Jama’s Contour 3.0 Socializes Requirements Management 
Jama Software’s latest update to its Contour web-based requirements management software brings tracking and social technologies together to better align IT and business stakeholders. Contour 3.0 sports new system hierarchy capabilities for tracking projects and a Review Center to connect and socialize team members.
Jama Software’s latest update to its Contour web-based requirements management software brings tracking and social technologies together to better align IT and business stakeholders.
Contour 3.0’s latest features look to socialize and simplify requirements management and let companies tap into the “collective genius” of their teams, Jama CEO Eric Winquist told IDN. Contour 3.0 sports new system hierarchy capabilities for tracking projects and a Review Center to connect and socialize team members, he said.
“Building great software and hardware is a very social process, so with Contour 3.0 we’re offering a collaboration platform that gives everyone a voice,” Winquist explained. “So many projects fail, get delayed or derailed, and the best thing you can do to avoid that outcome is to give everybody visibility. We believe the ‘smartest person in the room’ is all of us.”
Contour 3.0’s web-based app provides what Winquist called “a centralized communications hub,” which can capture, organize and manage input, decisions and ongoing discussions around project requirements. This lets business and IT stakeholders ensure that software meets initial specs, requirements and compliance issues, including traceability, coverage, change control, and reporting. “The social components keep all these players in sync through real-time discussions,” Winquist added.
New Features in Contour 3.0
Contour’s features allow business users, project managers, QA reviewers and developers to initiate, discuss, change and track requirements throughout the entire application development process, he added.
“Collaboration and social networking sites like Facebook are changing how we communicate with each other,” Winquist said. “And for collaboration to be effective, we think the conversation needs to be inherently in context with the tool. We’ve yet to see the big players really do that well.”
Contour 3.0’s latest features include:
- System Hierarchy Features. Contour 3.0 lets team members manage complex system hierarchies through a system of components, sets and items. This lets team members separate and modularize requirements, eliminate redundancies in work, and better track and manage many dependent and inter-dependent system requirements.
- Review Center. This module provides a fast and agile way for teams to review requirements and gain consensus. The Review Center acts as a “socialized hub” to manage and expedite the requirements review and approval lifecycle. Team members can initiate requirement reviews, gather feedback, monitor social interactions and comments and manage approval processes. Users can also flag issues for special attention, vote on prioritizing features, and execute electronic sign-offs.
“Building great software…is a very social process, so with Contour 3.0 we’re offering a collaboration platform that gives everyone a voice.”
Eric Winquist
CEO
Jama Software
Contour integrates with leading product development and ALM tools, and supports corporate compliance and governance, with audit trails, approvals and related requirements.
One early user was enthusiastic about the upgrade. “The flexibility of Contour allows my team to structure our projects to fit our process, and we can customize the reports to deliver the specifications we need to meet compliance standards and publish them in a format that makes the rest of the company happy,” Mace Volzing, software development manager for IntraPace, a medical devices firm, said in a statement.
Contour 3.0 is available now as an on-premise or SaaS solution. Pricing starts at $700 per user per year.
