ICONICS, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, provides industrial automation and visualization software to organizations in more than 60 countries. The company’s development teams include employees in three countries—and the geographic distance created collaboration challenges. Developers lacked an integrated tool set that could facilitate project management, promote data access, accelerate development, and automate testing processes. In 2009, ICONICS enhanced its development environment by deploying beta versions of Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate, Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010, and Visual Studio Lab Management 2010. The integrated solution gives global teams unified tools to simplify project management and streamline product lifecycle processes. As a result, ICONICS expects to cut costs by 10 percent, improve product quality, and increase productivity by 100 percent.

Situation

Founded in 1986, ICONICS helps global companies manage their operations with software that provides 3-D visualization and business intelligence tools. Its products, which run on Microsoft software, support numerous industries including automotive, building automation, oil and gas, transportation, renewable energy, and government. In addition to its corporate headquarters in Foxborough, Massachusetts, ICONICS operates offices throughout the United States and in eight countries in Europe and Asia.

The new testing capabilities in Visual Studio 2010 are revolutionary. Once we get more teams using the tools, I can see our productivity doubling.  Chris Elsbree Chief Software Architect ICONICS

The company develops and maintains its 64-bit products with the Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 development system, the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 with Service Pack 1, and the Microsoft Silverlight browser plug-in. To manage product lifecycles, teams used standardized processes based on the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) approach and a variety of tools. For example, employees used Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2008 Team Foundation Server to manage software development and build cycles. For bug tracking, they relied on a proprietary application. In addition, teams shared information with Microsoft Office Excel spreadsheet software, Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007, and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

The company’s development teams include employees who work in the United States, the Czech Republic, and Italy. Even though all source files reside on a central server, the geographic distance created challenges in project management and collaboration. The teams lacked integrated tools that could provide quick and detailed insight into projects, including changes made in each release build. In addition, project reports were one-dimensional and could not reveal interdependencies between work items, teams, and individuals—and this made it difficult to track status. “Typically, we have work items that may take months to complete,” explains Russ Agrusa, President and CEO at ICONICS. “In the past, we were unable to easily subdivide work items into multiple tasks. Instead, work items appeared in a flat list.”

The global development teams also faced productivity challenges, especially in the testing environment. “Most of our testing was manual,” explains Chris Elsbree, Chief Software Architect at ICONICS. “Engineers had to install the product and then use the keyboard to test each product feature.” Every time a new software build occurred, engineers had to repeat the manual testing procedures, which were time-consuming. In addition, engineers wanted to be able to set up test environments on their own, without involving IT personnel.

Troubleshooting and tracking bugs was also challenging. The company’s proprietary bug-tracking system could not capture detailed information about software issues, and test engineers were unable to automatically submit information about bugs to developers. Instead, employees had to use the stand-alone tool to track bugs—or manually copy the information into other applications to create reports. Project management was also inefficient, and teams lacked critical information that could accelerate the resolution of software issues.

ICONICS sought tools that could simplify lifecycle management, facilitate communication and collaboration, boost productivity, and minimize costs.

Solution

In 2009, ICONICS learned about the many new and improved features in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate and decided to deploy a beta version. To fully address the challenges it faced, the company also deployed beta versions of Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 and Microsoft Visual Studio Lab Management 2010.

Engineers can record a manual test with Test Manager 2010 and later rerun it from Test Manager or from Visual Studio 2010 …. Essentially, it’s like gaining 16 hours a day of testing without changing our headcount.  Chris Elsbree Chief Software Architect ICONICS

For example, to minimize manual testing, development teams can use Microsoft Test Manager 2010, which is available with Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate and Microsoft Visual Studio Test Professional 2010. “The features in Test Manager 2010 were probably the biggest reason we deployed Visual Studio 2010,” says Elsbree. “With it, an engineer can record all of the actions that are taken during a manual test. Whenever that test needs to be performed again, team members can replay the test—which essentially automates the process.”

Teams can also use Visual Studio Lab Management 2010 to quickly create and manage virtual test environments on their own without engaging IT.

Engineers can share the information captured in manual tests by using Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010—which can expedite the resolution of software issues. “When an engineer finds a bug, he or she can immediately submit a bug report from Test Manager that details the steps taken in the procedure and indicates which steps did not pass,” notes Elsbree. Debugging processes can be further accelerated with the IntelliTrace debugging tool in Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate. It captures detailed information at the code level about program execution so that developers can more easily pinpoint the cause of issues.

Team members can also use customizable dashboards and reporting tools in Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 to gain insight into team progress and productivity. For example, employees can take advantage of hierarchical work item tracking, which makes it easy to subdivide tasks and track multiple work items in a hierarchical flow. The new branching and merging visualization capability of source control also gives teams the ability to better manage service releases and bug fixes—and to see how they relate to each other. In addition, teams can use the product to set up custom workflows that adhere to CMMI processes—and automate software builds for projects created with Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio 2010.

ICONICS deployed the beta software in November 2009. Even though most development teams were busy working on a new product release with Visual Studio 2008, all employees immediately took advantage of Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 and Visual Studio Lab Management 2010. “Another great capability of Visual Studio 2010 is that we can use Visual Studio 2008 on workstations and Visual Studio 2010 on server computers,” says Agrusa. “We can interoperate Visual Studio editions so we are not forced to move all developers to Visual Studio 2010 right away.”

The company will use Visual Studio 2010 for all new development. In addition, ICONICS plans to deploy Microsoft Silverlight 4 and the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 over the next few months to increase application performance and security—and lessen dependencies on external libraries.

Benefits

With its new solution based on Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate, Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010, and Visual Studio Lab Management 2010, ICONICS has already increased productivity by 15 percent—and the company expects that number to grow to 100 percent. In addition, ICONICS can decrease costs, streamline project management, and enhance product quality.

Expects to Double Productivity

Today, ICONICS development teams have an integrated tool set to help them more efficiently develop and maintain projects across multiple locations. However, the company expects to realize its most dramatic gain in productivity through its new testing processes. “The ability to record tests with Test Manager 2010 has been an absolute productivity multiplier for us,” says Agrusa. “It’s like adding the equivalent of three extra people to a project—which has immediately boosted our productivity by 10 to 15 percent.”

Burndown reports in Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 help us to understand whether a project is on track. At a glance, we can see productivity trends and know how close we are to achieving our goals.  Tim Donaldson Director of Marketing ICONICS

Elaborating on the solution, Elsbree says, “The new testing capabilities in Visual Studio 2010 are revolutionary. Once we get more teams using the tools, I can see our productivity doubling. We can run automated tests overnight without anyone being present. In the future, we also expect that features like IntelliTrace will significantly reduce the time required for us to debug applications.”

Reduces Costs by 10 Percent

Because the build server in Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 interoperates with Visual Studio 2008, ICONICS does not have to invest in upgrading some existing products to Visual Studio 2010. “In the past, we upgraded every project that we maintained in Visual Studio 2005 to Visual Studio 2008 just so we could continue to use a single build environment,” says Elsbree. “With Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010, we can manage software builds in Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio 2010.”

With its new solution, engineers can perform software builds, manage software versioning, and execute tests in less time—and with fewer errors. In addition, teams can set up and manage virtual test environments in minutes. As a result, ICONICS expects to reduce its overall costs for project development and maintenance by 10 percent. “Engineers can record a manual test with Test Manager 2010 and later rerun it from Test Manager or from Visual Studio 2010 by converting the manual test to an automated code UI test,” says Elsbree. “Essentially, it’s like gaining 16 hours a day of testing without changing our headcount.”

Simplifies Project Management

Managers and engineers can use the new CMMI dashboards, reporting capabilities, and workbooks in Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 to gain greater insight into project lifecycles. “Burndown reports in Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 help us to understand whether a project is on track,” says Tim Donaldson, Director of Marketing at ICONICS. “At a glance, we can see productivity trends and know how close we are to achieving our goals.”

ICONICS can further streamline project management by customizing reports and workflows. “It’s nice to have the option to use predefined and customized templates to meet our exact needs,” says Elsbree. Teams can also use the new solution to better visualize and track work items—and know who is responsible for each one. “Hierarchical work item tracking will become more important to us as we move forward,” he says. “It will be quite useful to be able to group small work items into larger ones or to break down large work items that may be completed over several months.”

ICONICS is also looking forward to using the features for source control branching and merging visualization in Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010. “We don’t have many branches now, but each time we put out a service release it’s going to represent a new branch,” Elsbree explains. “Visualizing that will help us track which fixes correspond to which branches in the source control system.”

By working more effectively, ICONICS can create more useful and reliable products for customers. “The advantages of using Visual Studio 2010 all come down to performance and quality,” explains Agrusa. “Features such as hierarchical work item tracking, IntelliTrace, branching and merging visualization—and our ability to work on older product versions with the new system—all contribute to an overall improvement in our efficiency. And this ultimately results in a better quality product.”

For More Information

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For more information about ICONICS products and services, call (508) 543-8600 or visit the Web site at:
www.iconics.com

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 is an integrated development system that helps simplify the entire development process from design to deployment. Unleash your creativity with powerful prototyping, modeling, and design tools that help you bring your vision to life. Work within a personalized environment that helps accelerate the coding process and supports the use of your existing skills, and target a growing number of platforms, including Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and cloud services. Also, work more efficiently thanks to integrated testing and debugging tools that you can use to find and fix bugs quickly and easily to help ensure high-quality solutions.

For more information about Visual Studio 2010, go to:
www.msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio

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Document published March 2010