Title: InterLab99 Implementing a Commercial Document Management System Lessons learned from Web Fileshare a
1InterLab99 Implementing a Commercial Document
Management SystemLessons learned from Web
Fileshareat Sandia National Laboratories
- Sam Cancilla
- November 4, 1999
2Web Fileshare Project Lessons Learned - Lesson 1
Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software is
always faster, better, and cheaper to implement.
3Web Fileshare Project Lessons Learned - Lesson 1
Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software is
always faster, better, and cheaper to implement.
Except when it isnt.
4Web Fileshare Project Lesson 1 - The
Customer/Owner
- Q We found something that we think will satisfy
about 80 of the requirements. Will that be OK? - WTS (What they say) Absolutely, an 80 solution
is perfectly acceptable to start with. We wont
worry too much about the rest.
5Web Fileshare Project Lesson 1 - The
Customer/Owner
- Q We found something that we think will satisfy
about 80 of the requirements. Will that be OK? - WTS (What they say) Absolutely, an 80 solution
is perfectly acceptable to start with. We wont
worry too much about the rest. - WTM (What they mean) 80 is not enough. It had
better do everything the old system did, plus
this whole set of new things. Nothing less will
do. And by the way, my needs come first, the
enterprises needs are second.
6Web Fileshare Project Lesson 1 - The
Customer/Owner
- Q The product is fairly easy to customize, just
how much customization will we be doing? - WTS Just a little, look and feel mostly, perhaps
a bit of additional functionality.
7Web Fileshare Project Lesson 1 - The
Customer/Owner
- Q The product is fairly easy to customize, just
how much customization will we be doing? - WTS Just a little, look and feel mostly, perhaps
a bit of additional functionality. - WTM If one can bring up the out of the box
system and our customized system side by side and
tell that they had a mutual code ancestor, you
have failed in your mission.
8Web Fileshare Project Lesson 1 - The
Customer/Owner
- Q Can we modify our work processes and business
rules to work within the new software? - WTS Where it makes sense to do so, we will
change processes and business rules.
9Web Fileshare Project Lesson 1 - The
Customer/Owner
- Q Can we modify our work processes and business
rules to work within the new software? - WTS Where it makes sense to do so, we will
change processes and business rules. - WTM Changing anything like that would imply that
we were not doing it right in the first place.
It will thus never make sense to change any of
our processes and business rules.
10Web Fileshare Project Lessons Learned -
Customer/Owner
- Q Are the specifications you gave me for the
metadata requirements complete and accurate? - WTS Yes, to the best of our knowledge they are
correct and you can go ahead and implement.
11Web Fileshare Project Lessons Learned -
Customer/Owner
- Q Are the specifications you gave me for the
metadata requirements complete and accurate? - WTS Yes, to the best of our knowledge they are
correct and you can go ahead and implement. - WTM The best of our knowledge may not be all
that good. Be prepared to change substantially
much of what we told you (and what you have
implemented).
12Web Fileshare Project Lessons Learned - Lesson 2
COTS software and vendors are pretty much alike,
pick the one you think is best and implement it.
13Web Fileshare Project Lessons Learned - Lesson 2
COTS software and vendors are pretty much alike,
pick the one you think is best and implement it.
Wrong - vendors/software are vastly different.
Find a really good one, then pilot the system.
14Web Fileshare ProjectLesson 2 - Product/Vendor
Issues
- Q Does your software fit into our existing
architecture? - WTS From what you have told us of your
architecture, our software will fit nicely into
it.
15Web Fileshare ProjectLesson 2 - Product/Vendor
Issues
- Q Does your software fit into our existing
architecture? - WTS From what you have told us of your
architecture, our software will fit nicely into
it. - WTM Your buildings have walls, floors, and
ceilings, our software runs just fine in such an
architecture.
16Web Fileshare ProjectLesson 2 - Product/Vendor
Issues
- Q Is the software browser and platform
independent? - WTS Yes, it runs on any browser and on any type
of machine.
17Web Fileshare ProjectLesson 2 - Product/Vendor
Issues
- Q Is the software browser and platform
independent? - WTS Yes, it runs on any browser and on any type
of machine. - WTM So long as what you call a browser we
normally call a viewgraph and what you call a
platform we normally call an overhead projector.
18Web Fileshare ProjectLesson 2 - Product/Vendor
Issues
- Q What types of servers will the system run on?
- WTS Our software runs on both NT servers and the
most popular flavors of Unix servers.
19Web Fileshare ProjectLesson 2 - Product/Vendor
Issues
- Q What types of servers will the system run on?
- WTS Our software runs on both NT servers and the
most popular flavors of Unix servers. - WTM But we only guarantee full functionality on
the NT box, Unix is of secondary importance and
we have not yet fully implemented the code on it,
some key features are missing.
20Web Fileshare ProjectLesson 2 - Product/Vendor
Issues
- Q What type of authentication and authorization
does the product use? - WTS We have an internal authentication scheme
but also support the use of NT domain login. We
do not yet support the use of Kerberos/DCE.
21Web Fileshare ProjectLesson 2 - Product/Vendor
Issues
- Q What type of authentication and authorization
does the product use? - WTS We have an internal authentication scheme
but also support the use of NT domain login. We
do not yet support the use of Kerberos/DCE. - WTM But if you dont use our internal
authentication some of the products
functionality will not work. We dont
necessarily know the difference between
authentication and authorization. We have never
heard of Kerberos/DCE.
22Web Fileshare ProjectLesson 2 - Product/Vendor
Issues
- Q Will it be easy/possible to customize the
product to do __________? - WTS Yes, it should be very easy to implement
that feature.
23Web Fileshare ProjectLesson 2 - Product/Vendor
Issues
- Q Will it be easy/possible to customize the
product to do __________? - WTS Yes, it should be very easy to implement
that feature. - WTM In theory at least since no one has ever
tried before.
24Web Fileshare ProjectLessons Learned - Summary 1
- COTS software may be faster, better, and cheaper
but customers needs and desires really drive
this. - Out of the box is never enough, find something
that is easy to customize and plan to customize
quite a bit. Look for a product where upgrades
do not break your customizations. - It is difficult to change processes even if they
are not efficient, try but dont be disappointed. - The customers may not really examine the
requirements in their entirety unless you force
them. Force them early.
25Web Fileshare ProjectLessons Learned - Summary 2
- Vendors may implement on different timetables for
different platforms and they may not be able to
test on all browsers. - Vendors do not necessarily understand the
complexity of our architecture and
infrastructure. Educate them. - The security models that we use are not
necessarily industry-wide and may not be
supported by the vendor. - A lot of what we do is far and above what other
users of the product have even thought of. Be
prepared to break new ground and to pay the
vendor to help you.
26COTS Software for a Document Management System -
Results
- We have chosen the COTS software Intra.doc! from
Intranet Solutions for Document Management, and
we have been very pleased - Faster to implement?
- Better than we could have written?
- Cheaper to implement and maintain?
27COTS Software for a Document Management System -
Results
- We have chosen the COTS software Intra.doc! from
Intranet Solutions for Document Management, and
we have been very pleased - Faster to implement - yes.
- Better than we could have written - yes.
- Cheaper to implement and maintain - we believe
so.
28Web Fileshare Project
The Demo