 Kovair raises the bar for application lifecycle management solutions and sets the stage for enhancing productivity through their Kovair Global Lifecycle. Automating existing workflows is the only way to really ensure that you have repeatable processes that have complete visibility to all of the stakeholders involved. But that assumes that you already know the exact details of every step in your desired workflow. What if the automated workflow tool that you chose also helped you analyze your processes and interactively iterate through the entire process improvement lifecycle? What if your workflow solution allowed you to sit with your users, visually design your processes with them and then let the workflow engine take over and you can start using your solution immediately? The Kovair solution provides exactly that and more.
Designing repeatable processes
Process Improvement is hard work. To get it right you have to analyze the exact tasks, order of execution, roles and entitlements and, of course, they always change. In fact, the task of designing an automated workflow always results (if it's done right) in some required process reengineering. This is often where the real value is realized. I have worked with many of the automated workflow tools on the market, even written/maintained one in CFML, and integrated them with countless SCM solutions. I have often found that changing an existing process can take a fair amount of time and effort, often resulting in compromises being made to bend the process to live with the limitations of many tools. Kovair stands out from its competition in that the user can automate the process exactly as desired. Kovair has unprecedented flexibility and its framework facilitates the design and implementation of processes in an iterative and successful manner. The Kovair process engine is Task based which is much more flexible than State based process engines in that it allows for parallel tasks (and of course parallel workflows). That also means that your workflow can split for two teams to accomplish their independent tasks and then meet again at a predefined point.
UML-like design visual interface
What I liked most about Kovair was the UML-like interface that allows me to visually model my processes. Each of the boxes represents a task or groups of tasks. I specify the order of tasks, ownership and approvals among many other powerful features. I also liked that I could easily reorder the steps in the process and then press "save" and my new workflow was ready to be tested, in its new form by my users sitting next to me. The backend process workflow design interface is so appealing that it becomes my tool of choice in designing (and redesigning) my processes in an iterative fashion.
Figure 1
Managing complex processes
Many processes get rather complex and that is exactly when you need an automated tool in order to manage them effectively. Kovair allows you to design processes and group them as subprocesses in a logical and intuitive way. You can collapse any of the subprocesses below and look at the workflow from a high level and then drill down as you need to. Kovair allows you to design processes exactly as you would think about them from a business point of view. Process models can be designed into "entities" that can be reused across applications. So your customer entity (with customer contact information) can be implemented in your Sales lead application along with your help desk application that happens to also need information about your customers. You design the customer entity once and then reuse it for any application that needs it. Information can also be shared between entities and of course reporting can span one or more entities as needed.
Figure 2
Complete design and specification framework.
Kovair comes with many excellent processes (e.g. requirements tracking and helpdesk) already designed and implemented. However, many companies have custom workflows and will need to have their workflows designed and implemented specifically for their own business needs. When you setup a custom workflow in Kovair you must initially specify every task, role, variable, and value and that does take some work. Very quickly, I realized that this effort provided me with a complete framework to think through and design my processes in a more effective way than I had ever done before. This was not a trivial effort, but it did provide me with the right tools and procedures for designing custom processes that met and exceeded my business needs. My design represented exactly how my users thought about and envisioned their business workflows.
Integration with other tools
Kovair can share information with other best of breed products including other test management solutions, call tracking and source code management tools. The Kovair Omnibus Integration Bus can even be used to integrate with users' custom in-house applications, which means that you can use Kovair's process engine with in-house applications that previously had no automated workflow capability. In fact, Kovair's architecture allows for almost any feature (e.g. field, forms, reports, notifications) being configurable as needed. Kovair is web architected and completely web based which makes it much easier to manage in large organizations.
Figure 3
Entitlements, notification supports the compliance
Each of the tasks can be assigned to a specific group that has sole or (optionally) shared authority over a task or approval. Entitlements can be as finely granular or as broad as needed. Approvals (or rejections) can be tracked and, again require proper authority based upon roles that you specify. It is also possible to enable an administrator to bypass a specific approval with an automatic notification being sent to an audit and control mailbox. This makes compliance much easier by tracking not only entitlements but also allowing for a few specific overrides in emergency situations with full audit and traceability.
Governance and control
Kovair provides the visibility into processes that allows management the ability to know exactly how much of a process has been completed and what still needs to be done. Specific tasks that have been rejected (or approved) are fully traceable in history which can also be accessed via automated reports. This means that management knows exactly when tasks were completed, by whom and whether or not there were any issues involved. This visibility is a core requirement for effective IT Governance and compliance.
Ease of use
Users love Kovair because each step is clearly indicated by the prompts and the overall state of the process is visible at any time. Custom prompts allow you to train your users effectively and guide them in using the tool the way that you want them to. It's always easy to see what has transpired and this obviously improves communication whether your colleagues are in the next room or a continent away.
Designing effective processes
Process engineering is not always easy to accomplish effectively. Using a tool that provides a comprehensive framework can make the difference between your business process reengineering effort being a success or failure. Kovair allows you to design your processes exactly the way that your business experts think about the solution from their point of view. That means that your process tool can help you get the job done effectively and support your business the way that it should!
About Kovair Software Inc.
Kovair is the innovation leader in application lifecycle management solutions supporting global software development and management of offshore outsourcing. With adaptive workflow and highly configurable process management, Kovair solutions are designed from the ground up as an integrated web-based platform enabling anytime, anywhere access.
Kovair Soft ware, Inc.
1533 California Circle, Suite # 210
Milpitas, CA 95035
1.408.262.0200
1.866.773.3338 (Toll Free)
1.408.239.4675 (Support)
http://www.kovair.com/
Bob Aiello is the Editor-in-Chief for CM Crossroads and an independent consultant specializing in Software Process Improvement including Software Configuration and Release Management. Mr. Aiello has over 25 years experience as a technical manager in several top NYC Financial Services firms where he had company-wide responsibility for CM, often providing hands-on technical support for enterprise Source Code Management tools, SOX/Cobit compliance, build engineering, continuous integration and automated application deployment. Bob is a long standing member of the Steering Committee of the NYC Software Process Improvement Network (CitySPIN), where he serves as the chair of the CM SIG. Mr. Aiello holds a Masters in Industrial Psychology from NYU and a B.S. in Computer Science and Math from Hofstra University. You may contact Mr. Aiello at
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or link with him at http://www.linkedin.com/in/bobaiello
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