Polarion ALM


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Polarion User Group - conference - 2017, Germany

Date: 11 July 2017. Time:11:00-18:00.
Place: Stuttgart, Germany, SISW/Polarion, Kesselstraße 19, 70327 Stuttgart
Duration: 6 hours.
Language: English.
Audience: 30 people (in person + watching online).

Ways to Attend:
1. Personally - visit the meeting:Kesselstraße 19, 70327 Stuttgart, Germany
Siemens Industry Software business premises
2. Skype - join remote: https://join.skype.com/hDrmYjCf8tk4

Websites: www.XING.com - Polarion User Group

GARANTIS IT Solutions Ltd. takes active part in organizing the event and presenting some information/sharing experience about Polarion projects.

This Conference is a good chance for users of Polarion to share experience, find solutions, learn new ways to solve common tasks, to find out about the future plans for Polarion ALM product.

Agenda:

TimeActivityPresenter
11:00-11:15OpeningGuido Lange & Siemens representative
11:15-11:45Future of Polarion UXJan Stawarczyk
11:45-12:30Polarion Release NewsRadek Krotil
12:30-13:15Lunch Break
13:15-14:00 Polarion Customization at Vorwerk
Analysis of old project “Looking Back after 1 year”,
ideas for the new projects – What we would do different/better. Mistakes & Solutions/Recommendations.
[PDF download]


This is a follow up to the presentation from 2016 PLM-Europe.
"Polarion Customization (presented by GARANTIS IT Solutions)"
[PDF download]
Konstantin Klioutchinski
(GARANTIS IT Solutions Ltd.)
14:00-14:30Variant ManagementDaniel Höllisch
14:30-15:15HIL Test RoundtripRoland Nguyen
15:15-15:45Coffee BreakRadek Krotil
15:45-16:30 Integration ALM/PLM. Questions from real projects.
What are we looking for?
[PDF download]
Andreas Deuter &
Konstantin Klioutchinski
(GARANTIS IT Solutions Ltd.)
16:30-16:45Wish List, Change Request & Best Pracitce DataDaniel Höllisch
16:45-17:15Problem collection
17:15-17:45Ad-hoc anwers to top problems
17:45-18:00Feadback, Good Bye.


Diary of the Conference

The Conference started a little bit later, at around 11:30 (instead of 11:00). Siemens meeting room was located on the last floor of a nice modern building. There was a terrasse where we could go during coffee break.

There was a good skype connection and many people listened and watched the presentations via skype. The scheduled presentations finished at 17:00 and some people left. However the open discussion continued untill 18:30. We had a good chance to ask questions about functionality, problems and plans related to Polarion ALM and Teamcenter.

Why JOIN Polarion User Group? - to have ACCESS and CONTRIBUTE to:

  • "WISH LIST" - a centralized list of what users would like to add/change in Polarion. It is stored in Polarion project, hosted by Polarion User Group.
  • "BEST PRACTICIES" - you can find recommendations for different groups of users: for every user, for admin (IT), etc. It is stored in Polarion project, hosted by Polarion User Group. Project name "PUG_BestPractices".
  • "CHANGE REQUESTS + BUG REPORTS" - list of prioritized Change Requests. Users can see which problems are already known. Project name "PUG_ChangeRequests".

What are other ADVANTAGES of Polarion User Group?

  • to find out the latest news about the products and the strategic plans for the future.
  • to have a chance to see key people (Project and Product Managers, Developers, Consultants) and to ask questions. If you do not come to the conference - then you do not have access to these people.
  • to listen to other people, about their experience. Case stories presentations show how the products can be used and give you good ideas.
  • become known in the professional circles. If you have something to say - then the conference is the best place to become known and to share your ideas.

Review of the Conference - what was said about Polarion ALM

SUMMARY:

  • news about latest and next versions of Polarion ALM (from Siemens/Polarion).
    The User Interface of Polarion will change in 2017-2018. It will look similar to other Siemens products.
  • case studies from customers, including our presentation "Polarion Customization (presented by GARANTIS IT Solutions)"
  • discussion of problems the customers face. Looking for solutions.
  • how to share information about Polarion: best practices, video trainings, knowledge base, etc ?
  • evolution of Polarion User Group into Jurisdictional Entity

"Talk #1 - "Future of Polarion UX" - by Jan Stawarczyk (Siemens PLM Software)

  • UX is much more than UI. UX is about Engaged Users, Optimized Usability, and also includes UI (Visual Design)
  • User Interface of Polarion is going through a set of changes, mainly to incorporate and comply with SIEMENS standards and GUI guidelinces.
  • WHAT will CHANGE: colors, typography, all icons, navigation/structure
  • "Flat" design: the GUI of Polarion will look more like the current GUI of Active Workspace, with "Flat" design.
  • CONTENT + UI - use simple minimalistic design to support user content.
  • Optimizations: Apart from visual changes there is some optimization of the GUI going on, to optimize it for speed (reduce size of images/icons, remove not needed layers, simplify, etc).
  • Polarion already started changing - to look more like other Siemens products: ActiveWorkspace, LMS, etc.
  • In one of the next releases: re-coloring to comply with Siemens standards, typography will be changed.
  • Performance can increase because of GUI optimization
  • Around 1400 icons will be updates, to have moder look.
  • Supported browsers. Officially: IE11, Chrome, Firefox. Unoficially: Edge, Safari

  • BOOKS recommended about UX Design:
    (1) "Seductive Interaction Design" by Stephen P. Anderson,
    (2) "Information Architecture" by Louis Rosenfeld, Peter Morville, Jorge Arango

  • USEFUL RECOMMENDATIONS - Design Principles:
    (1) Simple Design & Rich Content
    (2) User is in control
    (3) White space is your friend
    (4) You are not talking to R0b0ts
    (5) Make the hard decisions
    (6) Forget about equality
    (7) Don't make me think!
    (8) Be proud of your work

Talk #2 - "Polarion Release News 17/17.1" - by Radek Krotil (Siemens PLM Software)

  • Test Resource Management
  • ISO26262 - Validation and Verification Toolkit - will be available as extension for template in Polarion 2017-SR1
  • Reuse selected objects easily (for example Requirements, User Stories, etc) - to derive new workitems, to copy/paste workitems => 2017-sr2
  • version 18.0 - KanBan Drag & Drop, interactive Agile board.
  • Cross project Variant Management [18.0]
  • On Demand Loading for Large LiveDoc
  • Active Load Balancer
  • Single SignOn based on Kerberos. Teamcenter Security Services - for single Sign On
  • Integration with Hudson/Jenkins
  • Better handling of Attachments. Preview of Attachments
  • Resource Traceabilty - for linked resources
  • New Button in Administration - to trigger Thread Dump for Polarion GUI (instead of installing special software) It can be used to investigate problematic Long-Running queries/transactions/queries
  • Export Control:
  • restrictions on WHO can export WHAT.
  • support image-based watermarks in exported files
  • support embedding info into the document to show WHEN and WHO exported the Document.

  • New Agile Software Polarion Template
  • no ClassicWiki is used, instead LiveWiki is used
  • new E-library project

  • Other speed improvements:
  • startup of tomcat
  • on demand loading of Derived Linked Revisions
  • improvement in hangling Big Data => there shall be White Paper releases

Talk #3 - "Polarion Customization at Vorwerk - looking 1 year back, current status and future plans. " - by Konstantin Klioutchinski (GARANTIS IT Solutions Ltd.)

Picture. From one polarion project to many projects for many products.
Next step: integration Polarion ALM + Teamcenter.

  • This is a Case Study about Customization of Polarion. It started as specific technical solutions for Feature Driven Development customization and now it continues as Multy-Project / Multy-Product strategy.
    Also we touched topics common for all projects: * How to convince management that customization is needed? * How to administer multiple projects and propagate changes effectively? * What do you need to customize? * How to inform team about customizations?

  • CUSTOMER STORY:The company wants to use Polarion ALM and Teamcenter for Design, Development and Testing of all parts of the product, i.e. SYSTEM, Software, Mechanics, Electronics.
    Polarion TEMPLATES are defined for each sub-project. Based on these templates many Polarion projects are created.
In 2016:
  • We had 1 project
  • We used about 60% of Polarion features
  • We assumed it was COMPLEX
In 2017:
  • We have many projects for many products
  • We use about 90% of Polarion features
  • Maybe it is COMPLEX … but we want to GO FORWARD to the Digital Factory concept
GROWTH of projects:
  • From single „Software Project“ we moved to:
  • multiple „System“ + „Software“ + „Mechanics“ + „Electronics“ projects
NEXT step:
  • ALM + PLM
  • Polarion + Teamcenter

Talk #4 - "Variant Management" - by Daniel Höllisch (AGCO Corporation)

  • BOM/EBOM in Polarion. BOM - Bill of Materials, EBOM - Engineering Bill of Materials. Defined/stored/managed in Polarion. Exported to another tool to be used in Product Configuration.
  • VC Group - used to select groups and parts. For example, which parts are needed if user wants to have Diesel Engine
  • BOM is always linked to CAD model, i.e. in CAD you can see the "place" of the item. In polarion there is no CAD model, i.e. no"place".
  • The data in Polarion can be used to allow user to Configure their own "Tractor" - the needed items will be selected together as a group of needed items/materials for each chosen by user config option.

Picture. BOM and EBOM is defined and stored in Polarion
From presentation of Daniel Höllisch, AGCO Corporation.

Talk #5 - "HIL Test Roundtrip" - by Roland Nguyen (CipAlpha)

  • AM-Pack - Automotive & Mechatronics Package
  • create Test Run from TCS (from Live Doc)
  • export External Test Initialization File from Test Run
  • import Test Results into Test Run

Talk #6 - "Integration ALM/PLM. Questions from real projects.What are we looking for?" - by Konstantin Klioutchinski (GARANTIS IT Solutions Ltd.) & Andreas Deuter (OWL Hochschule, University of Applied Sciences)

  • BEST INTEGRATION TODAY is
    Connector v1.3.0 = Polarion ALM 17 + Active Workspace 3.3 + Siemens Teamcenter 11.3

  • Integration Teamcenter + Polarion - EXISTS ! ..and it is getting BETTER with every release.
  • WHER STORE WHAT? - that is the Question!
    Requirements, Change Requests, Defects - is their place in Teamcenter or in Polarion?
  • Live Demo: PLM + ALM

Picture. WHER STORE WHAT? - that is the Question!
Requirements, Change Requests, Defects - is their place in Teamcenter or in Polarion?

Talk #7 "Live Demo of Polarion+Teamcenter integration" by Prof. Andreas Deuter (OWL University of Applied Sciences)

  • This is a presentation about Teamcenter+Connector+Polarion integration. SmartFactory OWL has this connection installed and configured. If you are looking for similar connection - ask SmartFactory OWL!
  • The “PLM/ALM for Smart Products” research project in the SmartFactory OWL aims to explore intelligent development processes for smart products with regard to Industrie 4.0. In this context, Siemens Teamcenter and Polarion ALM are used to create detailed use cases for the consistent management of product data to be tested regarding applicability in specific product developments.
  • This presentation shows specific PLM/ALM use cases that are realized in der SmartFactory OWL with the use of Siemens Teamcenter and Polarion ALM, discussing the advantages of the current PLM/ALM integration from the user’s point of view and providing recommendations for improvements.
  • OWL Hochscule developed an example project "Smart Light", which consists of (a) elements of IoT, (b) Electronics, (c) Mechanics
  • During Demo:
    * in Polarion can see Active Workspace
    * Teamcenter contains some Design which is linked to Polarion
  • You can make links (technichally) in 2 ways:
    - using workflow in Teamcenter: start (preconfigured) workflow in Teamcenter and then the link will be created
    - manually create link
  • BOM - Teamcenter has strength to handle BOM - therefore in this example BOM is stored in Teamcenter. Electric part element in Teamcenter contains binary attachment, which is the BUILD (firmware) - produced by the "build" function in Polarion.
  • Builds - can compile for Android, can be compiled in Polarion - and then can be stored in Teamcenter as an attachment. Technically is done using small proxy. => advantage : always to have latest Binary in BOM.

Polarion ALM and Teamcenter Integration - our notes

Some notes from our experience and other users, from exhibitions and conferences.

Why Polarion+Teamcenter?

  • modern product include "hardware" product + "software" product. Software is everywhere.
  • not conencted PLM and ALM tools can cause errors in fucntioning of "software" + "hardware".These failures have affected both the consumers and the vendors, in some cases with dramatic effects.
  • In most of these situations the cause is the disconnection between PLM and ALM.
  • SOLUTION: better connections betwee PLM+ALM. Better connection between Teamcenter and Polarion. Better product "Teamcenter-Polarion Connector"

Polarion vs Teamcenter? What is the Future?

There was the same information comming from different sources during the conference: Polarion and Teamcenter will co-exist in parallel. They will be gradually connected better and better.

There is no need to switch from Teamcenter to Polarion or from Polarion to Teamcenter. Each product has own advantages, and together they allow to solve Product Development tasks : Teamcenter can be PLM tool, and Polarion - ALM tool. For example, for Software Development it is better to use Polarion. But for hardware parts and mechatronics - Teamcenter.

A lot of work is going on to integrate Teamcenter and Polarion. There are already examples of this integration working. Next steps are to make it "smoother" , "more natural", to provide more functions and satisfy requests from customers.

Why Polarion ALM is good and needed? - (*) Polarion is for a system-driven product development, (*) it is a complex tool, but user experience is made as easy as possible, (*) roll-out of Polarion is "just days", not weeks or months.

DIFFERENCE between ALM and PLM:

As Jiri Walek said: "there is only one letter difference "A" and "P" - between ALM and PLM".

ALM = is "more than Requirements" => "down to the software line of code".
PLM => down to the Bill Of Materials (BOM) and simulation of the product.

ALM and PLM have a lot of common, but obviously there is a difference: what is managed, who works with each tool, how users expect to see information, what functionality and behaviour they expect from the tools in Product and in Application Lifecycle Management.

Additional Info

Product lifecycle management (PLM) is an information management system that can integrate data, processes, business systems and, ultimately, people in an extended enterprise. PLM software allows you to manage this information throughout the entire lifecycle of a product efficiently and cost-effectively, from ideation, design and manufacture, through service and disposal. Source: Siemens PLM site

Polarion offers a complete Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) suite to offer greater visibility into the software development process. Polarion is a unified solution for Requirements, Quality, and Application Lifecycle Management.
Polarion Software was acquired by Siemens PLM Software in January 2016, expanding their support for the growing ALM market.

Digital Factory concept

"Digitalization is everywhere and is changing all industries". Siemens, after recent purchases, is in good shape to be in a leading position for complete PLM.

There is a lot going on about Digital Factories, Smart Factories. The main idea of Digital Factory: to have complete continious chain from Product Concept to Product Design, and then "feeding" the design documents to robots in Digital Factory, allowing them to make the product (or parts) autonomously.

Even though Polarion does not have direct link to Digital Factory concept, it becomes part of the PLM/ALM solution and consequently is used together with Teamcenter to describe Specifications and Design, or to manage Requirements, Defects, Change Requests etc. Technically Teamcenter has (will have) programming interface to the machinery in the Factory and can control manufacturing processes. A good example is a company "Local Motors", who 3D printed a complete car.


See you at PLM Europe - 2017 ?

Come and meet GARANTIS IT Solutions at PLM Europe 2017 in Berlin.

We will be pleased to share and demonstrate our knowledge in Polarion ALM.

Share Expert Knowledge - Meet us at the Conference

GARANTIS will be available to discuss your strategic requirements for ALM Solutions:
  • Which ALM solution is good for you?
  • Choosing Polarion as ALM solutions
  • Initial Setup of Polarion
  • Customizations & Maintenance
  • Process definition and Implementation of Processes in Polarion
  • Integrations (Jenkins, Polarion, GIT, etc)
  • Tricks & Tips

We are involved every day in short-term and long-term contracts during all stages of the software development projects.

To share our knowledge with you will be a pleasure for us.

Meet us after the Conference

We are always available to support our clients and to give free advise:

E-mail: info@garantis.co.uk
Direct Phone: +44 (0) 118 343 1584



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