R&D tracking software

[mtfuji]

Hi all,

I'm working in an Research and Development department where we constantly develop many existing product lines, and prototype potential new products. In all we could have a dozen products in active development at a time.

I've been tasked with finding a software solution to track this busy department that will need to record historical (and current) data on all revisions, bugfixes, etc - on mechanical hardware, electrical hardware, and firware revisions. This will also be used to track current projects, like who needs to finish what before the next step can be taken, etc.

We aren't interested so much in man-hours and timesheets, but more about the technical evolution and history of our product lines.

We've tried software called 'Copper Project', but this doesn't really suit our needs (it's more for Project Managemenet software). In reality, it's looking more like we'll develop a custom database application in-house. Before I jump in the deep end though, can anyone suggest some off-the-shelf software, or share any experiences with this topic?

Many thanks!

 

[MacGyverS2000]

You need a version control system for software, such as SourceSafe from MicroSoft (though if you're starting from scratch I'd suggest staying away from SS and go with one of the open source packages out there). It will keep track of versions, who checked in/out files and on what dates/times, etc. A good differencing program, such as Beyond Compare from Scooter Software, is great for seeing the difference between one version of a file and another. We also use SS for hardware tracking, but unfortunately Beyond Compare is not able to show differences between files, so we must rely on good comments whenever a change is checked in.

For mechanicals, we use the system that comes with AutoDesk's Inventor... so far we haven't found anything within a reasonable price range that can track changes.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[mtfuji]

Thanks for the reply.

I agree that firmware should be tracked with versioning software. I imagine SVN could be setup for this, or implemented in a custom solution.

As far as harware and features etc (a more global view of the product line), or viewing a snapshot of a product at a particular time, I haven't found anything really. Just lots of project management software for timesheeting and gantt charts.

I'm looking at something that will manage our products entirely. I imagine this solution would also be very valuable for tech support as they can query a product by firmware etc and see bugs, bugfixes, etc.

If I go the in-house developed solution, SVN for firware will definately be included.

 

[Clyde38]

Try

http://www.jtrac.info/

 

[mtfuji]

In case anyone was interested in the outcome of this, we've decided after researching a few options to develop our own solution inhouse based on a PHP and MySQL platform. This was realistically the only way to incorporate all the features we wanted, the way we wanted them to work.

Thank you for your suggestions, they at least gave us ideas for our own solution.

 

[ptruitt]

Configuration Management is a big deal. Read thick books and/or take a course in it. Processes come after definitions and policies on interchangeability, options, formal design specifications, and more. Simply depending on software for version control will just let you make more mistakes faster.