HL Arledge

Who's afraid of Orange County?

Orange County Environmental Health is one of Decade Software's largest customers—if you weigh large as the number of users. They have been Envision users for many years. In fact, their insights helped shape Envision 3.4 into the solid product that it is today.

Lately, OC has been contemplating a move to EnvisionConnect, and this week, they invited Client Services Manager John Jensen and I down south for a pow-wow.

In the days preceding our trip, the mumbling among Decade staff echoed down the halls.

"I pity JJ and HL. Those Orange folk are tough to deal with."

"Yea, they're really pushy. If there's a feature they want, they won't stop complaining until they get it."

"...and they're tough on defects, too. If Nick Reyes finds something wrong, you'd think the world was coming to an end."

I laugh anytime I hear such chatter.

I've worked with Nick Reyes, Karen Newe, Jeff Warren, Pearl Boelter, Ron Margheim and the rest of the OC crew since they came onboard, and I appreciate the fact that Orange is one of the many clients that helped make our products as solid as they are today.

We weren't always delivering products with zero defects

I promised earlier this week to provide the statistics I reviewed in my last public presentation. I will begin to keep that promise today. However, since you do not have the benefit of hearing the full presentation, you will not benefit from the full story of the many process improvements Decade Software has made.

Along the way, we have incrementally improved our processes, learning from the Rational Unified Process, Six Sigma, and others. Additionally, Kevin has invested more resources in the last year than any year prior.

I wanted to mention these little caveats to make it clear that I do not attribute our successes solely to Scrum or current leadership alone.

And with those disclaimers aside, let's look at the numbers...

During the life of Envision for Windows and it's related products, there were 8,596 defects reported, but—in spite of our best efforts—we were only able to close 2,221. Concerned with the defect count—and the fact that the 21st century web and smart-client technologies were improving usability standards worldwide—we scrapped Envision's user interface and began anew.

Two years later, EnvisionConnect had improved usability, but we seemed to be continuing our defect trend. A total of 472 defects had been opened, but only 190 had been closed.

We had to take measures more drastic.

That was about the time Kevin asked me to become a manager.

More tomorrow...

Joey, Patrick, Jessica Alba, and your socks

Ace Developer Patrick Glaspey stopped me in the hall last week.

"You lied to us, HL."

"I'm sorry, Patrick. I thought you knew I was joking about Joey and Jessica Alba."

"What are you talking about?" He asked.

"What are you talking about?" I responded.

"The last time you spoke to the Regional Jobs Initiative Software Development Cluster, you collected historical data on Envision and EnvisionConnect's development history, and you presented that data in your speech."

"I did. How do you see that as a lie?"

"You told us that you would share the same data in your blog, but it never happened."

"Indeed, but it was not a lie. It was—uh...—a test. Yes! It was a test to see if anyone really reads my blog." Of course, Patrick didn't buy it, so I apologized for being senile and vowed to correct the problem ASAP.

Watch this space this week for some stats that will knock your socks off.

Death to Envision? Long live EnvisionConnect!

I am asked all of the time, "Why have you stopped maintaining Envision, when so many are still using the product?"

A few years ago, our users demanded a more intuitive interface, a product that was less error-prone and easier to maintain, and a tool that leveraged the Internet for inspections.

They demanded, and we responded, but as more and more customers began to move to EnvisionConnect, it quickly became apparent that maintaining two products was stretching our programmers too thin.

Sure, we were hiring new developers, but why assign them to work on an older version of our product—something that would be shelved once everyone has upgraded to EnvisionConnect.

Delivering high-quality product requires focus.

Completing EnvisionConnect was our goal. In order to reach it in a timely manner, our developers could not take their eyes off that goal.

Discontinuing maintenance of Envision allowed us to do that.

As a result of this strategy, over 90% of all Envision-based agencies can now schedule upgrades to EnvisionConnect.

It seems to me that our strategy is working.

Why so much ado about San Bernardino County?

By now, you've heard that San Bernardino County has migrated from Envision to EnvisionConnect. You've likely heard that they have completed billing and have over 40 inspectors in the field carrying Toughbooks running EnvisionConnect Remote, but maybe now you're asking yourself:

• Hasn't Nevada County used EnvisionConnect for nearly a year?
• Haven't many other Environmental Health regulators across the country adopted EnvisionConnect since then?
• Hasn't Anchorage, Alaska successfully migrated from Envision to EnvisionConnect?
• Hasn't Sacramento and Orange County been beta testers for a couple of years now?

Of course, the answer to those questions is a resounding "yes".

That brings us to your next question: What's so special about San Bernardino County?

EnvisionConnect is almost ready—Are you?

Extensive Early Adopter studies have been done on the percentage of people who immediately adopt new technologies and those who do not. Before August 1, 2007, EnvisionConnect will have enough base functionality in place to allow approximately 90% of Envision's customers to migrate.

The question is: how many will do so in 2007, and how many will procrastinate?