A - Every implementation is different. However, the one constant is that after the two-day, on-site training, you will have a very solid base from which to work. The typical implementation time is two weeks to three months.
A – Our customers range from one product manager to over 100 product managers. FeaturePlan is flexible enough to provide equally-impressive benefits for any size organization.
A - No, although FeaturePlan supports the Pragmatic Marketing framework the tool is flexible enough that it can fit into your existing processes. Pragmatic Marketing training may facilitate an understanding of FeaturePlan terminology, but it is not required in order to maximize your usage of FeaturePlan.
A - FeaturePlan is an enabler, and can help you and your team implement the Pragmatic Marketing Framework. There are a number of forms, processes and documents that you need in order to implement Pragmatic Marketing. If you have to build these documents these manually, it will slow down your adoption of the Pragmatic Marketing Framework. FeaturePlan provides templates for those forms, processes and documents. You'll be able to adhere to the Pragmatic process and accelerate your implementation of the Pragmatic Marketing methods.
A – Yes. FeaturePlan has a bi-directional API that gives you the ability to connect to any third-party system, which can then be used to push and pull data to and from FeaturePlan. You can obtain the documented API and integrate it yourself, or you can have our Professional Services team integrate it on your behalf, for a fee.
A - Yes. FeaturePlan is a 100% Microsoft .NET Application.
A - The Outlook Add-In is an optional component of FeaturePlan, which allows you to create FeaturePlan records (Information Gathering / Information Processing / Analysis Documents / Release / Persona) from emails in your Outlook Inbox. Once Outlook Add-In is installed, you will see the new menu option (called FeaturePlan) in you MS Outlook. The Outlook Add-In only allows you to create new records from emails – it does not allow to edit existing records. Important: At the moment, Outlook Add-In is supported on the .Net framework version 1.1 only.
A - Through our fully customizable reports, all data in FeaturePlan can be made visible in six different formats. In addition, through our clients, you have the ability to view or work on records within the system.
There are two types of licenses: the Full License and the Collaborator License. Each provides different access rights across the system, which can be further restricted by the FeaturePlan administrator based on your company’s needs.
Yes, they can communicate either through an import/export mechanism or by using the FeaturePlan bi-directional API that gives you the ability to connect to any third-party system. These tools can be used to push and pull data to and from FeaturePlan. You can obtain the documented API and integrate it yourself, or you can have our Professional Services team integrate it on your behalf, for a fee.
In short, Agile development is like a miniature software project. Each miniature project includes all the tasks, such as the planning and requirement analysis tasks, necessary to release the mini-increment of new functionality. The fact that the iterations (or releases) are smaller makes it even more important to have FeaturePlan help you do what-if scenarios and provide an easy way to report the scope of each one of your iterations.
Extreme Programming is one of several Agile software development methodologies. One of the goals of Extreme Programming is to give all developers a view of the system that matches the view held by the users (i.e. user/developer collaboration). This interaction is documented through user scenarios (a supported document type in FeaturePlan). The output of the scenarios is requirements being fed into the release planning phase.
In summary, you get short cycles where development is interacting with the requirements from the users. It follows the gather, define, analyze and commit phases in short iterations (i.e. one to four weeks) with development more involved in the gather stage. FeaturePlan provides you a central repository for collecting user requirements (i.e. enhancements), documenting user scenarios and collaborating amongst the stakeholders to create requirements for the release planning. The short iterations are made easier by FeaturePlan, thereby improving your ability to generate instant reports and do what-if scenarios.
Yes. FeaturePlan has a direct link to Microsoft® Project, allowing you to export tasks and milestones to your project plans.
FeaturePlan has a well defined repository for capturing various inputs. The simple, easy to use ‘quick views’ enable you to easily identify the records and process items as duplicates. Duplicates are tied to the original record via problem statements. This allows you to continue to collect evidence for observed problems.
Yes. FeaturePlan On-Demand™ is available as an on-demand, hosted solution.
Yes. FeaturePlan offers you the ability to connect to your data either through a Windows-based client or through a pure Web-based application with access from your Browser.
