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  • I have issues

    It is true, I'm glad we can finally talk about it. I have issues. Or rather, we have issues. And you know what, I am not ashamed to admit it. And neither should you.
    IT'S TRUE

    The first step is to admit it

    When you make software, you will make bugs, and bugs will make issues. Yes, we are talking about software issues. All programs contain bugs. According to Steve McConnell's book, Code Complete: “Industry Average: about 15 – 50 errors per 1000 lines of delivered code.” 1

    So the first step is to come clean. Admit it. YES!!! YES!! YES!! There are bugs in our software.

     

    1https://labs.sogeti.com/how-many-defects-are-too-many/

    Write it down

    "Every bug report is a love letter." I heard this for the first time from the famous Erich Gamma during an Eclipse conference. It touched me. Indeed, if a customer cares enough to file issues, there is a positive connection, even if it is a nasty bug.

     

    Open Up

    We decided to open our ticketing system to all our customers. Customers can file issues and enhancement requests, and they can see what is still open. They also can see what others report, and they can even follow the helpdesk team. Following the helpdesk team means receiving all the mail the helpdesk team gets and reading all the issues and enhancement requests.

    Customers can search the database for any current or resolved issues.

    Being open has the following advantages:

    1. We cannot hide. An issue reported is an issue visible to everyone.
    2. A customer can see their open issues and confront us. "Ping! What's the status"?
    3. We must act on issues and provide a solution or a workaround.
    4. We collaborate and strengthen our relationship.

     

     

    Gravity FTW

    We use Gravity as our ticketing system. It does everything you expect from a professional ticketing system. Gravity is created with DartLang in the browser as the front. The backend is Java and the database can be anything, including DB2 for IBM i.

    One of its many perks is the statistics engine. It is the one tool that tells us how we are doing.

    I'm pretty proud of our 95% resolution rate.

    Happy coding!

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  • Proximity strengthens IBM i development portfolio by partnering with Remain Software

    Proximity
    Proximity and Remain Software have announced a partnership to market and support Remain’s market-leading change and workflow management solutions for the IBM i, Windows, Linux and Unix in the UK and Ireland.

    Based in Leeds and Nottingham, Proximity has over 40 IBM i specialists who develop, support and maintain solutions and applications for a diverse range of businesses in the logistics, manufacturing, retail and finance sectors.

    As part of the new partnership, Proximity will promote and distribute Remain Software change and workflow management products, TD/OMS and Gravity.

    Dave Pickburn, director at Proximity said:

    “We are delighted and excited to become a partner for Remain Software in the UK and Ireland and be able to offer new and existing customers additional IBM i products within our already extensive portfolio of IBM i modernization and development products. TD/OMS and Gravity provide software development teams, like ours, with the tools necessary to produce higher quality software applications faster with fewer bugs.”

    "Partnering with Remain Software further strengthens our existing relationships in the IBM i marketplace, including Fresche Solutions, Zend, Shield HA, and for Infor LX and Infor BPCS ERP Software”-added Pickburn.

    TD/OMS is integrated with Fresche‘s IBM i application documentation and code analysis tool, X-Analysis and Fresche View, to provide organizations with a unified software change management (SCM) product for the IBM i.

    IBM i developers can also control software changes and deploy more stable PHP and RPG web applications on the IBM i through TD/OMS integration with WebSmart PHP and ILE, which are also both from Fresche.

    Marco Kok, the managing director at Remain Software commented:

    “Remain Software are constantly looking at ways to deliver excellence to our customers, both through our software innovations and through our partners. I’m delighted to welcome Proximity to the Remain Software global partner network. Proximity’s knowledge and expertise in the IBM i marketplace combined with Remain’s change a project management tools will provide added value to new and existing customers business-critical IBM i application development needs.”

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  • Gravity Solution Data Sheet


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