Engineering Lifecycle Optimization

Whatever it is you’re creating, you’ve got to design it more quickly. Develop it more rapidly. Test it more swiftly. Get it to market as fast as you possibly can. Flawlessly. Before your competition beats you to it.

Over the past few years, the growing complexity of software and product development has necessitated the introduction of powerful new tools for engineering lifecycle management (ELM).

These tools have helped streamline processes and harness the torrent of data created throughout the engineering lifecycle. But the volume of data has multiplied exponentially, more distributed participants have become engaged, and increasing regulations and standards have created additional challenges.

We’d like to show you how.

With new technologies and tools, you can more easily shepherd your initiative from ingenious idea to celebrated innovation. Please read on to find out how you can accelerate your processes while you meet the exacting demands of impatient business managers, satisfy exacting regulators, and keep pace with the expectations of critical consumers.

Learn how Lifecycle Engineering Optimization will help you reduce cycle time to crush the competition. Quickly.

Today’s engineering teams are grappling with many factors:

This is in addition to the practical issues of data creation, collection and analytics, regulatory compliance, and timely reporting.

So how do you coordinate the myriad of activities surrounding engineering management with all the people who need to be involved? How do you enable all these people with their different specialties and concerns to make informed key decisions?

You adopt an end-to-end engineering lifecycle management model which leverages comprehensive requirements management, systems design, test management and workflow management. But to better optimize your development process you can also leverage the products in the IBM Engineering Lifecycle Optimization (ELO) portfolio.

The ELO portfolio includes data analysis and visualization tools, process automation tools, reporting tools, and third party integration tools that can complement the IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management solution to further optimize your development process.

Organizations need to follow an established engineering process when building complex systems. It could be an in-house process, or one dictated by industry standards such as those found in aerospace or automotive.

The engineers responsible for the initiative expect to adhere to a smooth process that facilitates a positive outcome. They expect it to be followed by all participants in a consistent, predictable and repeatable manner. And, if a new process is introduced, engineers expect integrated help and guidance to reduce the learning curve.

Creating clear specifications for that process and determining how it relates to the generated artifacts can be a challenge for the project administrator who sets up the project. To achieve this, the administrator would be provided with tools that allow them to:

Later, we’ll tell you about an AI-powered tool that will enable you to create smooth, reliable processes for your software or product development initiatives.

Even with a platform-based approach, many tools are in use, each with its own user interface, database or file system repository and workflow.

Organizations may have several platforms, and traceability between artifacts is critical in complex engineering projects – especially those that have to consider industry standards that were mentioned earlier.

Solid decisions are based on solid information. That’s why timely, accurate reporting is critical to any successful engineering initiative. A good reporting system provides two features:

Report Creation

Document Generation

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) covers requirements management, task management, test management and design management. But to produce the desired results, reams of data must first be identified, consolidated and analyzed.

To complicate this procedure, every engineering tool chain is a multi-tool, multi-vendor tool chain of disparate data. It could include artifacts such as 3D CAD models, a bill of materials in a PLM system and other elements that are running with vastly different tools on different platforms.

With so much different data coming from so many different sources, it’s necessary to integrate and consolidate the information so that it can be analyzed. Doing this requires powerful adapters that can quickly transform information from any given source.

Adapters should include:

You need to get competitive new products to market more quickly. IBM has developed a comprehensive optimization portfolio, IBM Engineering Lifecycle Optimization (ELO). It’s composed of products that complement the IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management solution.

With IBM ELO, you’ll have the tools you need to help reduce costs, provide better data insight, and help ensure process governance:

Method Composer  

Engineering Insights  

Publishing  

Integration Adapters  

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Optimization is a powerful – and very beneficial – supplement to your development management program.

Establish the process: IBM Engineering Lifecycle Optimization - Method Composer

IBM Method Composer a flexible process management platform that lets you create, edit, manage and publish process descriptions. It enables guided help and best practices, and practice templates to enact the process in IBM Engineering Workflow Management.

Method Composer features a method authoring tool and a customizable process asset library to help you implement measured improvement of your enterprise, systems engineering or software delivery processes.

Achieve full visibility: IBM Engineering Lifecycle Optimization - Engineering Insights

When engineering teams have confidence in their work, the project is more likely to be a success. Engineering Insights gives your team assurance that no information has been accidentally omitted, and that their work is compliant with industry standards,

With this comprehensive tool, time consuming tasks like impact analysis can be performed in minutes instead of months to provide a holistic view of:

Stay informed: IBM Engineering Lifecycle Optimization – Publishing

Publishing provides Development Intelligence and Document Generation to ensure your engineering team has complete, up-to-date information from which they can make better informed decisions.

Development Intelligence

The self-serve reporting capability means that teams no longer have to rely on one or two experts within their organization when they want to create a new report.

Document Generation

Publishing automates the creation of federated documentation from previously disparate data sources such as requirements, designs and tests. This allows your team members to quickly and easily publish a document that they’re confident is accurate, up to date and contains all of the required information.

Integrate and consolidate data: IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management - Integration Adapters

IBM ELO includes several Lifecycle Integration Adapters that extend the workflow beyond the Engineering Lifecycle Management platform. These adapters help improve team collaboration by providing visibility and traceability across previously siloed data sources.

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Optimization is a high velocity solution to a high stakes game

When your organization’s long term success depends upon fast turnaround of complex software and product development initiatives, you need to reduce cycle time. But you mustn’t sacrifice quality.