Tool Mentor: Managing Ideas with IBM Rational Focal Point |
This tool mentor describes Rational Focal Point tips on using some of the fundamentals of idea configuration and display capabilities that are required to facilitate capture and management of ideas.
Tool: IBM Rational Focal Point
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Main Description
### Introduction The IBM® Rational® Focal Point™ software is a highly configurable tool. Its configuration and use are heavily dependent on the idea management processes and workflows employed and enforced by the organization. The following tool guidance is included in this tool mentor: Configure an Idea module Create the Idea module Configure idea attributes Create (capture) the idea Create idea folders Create or add idea display views Display ideas Your organization may or may not embrace the concept of ideas as being a formal and tangible aspect of your product management process. It could be that all product ideas originate in the form of product enhancement requests or product requirements. When ideas do represent a tangible and formal element of an organization’s processes, it is very typical for “worthy” and “approved” ideas to ultimately be linked or associated with an existing or new product feature or product requirement within the product portfolio management. Regardless of whether your company's process includes the use and associated processing of ideas, product features, or product requirements, each of these types must first be created and configured as modules in Rational Focal Point tool to accommodate the appropriate process and information requirements associated with them. Although this particular tool mentor is idea-centric, the tips and steps identified are largely and equally applicable to product features, product requirements, or other process-related breakouts. ### Configure the Idea module Configuration of the idea module in Rational Focal Point tool is a two-step process, starting with the creation of the idea module and concluding with the configuration of idea attributes to enable the capture of vital data and information that is used to describe, classify, and justify the idea. To prepare Rational Focal Point tool to incorporate the capture of ideas, the administrator must first create an Idea module in Rational Focal Point tool, by following these steps. #### Create an Idea module Open the workspace. On the Navigation Bar, select Configure > Modules to get the module list to appear in the workspace area. Click the Add Module button so that the Add Module frame will be presented for you to create an Element. Enter “Idea” in the Name field. Enter “Idea” in the Add Button Name field. Enter a short description of the intended use of the idea element in the Description field. Select the Position in Module List to specify where you want the Idea module to appear in the Modules menu. Click the Click to select another icon link in the Default Icon field to select the icon that you want displayed to the left of the idea element in the tree structure. See "Add a Module" details in Rational Focal Point tool Help for additional details, as needed. #### Configure Idea attributes One of the first steps in the identification of components when defining and prioritizing a portfolio is the capture of ideas or requests, where it is suggested that ideas must be described through the use of predefined attributes. The organization’s product management process should prescribe what the specific attributes are (it is typical for such attributes to include things such as source, short description, benefit, risk, and so on). With the Attributes menu item on the Configure menu, you can add, delete, and edit attributes in a specific module. Rational Focal Point tool enables a variety of attribute types to be added and configured for a module, as described in this table.
Attribute Type | Description
Check box | A box that a member can click to turn an option on or off.
Choice | A selection box of predefined items that a member can select a single item from (for example, status).
Date | A date value, such as 2001-03-31.
File | A document, image, or other file in the database or a list of such files. Maximum size is 10 MB.
Float | A real number that contains a fractional part (for example, 3.14).
Heading | An attribute that consists of only a title. It is used primarily for layout reasons.
History | This can display attribute or element history for an element.
Incoming links | A list of elements that link to this element.
Integer | A real number that contains no fractional part (example: 42).
Link | A link from one element to another. The target can be either in this workspace or in another workspace.
List (text or link) | A List is a collection of either text attributes or link attributes.
Matrix | A Matrix attribute consists of several Text, Float, or Integer attributes in a grid.
Mirror | A mirrored value of another attribute in another element.
Multichoice | A list of predefined items that a member may select multiple items from.
Text | A text field where a member enters and edits text.
URL | A link to a specific resource on the Internet (for example, http://www.ibm.com).
Unique ID | A text field where the value must be unique. When new elements are created, a unique value is automatically assigned.
Version | A number or character that automatically increases, based on changes in other attributes.
The attributes that you define for your organization will undoubtedly entail the use of various attribute types, depending on the intended use of the attribute. For example, the steps that follow demonstrate how a Status attribute would be configured in Rational Focal Point tool, where users will be updating the status of an idea as it progresses through its lifecycle. Follow these steps to create and configure a “Status” attribute in the Idea module, where idea status states consist of: New, Accepted for Prioritization, Analyzed, Planned, Verified, Duplicate, Clarification Needed, Postponed, Rejected: Open the workspace. Select Configure > Attributes. Click the Idea Module. Click Add Attribute. Select the Choice attribute type. Enter “Status” as the attribute for Name. Enter Description to describe the attribute. Select Click here to add and edit choice items to enter “State” selections. Click the Add Item button and enter Name of the State and Description. Select Click to select another icon, select the desired icon, and click OK. Repeat Steps 9 and 10 until you have entered all State choices. Click OK you have configured all choice selections. Select the desired Default Value from the drop-down list of State choices in the Add Choice attribute panel (“New” state would be the logical default choice for this example), and then click OK to finish. The status attribute will now be available for users to maintain the state of each idea as it progresses through its lifecycle of review and analysis. As configured in the preceding steps, the idea will initially default to a New state, and must be edited by users to reflect each subsequent state. ### Create (capture) the idea After the Idea module has been configured for use, it is available to users to create and manage ideas as they emerge. Follow these steps to create a new idea in Rational Focal Point tool: Open the workspace. Click on Modules > Idea. Click the Add Idea button. Enter a descriptive title for the idea in the Title field. Enter a brief description of the idea in the Description field. Enter additional information as required by your process and configured as idea attributes. Click OK when you have entered all required fields (as described by your idea capture process). ### Create idea folders When initially configured, idea elements are displayed in the idea module as children of the Elements folder. If desired, subfolders can be created to enable ideas to be stored by some form of classification. For example, you could have folders called Product Enhancement Ideas, New Product Ideas, Competitive Advantage Ideas, and so on. New ideas could be placed in the folder that best represents the potential of the idea. Follow these steps to create an idea folder structure: Open the workspace. Select Modules > Idea. Click the Add Folder button. Enter name of folder in the Title field. Enter a description of what types of ideas are intended to be stored in the folder in the Description field. Click OK to create the desired folder. Repeat Steps 3 through 6 to create additional folders. Note: Ideas can be moved from one folder to another if necessary. To move an element from one folder to another, expand the folder that contains the idea, select the element, and drag it to the appropriate folder. ### Create or add idea display views You can use views to filter out elements and their attributes from a module. For example, using the previously configured Idea module, a view could be created to filter out and display all ideas that have a particular status (by using the Status attribute previously configured for example purposes). Views can also be associated with specific functions, such as Add, Display, Review, Prioritize, Visualize, and Plan. All views in a workspace are found in Configure > Views. Here, you can add, edit, and delete views. All members have a list of their views. Access to specific views can be added and removed from the member lists at any time. For example purposes, these steps guide you through the creation of a view in which only ideas with a Status of “New” are displayed: Open the workspace. In the navigation bar, click Configure > Views. Click the Add View button. Enter the title of the view in the Title field, and provide a short description in the Description field. Check Include this view in the Display menu. Click OK. Click on the module from which you want to view elements (select Idea module for this example). The rule definition panel is presented to the user, so you need to define two rules: Expand the drop-down list for the Show elements whose field and select type is a folder, and set the "is" field to false. Click the OK button, and then the Add Rule button to add a second rule. Expand the drop-down list for the Show elements whose field and select Status Select the "is" condition, and check New from the list of Status field choices displayed (you can make multiple selections). When you have defined all required rules, click Next to define the attributes and access level for each attribute to be presented to the user. Check the None or Visible or Editable radio button for each attribute that you want to be displayed in the new view. If you want members to be able to change the types of elements and folders in the Display menu, check the Allow elements to be turned into folders and folders into elements when using the Display menu selection in the Miscellaneous settings portion of the display Click Finish to complete creation of the view. The new view will is displayed as a selectable view under the Display portion of the navigation bar. ### Display ideas The idea elements in a view can be displayed in several different ways by following these steps: On the Navigation Bar, click Display. Click the view title that contains the elements that you want to see. Click one of these icons listed in the toolbar to get the desired representation of the elements: Display the Elements in a Tree Structure. Idea elements are listed within their respective subfolders (if applicable) or as a flat list of idea elements under the Elements folder if no subfolders have been created. Display the Elements in a Table Structure. The table structure view displays information in columns and rows, with each row containing an element (idea), and each column containing attribute-specific information associated with the element (idea). Clicking on an attribute column’s title initiates a sort of the table according to the data values for that attribute. All idea elements in the table view will be sorted accordingly. Display how many Elements have a certain attribute value. This display capability enables the selection of one, two, or three dimensions of attribute groupings and subsequent presentation of one- or two-dimensional statistics upon clicking the Refresh button. Click to edit filter. This option enables very granular selection of single or multiple attributes and can allow for re-usable filtered views to be created. See the "How to Create Filters" and the "How to Create Advanced Filters" sections of Rational Focal Point tool Help for details on employing this powerful feature. Note: Additional view display icons are available. However, for the general purpose of reviewing and monitoring ideas, the aforementioned options are most often used.
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