An Analytical report over Strategic planning for GigaSoft Pvt. Ltd - Essay Example

?An Analytical report over Strategic planning for GigaSoft Pvt. Ltd. Introduction Contrasting to earlier scenario in software engineering management,drastic recent evolution in numerous software technologies, development platforms and their applied utilities now determine the requirements of current software market and its possible future trends. During last six years (2005-2011), software industry has undergone a meticulous metamorphosis in terms of development, R&D, testing, marketing and other strategies. Parallel factors for this evolution includes rapidly changing demands from software markets which are now tending more and more toward small sized gadgets, cellphones, Netbooks, palmtops, other e-book devices and specifically designed devices for particular purposes. Modern day software market has multiple requirements along with essential factors like smooth user interface, quick and clear functionality, market sustainability and compatibility with other platforms and devices. Thus, Software market is becoming more and more specific onwards. The competition arises only between software that offer similar utilities and functionality. For a very ground example of word processor, before 2005 Microsoft Word had been a ruling word processors for all types of writing requirements such as letters, drafts, reports, stories, forms, graphic patterns, papers etc. However, taking a look of current word processing market, it is quite significant that every one of those patters have different specific software offering numerous specific utilities. There are options like Open Office, Word perfect, Adobe Story, PDF software, CeltX. Some of them like CeltX offer their services on I-phone and Android devices while Open Office offers a very small size as compared to Microsoft Word and is much easily portable. There are also online word processors like Office Web apps and Google docs which offer a facility of secure cloud storage free of data loss concerns. Accordingly, software marketing and management is synchronized with user demands. While working on numerous word-processing and document management software GigaSoft faced a failure in competing with existing word-processors. Recent replacement strategies of development and marketing have shown unwanted lacking in providing full functionality over all supportive platforms. Also, there is tracked some inefficiency in coping with small gadgets and newly introduced platforms. Some frequent crashes due to the incompatibility with recent market demands are also noticed. Those indicative factors have incorporated a lack of proper management. Hence, an immediate strategic planning for upcoming management strategies is required to be generated and applied. Identifying the faults and loopholes Looking at the recent data sheets and amendments made by GigaSoft corporation. There are seen some specifically lower graphs after the new adjustment for current marketing strategies which involve developing the software over various platforms other than earlier Microsoft platforms. GigaSoft is using waterfall method for production while the twist in the company’s strategy had proved out to be unproductive. It is essential to first analyze the reasons for difficulties before going for a new structure (Gouws & Gouws, 2004). Some noticed reasons for the failure in marketing strategy hold: Drifting away from the most popular platform, which makes the products incompatible for many formats and devices. Failing in synchronizing with the modern devices which require an essential coordination with popular devices other than Windows PCs and Laptops. Failing in development of multi-operative software products Violating the norms of cost-effectiveness by misreading the market graphs, As those reasons are end-results of a long time malfunction in management and planning, basic structure of the company must provide some focus for what errors of management led to those ends. A lack of synchronization in finance, engineering and marketing streams led to produce over costly products. A lack of market overview led to misreading the norms and predictions A failure of engineering stream in mitigating the coasts A lack of market research led to produce incompatible products As a result, the downfall does not come out of a single department but it shows a recent total failure of various departments in synchronization and productivity. Main issue with the client is formulated as their demands of software focus to run on multiple devices while GigaSoft had been producing dependent products. It is also a failure of risk management as changing market trends had indicated a fulfilling of market with new devices but GigaSoft stuck with the older patterns. When, all of a sudden, GigaSoft branched out of its comfort zone, it could not organize to meet with all the requirements in a flurry of time. Risk analysis and management are a series of steps that help a software team to understand and manage uncertainty. Many problems can plague of software project. A risk is a potential problem; it might happen, it might not. But regardless of the outcome, it's a really good idea to identify it, assess its probability of occurrence, estimate its impact, and establish a contingency plan should the problem actually occur (Risk Analysis and Management). Fundamentals of Software Engineering Management As the core formulation, finance, engineering, marketing and production departments are to be in synchronization. Project planning begins with market research. A failure of understating the norms and climate of the market trends is base mistake that leads all other departments to dysfunction. Fig. 1.1 Thus, as the figure 1.1 shows, it requires a full strategy based on the market research that provides input for financial scheduling, engineering tactics, marketing strategies and production plan. Data collected by the market research must be the foundation of various departments. Engineering is responsible for making coast effective products but it is possible only when market demands are clear and manageable Marketing will only depend on requirements of modern users and their estimation from software products. Production must include the research data so that further products do make synchronization with the upcoming and existing devices and platform. It must also take in attention that software technology is a very vulnerable sector; however, upcoming requirements can be somehow estimated to be prepared for an alteration and modification of strategies. Those strategies do not require replacements but reformation of methodology. There will never be enough well-qualified professionals, so you must have efficient selection rules for sub-tasks, so that the most important ones get done first (Gilb & Finzi, 1988) A Brief Market Overview Market trends in recent time had twisted suddenly after the arrival of various small sized portable devices and increased functionality of software in different platforms. GigaSoft had been providing its products previously over Microsoft platform. A recent change was propagated when other platforms were added into the production and engineering programs. On one side Linux, Mac and Java based devices are getting day by day popular, GigaSoft’s venture to design and develop software for other platform eventually came as a failure. Comparing to current market trends, there are many platforms available in the market. Also, as the gadgets and cellphones are using more and more complicated and functional software, it becomes an essentiality to enlarge the product range into the newly arrived range of market requirements. While other software companies had been involved in reaching a considerable growth by offering broader range, GigaSoft had come to face a decrease in the market popularity. It indicates that moving away from the comfort zone of Microsoft had not been productive particularly for GigaSoft. As most of the clients are on uneasy stage over the compatibility issue with various gadgets, it is an alarming signal for GigaSoft to design a new work-strategy paying attention towards the future possibilities which will necessarily be requiring products for such multitasking environment. By far, most of the Microsoft products were leading by upfront in the software marketing world, Adobe, Mac and Google were some of the competitors which offered a broad range of products differing from Microsoft framework. A number of programming languages had been used, but Java, ASP.NET and PHP had been prevailing in software and Web-design industry. When earlier simple Java based phones were popular, there were very few number of mobile phone software. Also, those tools were very limited in efficiency. In the second phase of gadget evolution, Nokia, Samsung and Sony offered some different Mobile phone bases like Nokia’s Symbian. However, after Blackberry and Mac’s I-phone devices became much stronger in providing a very supportive platform for small screen small sized user-interface. Currently, still ASP.NET, PHP and Java are most popular platforms for small devices while Windows and Mac are leading in PCs and laptop other than Linux, which is still very specific to expert users. However, in gadgets, Android have come up as the most popular cellphones’ platform, I-phone and Windows Mobile are also quite popular. There are many other manufactures who are still offering their different platform like Samsung and Nokia. Though, it is a complicated scenario which has arrived over the hardcore completion among the companies, it offers some opportunities too. In current cyber era, it is not possible for software developers and manufacturers to stick to one specific platform but all it needs to synchronize with the norms is to strengthen the engineering stream to design software with multiple functionalities over various platforms. As a good sign, programming languages are still limited and it costs less to sample any software for other platforms when compared to the cost of making wholly new software. For example ‘Mobipocket Reader’, which offers various formats of books including .mobi, Kindle and .txt books, also offers a very wide range by providing different software samples for all popular platforms. It includes Windows, Mac, WM6 & 7, I-phone, I-pad, Android, Blackberry and simple Java operations. Also, there are special tablet and E-book devices which are also compatible with Mobi-Reader. Similarly, modern time of software world requires continues extensions and add-ons in the basic structure. As now Google has announced its Chrome operating system, which function only through the clouds, in future, it would be required for many software products to include functionality for ‘in-browser’ and online support. Redefining policies Most of the projects GigaSoft is currently dealing with relates to redefining their software definition for word processing and document management. GigaSoft’s most popular word-processor GigaWrite had been a common choice for most of the professional clients until the recent times. Recently GigaSoft had upgraded the version which showed some frequent crashes and incompatibility issues. Many platforms that had run the software previously are now upgraded into new versions. Internet support for the GigaWrite is still based on earlier browser and new definitions of browsers often block GigaWrite’s online support considering it as a pop-up. Resultantly, administration of GigaSoft is unable to understand what essential steps to be taken are. Anyways, the fact is that it is not the problems that only GigaSoft is troubled with but it is a bunch of things that every organization faces by default and it is to be managed essentially. Most software development is a chaotic activity, often characterized by the phrase "code and fix". The software is written without much of an underlying plan, and the design of the system is cobbled together from many short term decisions. This actually works pretty well as the system is small, but as the system grows it becomes increasingly difficult to add new features to the system. The original movement to try to change this introduced the notion of methodology. These methodologies impose a disciplined process upon software development with the aim of making software development more predictable and more efficient (Prabhudas). Based on the over given market overview there are some immediate actions which must be taken to cope with the ever changing and rapidly growing software sector. As our concern here is to clarify the future strategies and management tactics we have to focus particularly on various schemes of GigaSoft Corporation. It needs applying some specific techniques which are designed and crafted to lower the hotchpotch in overall procedure of development, especially communication. Anyways, technology does not mean just to be related something to be wholly technical in terms of tools and schedules. It is a form of method that considers various human factors similar to human error assessment techniques which are nowadays very common in all types of organizations (Kalermo & Rissanen, 2002). To renew the whole operational functionality there are some processes (technologies) that will help GigaSoft redefine its policies and reformate its management structure to come up proficient software engineering management. 1. Unified Software Development Process In any software production company or unit, it is firstly essential to manage the time in manner that market research benefits entire sectors to come up with a very time-efficient method providing proper interaction between numerous units to synchronize all the structure in harmony. For such purpose USDP provide a structural base which can be optimized over certain parameters to increase the quality and efficiency of GigaSoft. The Rational Unified Process describes how to effectively deploy commercially proven approaches to software development for software development teams. These are called “best practices” not so much because you can precisely quantify their value, but rather, because they are observed to be commonly used in industry by successful organizations. The Rational Unified Process provides each team member with the guidelines, templates and tool mentors necessary for the entire team to take full advantage of among others the following best practices (Rational). It follows a step by step management based on some basic premises. The five steps of a development cover the process from its birth, while it’s an idea, to the final formation of the product. 1. Inception: the first phase that involves a prime set for the development plan. It includes calculating and pre-managing all the interaction that will occur. This process also involves risk assessment and human factors. This is the phase which provide the base business model 2. Elaboration: this is the phase which elaborates the business plan for the product. It contains all the factors and final risk assessments of the project to move on to construction phase. Main purpose of this phase is to find out all possible negatives about the project and possibilities that may occur. If the project has some bad business strategies or some faulty presupposition than it does not pass through this phase and saves a large amount of finance, labor and time. 3. Construction: this phase involve all the hard engineering and interactive management of human resources. It involves management of work flow and interactions. Also, it holds the description for what responsibilities are assigned to whom. At the end of this phase the stability of the product is locked. 4. Transitions: This phase involves releasing the software to the users. It is also the phase where Beta-testing is done. All the marketing and publishing comes under this phase. And finally feedback of the user comes down as the terminal of this phase. 5. Iterations: Iteration is sub-phase that involves in all other phases. It is a loop-back phase which can be performed during any part of time to revise the product. Applying USDP or Rational Unified Process involves less of the technical and schedule based things. It is not a method of Software engineering but it is a method Software engineering management. Various phases of USDP hold very minute details for all possible interaction and hurdles in the process of development. Most important of all is the risk assessment in a very early step. 2. Agile Unified Process Agile Unified process is not a separate process than USDP itself. However, it eliminates some parts of USDP and holds some major differences. The technique is named agile itself as it leads to a more agile method compared to USDP. It involves some enhancement in the interaction methods and supervision. More than USDP Agile Unified process rests on Incremental and Iterative Development (IID), which is core difference from the traditional waterfall method designed earlier for other targets and falls insufficient compared to modern day software development environment. One of the biggest advantages to IID is that work can begin before all of the requirements are known. Many organizations are not fully staffed with business analysts cranking out reams of requirements specs. Quite the contrary, in our experience often the bottleneck in the development process has been the lack of availability of customer domain experts for detailed requirements analysis. This is especially the case with small businesses where domain experts wear many hats and often cannot commit to two or three months of straight requirements analysis. IID is ideally suited then to take on bite-sized chunks of requirements that the customer can easily digest (Szalvay, 2004) Thus, use of Agile Unified Process provides ease to whole workgroup. It is such a methodical process that time consumption reaches to its lowest optimum level and finance is also saved in all the steps. Moreover, extra labor and confusions in interaction are fully shorted out. 3. Extreme Programming Particularly for GigaSoft, there is an option of choosing for extreme programming. It is particular because rarely GigaSoft has to deal with gigantic project. Also, GigaSoft had its client in lightweight software sectors. While Extreme Programming can be very useful for GigaSoft, it is mostly useless for giant projects. Contrary to what many think, extreme programming has nothing to do with large, difficult, or complex projects. Extreme Programming, or XP, is a lightweight discipline of software development based on principles of simplicity, communication, feedback, and courage. XP is designed for use with small teams who need to develop software quickly in an environment of rapidly-changing requirements. XP can be (superficially) summed up in twelve practices (Jeffries) There are some very bright advantages for GigaSoft to use Extreme Programming as it will reduce the confusion between various departments of finance, marketing and production. It provides a very smooth workflow which can be articulated in very easy management tactics. Extreme Programming is a “light” process that creates and then exploits a flattened cost curve XP is people-oriented rather than process oriented, explicitly trying to work with human nature rather than against it XP Practices flatten the cost of change curve. (Extreme Programming, 2002) Also, as XP is much more mingled with the modern day human factor techniques. It involves a very strong risk assessment ratio. Thus looking at the current scenario of GigaSoft, choosing XP as a technique for allowing the new products to be transited in the modern day market would bring out positive results as it works over risk assessment as the very primary level. However, GigaSoft will have to take care of the fact that it has to switch its methods once needed to deal with heavy sized software projects involving very large numbers of co-workers. One thing to keep in mind is XP practices are intended for use with small co-located teams. They therefore tend towards minimalism at least as far as artifact other than codes and test cases are concerned. The presentations of XP’s practices have both positive and negative aspect. At one point, they sound like rules –do this and don’t do that (Highsmith) Conclusion By going through the market overview, GigaSoft’s key points in recent downfalls and the accessibility of various apt interactive methods, it comes out that GigaSoft will need to change its structure from the traditional waterfall process of product development to some of the modern day techniques which are appropriate for current age. A big reason of downfall grounds in lacking of risk assessment which can be overcome by using techniques like XP or USDP. However, as those techniques are adaptable to various work environments, GigaSoft will have to train and reformate its working human resource management to cope with the efficient techniques. On the other hand, as XP and USDP have their own ifs and buts, GigaSoft will need to pick up its requirements and suitability to the Management techniques. References Extreme Programming. (2002). (Mayford Technologies) Gilb, T., & Finzi, S. (1988). Principles of Software Engineering Management. Addison-Wesley. Gouws, J., & Gouws, L. E. (2004, June). Fundamentals of sofware engineering management. Highsmith, J. (n.d.). Extreme Programing. Jeffries, R. (n.d.). xprogramming.com. Retrieved from http://www.xprogramming.com Kalermo, J., & Rissanen, J. (2002, August 6). Agile Software practice in theory and development. Prabhudas, S. (n.d.). Agile Unified Process. Retrieved from pureconferences.com : www.pureconferences.com Rational. (n.d.). Rational Unified Process. Risk Analysis and Management. (n.d.). Retrieved from Pressman Software Engineering Resources: http://www.rspa.com/spi/project-risk.html Szalvay, V. (2004, November). An Introduction to Agile Software Development . 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