June 2011 - Posts

• policyIQ for IT and Management of Software Development Projects

  What a great session! This is way more than I like to include in a typical blog post, but there’s a lot of great information to share! In case you begin to peter out part-way through, here’s a sneak peek at what’s included in this post: We are sincerely grateful... Equinox Fund Management’s use of policyIQ Key steps of Software Development Project Management Links to presentation slides and recording List of tips/recommendations Discussion highlights: policyIQ and SharePoint, Images, and Tables   Sincere thanks to guest presenter, Karen Kronauge, for giving us a personalized tour through the policyIQ site of Equinox Fund Management, LLC. In this month’s CPE training event, we were able to see that they are making use of policyIQ for a wide range of purposes. The in-depth look at the use of policyIQ for management of software development projects was very informative and thought provoking! If you were not able to join us, we have a number of resources to bring you up to speed: We have supporting materials captured in our Help guide. Within this online policyIQ user manual you can take a closer look at Template properties and fields, see a sample Folder structure and explore ideas for helpful Reports.  We recorded the session which you can now access on our Training Page. We encourage you to share this recording link with your colleagues (especially those in IT or project management roles) that were not able to join us live. Of course, you can simply read on for a summary of the day’s highlights… The IT Team at Equinox is using policyIQ for a variety of purposes including: IT Policies and Procedures Software licenses Detailed Work Instructions* Legacy System Documentation *Session attendees expressed strong interest in learning more about the use of policyIQ for detailed work instructions—look for more information on this topic from the policyIQ team! Focusing on policyIQ for management of software development projects… Does your organization have a System Development Life Cycle Policy?** From birth to death, the SDLC policy helps organizations manage and maintain their systems. Use this policy to help with decisions regarding how to  Determine when you have a software need Determine if you should buy or build (procure a product or build your own) Implement a recently purchased system Maintain your application Communicate about a system Retire or dispose of a system **Don't really know where to begin or you don't have the time or staff to develop this critical first step? Let us know--we can help you to round up the resources and the content. Process steps for management of software development projects: Establish SDLC Policy Determine Methodology How much do you rely on or require documentation? How flexible do you want your development to be? Do you have detailed guidance and feedback from end-users? Based on SDLC Policy and Methodology, determine level of documentation and pace of project management Execute Development tasks (capturing documentation in policyIQ) Design Specifications Development Tasks (project documentation) Testing Issue Tracking and Resolution User Documentation Roll-out Maintenance   Following the process discussion, Karen provided us with a guided tour through the Equinox policyIQ site. Impressive and inspiring—the policyIQ team even walked away with some new ideas! You can access the presentation slides in the related Help page and go on Karen’s tour via the recording found on our training page.   There were some great tips shared during the session: Karen demonstrated how Equinox “begins with the end in mind”. Their development, design and specification documentation is often recycled and adapted for later use in user documentation or later development projects. Equinox also demonstrated how they work smarter not harder by making pages accessible in multiple places.  Enjoy greater version control and avoid having uncontrolled copies floating around. A best practice noted in the session was the use of "Static Text" fields to add definitions and instructions to Page Templates. Rather than relying on users to read supporting glossaries or procedures, you can build the guidance directly in the Template! We would be leaving out a biggie if we didn’t also write about our shameless promotion of Snagit for image capture, creation and editing. Seriously, everyone needs to own a copy!   Other discussions from our session that I was tempted to put in their own blog post…but didn’t: How is policyIQ different from SharePoint? Like SharePoint, policyIQ is a web-based application that provides a centralized platform for organizing and sharing information. Both allow users to create pages, lists, libraries and the like. Both platforms are intended to be user-friendly for users familiar with Microsoft applications. It is possible to add a great deal of additional functionality to a SharePoint site (or multiple sites) with the appropriate technical talent to acquire hardware, set up architecture, build and configure functionality, then establish and successfully deploy a governance strategy. Most policyIQ implementations are administered by non-technical personnel—the application is designed to be highly configurable without requiring IT resources to configure or roll-out to various areas of an organization. Also, policyIQ has an extensive list of features (alerts, standard and ad-hoc reporting, survey/form management, collaborative workflow, multi-layer security, etc.) incorporated “out of the box”. Licenses for policyIQ also include expert configuration guidance, training, person-to-person support, all software upgrades, hosting, support, maintenance, back-ups and many other features and services.  If you are not yet familiar with the capabilities of policyIQ, you might appreciate a stroll through the Solutions, screenshots, customer success stories and other information that can be found on the website (www.policyIQ.com). The old cliché: A picture’s worth a thousand words… The Equinox implementation certainly brought the benefit of using images to communicate complex information to the forefront of the conversation. They have incorporated images in design, specification, and maintenance documentation, as well as in, of course, their user documentation.  Nothing beats an image to help visualize and mock-up the requirements of a development project, a product configuration, the hand-offs of a process or appropriate mapping of relationships. If you’re interested in better utilizing images to communicate to your audience, take a look at our related policyIQ Help page for step-by-step instructions. Insert a Table or ten! Karen shared, frankly, that without broad Table capabilities, Equinox would not have been able to use policyIQ. They are charting a great deal of information, including each development task and its status within policyIQ’s tables. If you have ever-evolving information that you are tracking in tables, use the Insert Table feature within policyIQ rather than building a table outside of policyIQ and pasting it into the field. Karen urged the audience to explore the Table capabilities tucked within the editor of policyIQ’s Rich Text Fields or contact the policyIQ Support team, if you have questions.   Anyone still there? Oh...hi, Mom. Thank you for reading all the way to the end. There were so many things that I thought were important--I just couldn't stop! I hope that you found something of value or at least enjoyed the read while you ate your club sandwich. Posted Jun 28 2011, 07:00 AM by stepheniebuehrle with no comments Filed under: best practices, administration, project management, automation, compliance, audit, Solutions, security, information governance, images, IT, SDLC, methodology, tables

• A Computer in Every Home and policyIQ in Every Department!

  After five and a half years here at Resources with the policyIQ team, I'm still excited every day about what can be done with policyIQ.  We often joke internally about how that kind of enthusiasm makes us geeks.  (It's not really a joke.  We actually are a bit geeky about it.)  What I love more than anything, though, is when I hear that same "geeky spirit" from some of you when you talk about the possibilities of policyIQ. Almost a year ago, I described the policyIQ Quality Assurance process that we perform using policyIQ - right here in this blog.  It was an unusual post at the time, because we so rarely focused on how policyIQ could be used by IT departments for anything other than compliance.  In the comments to that post, Karen Kronauge - former policyIQ team member and current consultant working at Equinox LLC - commented that she was hoping to use policyIQ at that organization to manage their system implementation project from "soup to nuts".  Fast forward: Karen is preparing to co-present training on Thursday describing how Equinox does, in fact, use policyIQ for their IT projects.  Suddenly the idea of policyIQ being used by software or IT groups everywhere seems much less far-fetched. More than 30 years ago, Bill Gates and Paul Allen proclaimed their vision of a "computer in every home".  It seemed crazy at the time, but even my grandmother has a computer in her house.  (No one predicted the popularity of cat videos, however.)  Five years ago, it would have sounded a little crazy to some if we had said that we thought that policyIQ would be adding efficiency in every corporate department.  But as of today, we have "solutions" that span every department - and we're still learning about new needs and new ways of using policyIQ every day. So you tell us - what area of your business are you struggling with?  Do you have a process that you can't get under control?  Are you using policyIQ in some unusual way that you'd like to share with others?  Raise the "geek" flag and let us help or brag about your idea! Posted Jun 21 2011, 09:20 AM by chrisburd with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Training, project management, Solutions

• Proud to be of service to Equinox Fund Management, LLC

  So you think that you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all? Think again! Equinox Fund Management is a horse of a different color. An alternative asset manager with a product offering that stands alone, Equinox Fund Management, LLC, boasts greater than $1.2 billion in assets. Their non-traditional funds are available through more than 50 broker-dealers. Equinox prides itself on their unprecedented level of expertise. Their investment team is comprised of more than 50 professionals with “decades of collective experience in the managed futures industry”.   Equinox was somewhat of a pioneer developing one of the first multi-manager managed futures portfolios. By the way, all twelve of Equinox Fund Management’s managed futures funds demonstrated positive performance in 2010! The organization is subject to Sarbanes Oxley requirements and, given their non-traditional products and services, is highly regulated. Their innovative business calls for innovative solutions—not just those that they offer their customers, but those solutions required to meet their unique business structure and needs. In steps policyIQ… No, policyIQ is not really providing them an innovative solution. Equinox is using policyIQ in many of the same ways that our other customers do. What’s a little unusual is how many ways they are using policyIQ and how they’ve applied policyIQ in their Information Technology group to manage their heavy demand for software development projects. Following the Agile software development methodology, Equinox must be able to adapt and shift their focus and priorities quickly. They blaze through two-week project sprints and rely on policyIQ to track progress, to capture software design elements, to create discipline among the rapidly-changing software landscape, and to keep all players informed. Karen Kronauge, policyIQ power user and Project Manager at Equinox, will be partnering with the policyIQ team to present this month’s CPE session (June 23rd) on the use of policyIQ for IT and the Management of Software Development Projects. You don’t have to be an IT professional to appreciate the content and project management lessons and examples that Karen has to share with us. Hope you will join us!   Posted Jun 16 2011, 07:12 AM by stepheniebuehrle with 1 comment(s) Filed under: sarbanes-oxley, project management, audit, information governance

• 101 (or so) Ways policyIQ Content is Secured

  This has been a busy month, with so many of our clients choosing to expand their use of policyIQ into new areas.  We love the surge of activity, but it does mean that we’ve been a little busier than normal.   If I didn’t already see my work from this week spilling over into next, I might try to parse out all of our security related datacenter requirements and procedures, structures, features, functionality, policies and implementation recommendations into a list of 101. For the sake of all of those other commitments that I need to get to, suffice it to say that there are a number of layers of security outside and within policyIQ that allow you to securely maintain and share your content with key stakeholders (your policyIQ users and vendors, partners and customers outside of policyIQ). Here is a sampling of policyIQ security related points: Data Center Protocols Our data center is SAS 70 Type II compliant with reports available annually. We certainly have physical security protocols for server access. Only a small number of authorized members of the policyIQ team have access to the servers at our data center for the purposes of maintenance. Site Security Access to policyIQ is SSL encrypted. The encryption is included at no additional charge for clients on the second generation of policyIQ (version 6 and later). The SSL certificate is purchased separately by clients still on version 5.7. Access can be restricted to explicitly defined IP addresses or a range of IP addresses. The steps to add IP restrictions are located within your online Help guide in the page titled: Restricting User Access by IP Address. A User Name and Password are required by every licensed user.  The Password is set by the administrator who adds the user to the site and is then re-set by the user upon his/her first login. The Password Policy is established by your Site Administrator within Setup>System Setup>Password Policy. You can now lock users out of policyIQ if their number of attempts to login exceeds your customized limit. Read Only Access can be provided by creating a Read Only Access account. A “Pass Through” link is generated when this account is created and can be shared by the organization in a method determined by the organization (often as an icon or shortcut placed on the intranet). The users accessing policyIQ via this account bypass the login screen and are able to see the Home module (published content in which their “Group” was added as a viewer) and the WhistleBlower module.   Content Security Local Rights to objects User Access Type = Advanced, Standard or Read-only. Global Permissions = generally granted as a part of the standard Roles. Local Rights = Administrator, Editor, Viewer of a Page, for example. Formal approval For Pages, the Approver(s) Group is designated in the Page Security tab of the associated Template within the Setup module. For Forms, Approvers are established in the Form Template Security tab within the Create And Edit module. Specific Item Security It is possible to further refine rights at the item or object level within policyIQ. See the Security tab on your Form Templates, Pages, Files or Weblinks. You can also adjust who can change or view your Folders and Reports. This list is, by no means, all inclusive. I really just wanted to help you step back and see the range of parameters and methods in place to allow or restrict access to your content. If you are interested in a specific review of your security settings or you have security related questions, contact our policyIQ Support team.     Posted Jun 14 2011, 06:31 AM by stepheniebuehrle with no comments

• Manage and secure your information, optimize performance and minimize risk.

  Entire firms exist to help companies establish their information management strategies. It seems that the bulk of these projects involve reeling in the mess of multiple SharePoint sites, often made up of a mixture of versions, created for various reasons, developed in different formats, with few rules or policies governing their setup, use and exposure. Many aspects of information governance are largely automated in policyIQ as a part of general site configuration: We recommend that each organization have 2 Site Administrators to coordinate, provide direction and have oversight on the application’s content. Organize users into appropriate Groups or integrate policyIQ with your Active Directory so that you can align appropriate groups with their areas of responsibility. Customizable Templates and fields, with the ability to require fields and disable editing while published, help to ensure consistency across like-content while increasing the likelihood that critical documentation is complete and versions controlled. Security properties allow you to manage who can create, contribute to, approve and view all types of content in your site. Unbelievable, but true: we help you to configure your policyIQ site and guide you to incorporate best practices with regard to these governance-related features at no charge! Configuration support is included with policyIQ subscriptions. I really like the page in the policyIQ Help guide detailing the options for Creating a New Content Template. Feel free to also review other Setup related Help pages. If you’re curious about whether your organization is optimizing your use of policyIQ’s security features, contact your account manager or the support team and ask for a review. If your organization is like so many others—you have information all over the place and could use some help reeling it in and getting better organized and controlled—we can help with that, too. We have professionals in our Information Management practice with extensive experience that can be at your door and at your service in no time. Let us know if you’d like more information about our services. Posted Jun 02 2011, 02:34 PM by stepheniebuehrle with no comments Filed under: GRC, security, risk management, information governance