for Web 2.0 community driven web site software. I will describe and demonstrate some of the major features of the software as well as some of the limitations. Some specific features we’ll look at are the Content Construction Kit, Views, Taxonomy, and some Content Management functions.

Drupal adheres to some good content management practices. During the discussion we will look and modify some configuration areas for the more technical savvy as well as look at the content managers and content authors interfaces. Although, a computer isn’t required if you bring you laptop you will be able to log on to the site and manage content.

| View | Upload your own

We went from content silos to content management silos to enterprise silos. But by necessity, our need to share information is pushing us to collaborate beyond any arbitrary boundaries. What does this mean for our profession? By going to content management systems, are we just catching up with today, or preparing for tomorrow? Will Content 2.0 catch up to Web 2.0? Strategy A is bringing the first content management conference to Vancouver that covers content management from both the Web and XML structured authoring perspectives.

Looks like it could be an interesting conference. Check out more details at confabb.

Cheers!