1. ITEI
Information Technologies supporting
the Execution of Innovation projects
ITEI newsletter 2/2010
Contents: Editorial • The rise of network-centric innovation • Ubiquitous innovation – from process to collaboration
• Innovation at Steria Benelux – clear targets and online support • Innovation hub - overview • Owela – online tools
for user-driven innovation • Competence centers – source of innovation and quality • A concept for NSN innovation
management tool • ICM2.0 – not yet another maturity model • Innovation and collaboration maturity model (ICM2.0)
– Case Keraben • Innovation project management with AuraPortal • The generation of ideas within the human
resources – Case Answare • Open the doors of the company to innovative ideas – Case Sisteplant • Innovation
Process for Ideas Management – Case DS2 • Driving and supporting distributed innovation – Case Keraben
2. EDITORIAL
In this ITEI newsletter a series of innovation tools and methods and on-
going experiments from more than a dozen of companies are presented.
These are examples of how the organizations learned to master their
innovation process and how to use IT solutions to improve its business
impact. Each one is following its own pace, and focusing in different
specific aspects of the innovation management. When considering all of
them together, they offer and interesting and complete view of the dif-
ferent practices in managing innovation.
During the ITEI project several tools and methods have been developed
to support the innovation process by Indie Group, Spikes, Sirris, Inno-W,
HiQ, VTT, Tecnalia-Software and Auraportal. Various experiments and pi-
lot cases were carried out in Steria, Movial, Answare, Keraben, DS2 and
Sisteplant to learn about the use of web 2.0 and process management
tools in harvesting ideas and optimizing the use of critical resources.
From the large software intensive companies, NSN, is developing an In-
novation Management tool aiming to support the transformation of in-
ternal and external ideas and needs into concrete char-
acteristics of a product. New products and services don´t drop
from the sky, they are results of trial
These, and other cases included in the newsletter, show and error, learning about what works
the trend, common to the industry, towards open in- and what does not work, prototyping,
piloting, more learning, adjustments,
novation, incorporating ideas from outside the frontiers
and more learning. Experimentation is
of the own organization, but also opening the product a process, one that the innovative com-
development process by collaborating with other com- pany needs to be capable of executing.
panies and giving a centric role to the customer. At the same time, the organization has
to be prepared to receive the learning
that comes out from the experimenta-
tion, in other words, experimentation
should feed into the product develop-
José Antonio Heredia Alvaro ment process.
Industrial Engineering Professor
Project Manager
Universitat Jaume I, Spain
heredia@esid.uji.es
www.uji.es
2
3. The rise
of network-centric innovation
CogniStreamer® is used by industry leaders such as
Bekaert, Belgacom, Case New Holland, Cytec, Imec,
KBC, Picanol, Thomas Cook, ThyssenKrupp and many
others.
More info at
www.cognistreamer.com
Our new era’s fast-moving digital infrastructure is emergent environment like the fuzzy front end of Achieving sustained innovation
forcing companies to rethink the way they inno- innovation doesn’t make much sense. It will only improvement through collaboration
vate. Due to increasingly swifter information flows lead to incremental ideation, and it will trigger a Innovation results from teams collaborating
companies have to stay ahead of competition with cascade of screening and assessment problems around challenging problems. CogniStreamer’s
shorter and faster innovation cycles. Achieving the that will completely stall innovation activity in the creation spaces and persuasive design features
next level of innovation will highly depend on the front end. allow companies to reach out to a large number
ability to tap into more innovation resources and of people and bring them into a virtual discussion
harness the creative potential of networked peo- To solve these issues CogniStreamer® redesigned around specific innovation problems or challeng-
ple. Hence, many companies are starting to adopt the sequential and process-focused stage gate es. The tacit knowledge which is shared and creat-
web 2.0 social software tools and technology as model into an emergent and people-centric col- ed in the course of these informal conversations is
key enablers for community involvement. laborative model. Its core architecture is built on captured and made accessible to create new value.
creation spaces where communities can address The potential result is sustained improvement of
To address the challenge of network-centric in- innovation opportunities and challenges, gener- innovation performance and better meeting cus-
novation ITEI partner Indie Group developed ate and share ideas and insights, and shape them tomer needs.
CogniStreamer® - a collaborative innovation tool into strong concepts with strategic value for the
representing the best use of adaptive collabora- company.
tive technology to harness human skill, creativity
and intelligence. It provides a platform for scaling One key concern is how to motivate, enable and
and amplifying connections and tapping into the trigger community members to engage in col-
knowledge flows within a company’s ecosystem. laborative innovation. In order to mobilize large
and diverse groups of participants to innovate Wim Soens
Making innovation people and create value, CogniStreamer® has integrated Director of Innovation, Research & Development
Indie Group
driven, not process driven powerful persuasive design features such as user wim.soens@indiegroup.be
The first step towards collaborative innovation is profiling (activity stream analysis), guided persua- www.indiegroup.be
to turn away from process thinking. A sequen- sion (tunneling and suggestion techniques) and
tial stage gate process to manage a chaotic and social dynamics technology (conversation agents).
3
4. Ubiquitous innovation
− from process to collaboration
Spikes has significant experience in helping com-
panies automate their business processes and
increase knowledge worker productivity by pro-
viding the right software and tool support. Over
the years we learned that business processes not
only span the spectrum from highly prescriptive to
deeply emergent, but that most processes cannot
be fit within any one of these boxes. They require
divers types of support as they progress or as seen
from different perspectives. Innovation processes
are no exception. An “ideal” innovation support
tools should be able to cover the full spectrum,
but where to start?
Within ITEI we first investigated how traditional
Business Process Management architectures could
be adapted to include support for supportive and
even emergent processes. We evangelized and
pioneered the supportive process approach even
before the “BPM cataclysm” of 2009 that resulted
from finally surfacing the differences in “business”
BPM practitioners and their “IT” counterparts in
Spikes Process Taxonomy the wake of the BPMN 2.0 standardization process.
As ITEI progressed we experienced that in gen-
eral, and in innovation support in particular, the
road to full spectrum process coverage will lead
from collaboration to process, and not the other
way around. This is a direct result of the adoption
drivers being more aligned. As a result the stake-
holders are more willing to expand from emer-
gent towards supportive interaction. Our current
experimental tool development, Spikes NovaNet
NG therefore focuses on the support for open so-
cial interaction and cooperation in and across the
business environment
While the current experiment is dedicated, we
expect innovation services will be woven into the
knowledge worker’s standard business support
environment.
Spikes’ NovaNet NG experiment
Spikes NovaNet NG is an experiment in ubiquitous “innovation”, the value creation by new initiatives
innovation. Rather than considering innovation and practices, is the daily work environment for
support as a process serving dedicated innovation the knowledge worker. In industries such as e.g.
experts, we start from the premise that in a busi- software development, the breakthrough “inven-
ness environment dominated by knowledge work, tions” that made the company are mostly only Peter Stuer
the zone in between “execution”, the process of clear in hindsight, were often grass root originat- Research Director
Spikes n.v.
directed delivery of result through the repeated ing, serendipitous efforts, sometimes in defiance peter.stuer@spikes.be
accomplishment of rote or template tasks, and of the official corporate line. www.spikes.be
4
5. Innovation at Steria Benelux
− clear targets and online support
“Ideathlon™ was an excellent proof-of-concept tool
to investigate to what extent Web 2.0 technology can
both stimulate and help developing a structured and
global approach to innovation in a company whose
project teams are spread across numerous locations”
Screen shot of an Ideathlon™ Innovation Space Pierre Paelinck – Operational Excellence Manager, Steria
As an IT services provider, ITEI partner Steria Ben- able: the sheer size of the company would make concept online Innovation Space where staff were
elux develops and integrates information systems that quickly one would need 1-2 people fulltime invited to post, like and discuss ideas. This online
and technology solutions for the public sector and screening ideas, just to handle the volume of ideas platform allowed the distributed staff of Steria, to
for medium and large-sized private companies alone. Due to the big diversity in profiles, projects participate in the ideation around the innovation
(banking, utilities, security …). Delivered solutions and interests at Steria, one would quickly see that targets. Integration with email and igoogle pro-
are often focused on business transformation sys- many of the submitted ideas are not in line with vided more engagement. Through the use of ad-
tems that help customers improve their produc- the company’s vision. This big amount of all-over- vanced semantic technology, delivered by Brussels
tivity, streamline their infrastructure and revisit the-place ideas would eventually kill the initiative: text mining company Mentis, relevant information
their business processes. Achieving such goals on people submitting ideas expect feedback and are from the internet was brought into the innovation
a large scale requires Steria to make innovation a particularly interested in what happens to their spaces, providing background information and in-
self-sustaining enterprise capability and a tangible idea, but in a pool of hundreds, if not thousands spiration for the teams.
core value. of ideas, their individual idea will not get much at-
tention. People will soon loose interest and aban- It worked, but not always as expected
Involving distributed teams don the idea box. Various experiments and pilot cases were carried
Most of the solutions delivered by Steria be- out in the past two years using Ideathlon™. Main
ing developed in the frame of projects, many of Ideathlon™: Targeted and online observations and conclusions Steria found:
the project teams are deployed at customers’ creativity Web 2.0 tools definitely demonstrated their
premises. This geographical dispersion of Steria’s In order to avoid this scenario, Steria, in close power to promote innovation by everyone
project teams limits opportunities for interac- collaboration with Sirris, opted for a different ap- from everywhere but it also turned out
tions between them and therefore impedes profit- proach. By first carefully defining a target for the that these tools should be coupled to more
able cross-fertilization of ideas. Emerging web 2.0 innovation, Steria aimed to focus and channel the traditional innovation techniques based on
technology was proposed as a convenient way of creativity of its staff on a topic of high interest face-to-face interactions between people. Both
aligning several local initiatives. and value for the company. This innovation tar- approaches effectively complement each other.
get is expressed in such a way that it becomes a Motivating every employee to collaborate to
The myth of the idea box measurable and concreat goal to aim at, yet leav- this effort of creativity and building innovation
In a company as big and diverse as Steria (220+ ing enough room for creativity to flourish. One into company DNA is not a trivial thing.
employees for Steria Benelux), inviting all employ- such innovation target Steria chose to address was Managerial involvement is therefore a basic
ees to submit their ideas into an “idea box” kind “Define 5 initiatives to increase our customer inti- cornerstone to get everyone’s commitment.
of database would quickly become unmanage- micy”. Sirris then developed Ideathlon™ , a proof of Several practice areas of the SinnoBOK can
5
6. be addressed using simple but user-friendly
platforms like Ideathlon™. Through its
collaboration with Sirris, Steria explored the
Art of Idea Harvesting, the Art of Focusing and
Innovation Hub
the Art of Optimising the impact of critical
resources.
As with many social networking tools available
on the Web, the number of actual contributors
− overview
(people posting initial ideas) remains at a lower Innovation Hub evolves into a database contain- against strategic objectives. Projects are evaluated,
level than the proportion of followers (those ing all organization’s innovation master data. It selected and prioritized. Visual dashboard shows
commenting on/reacting to previously posted provides a single navigation point to all data re- how well the launched and to-be-launched prod-
ideas). lated to innovation management. It also increases ucts and services are aligned with the strategy. Are
Using well defined Innovation Targets prior to innovation potential by advancing collaboration, they reaching new markets, and meeting growth
launching the ideation phase helped aligning increasing transparency and breaking down silos. and feasibility targets in the strategic customer
creativity and innovation with the company It consists of 4 strategic integrated processes: col- segments?
strategy. laborative innovation process management, idea
and opportunity management, project manage- Main benefits
Opportunities for improvement ment and portfolio management. Greater innovation power aligned to strategic
Some opportunities for improvement of the tool targets and objectives
have also been identified through the various ex- Main functionality Efficient and fluid lifecycle innovation
periments: The collaborative innovation process enables open management from ideas to launching
reporting of statistics through a unified or access-controlled web communities with prov- Networked communities lead to a powerful
dashboard en innovation efficiency. All corporate functions productive working culture
proposing triggers to insights (marketing, sales, production etc.) can be involved Transparency creates a competitive edge
structured search capabilities in innovation process, as well as users, clients and Community members can contribute at any
built-in mechanism for clustering of ideas external partners. This gives access to crowd wis- time, from any location
dom boosting revenue growth and profitability
through higher innovation potential. User experiences
The innovation hub is developed and used to-
The collaborative innovation process includes gether with Finnish Strategic Centres for Science,
virtual workspaces where people work together Technology and Innovation. They are established
and share ideas, concepts and solutions. They in Finland as new public-private partnerships for
Nick Boucart learn from each other in multidisciplinary teams speeding up innovation processes. Their main goal
Technology Advisor Software Engineering
Sirris and communities. Online community decision- is to thoroughly renew industry clusters and to cre-
nick.boucart@sirris.be making is more efficient than traditional face to ate radical innovations. Innovation Hub is used by
www.sirris.be face meetings. the all main enterprises, universities and research
organizations in Finnish Forest Cluster, Metal- and
Idea and opportunity management transforms Engineering Cluster (FIMECC Ltd), Energy- and
entire organization and partners towards a more Environment Cluster (CLEEN Ltd) and Health- and
open way of innovating. A systematic process for Well-being (SalWe Ltd) Cluster. Inno-W is a member
capturing, rating, comparing, and selecting ideas and owner in Finnish Information and Communica-
ensures that the most promising ideas come to the tion Industry and Services Cluster (TIVIT Ltd).
Pierre Paelinck
Operational Excellence Manager top. Idea and opportunity management support
Steria Benelux SA/NV the strategy process by feeding new, fresh ideas
pierre.paelinck@steria.be and concepts into the road map processes.
www.steria.be
Project management includes a ready stage-
1
http://www.sinnobok.org/innovation-solutions/ gate process for R&D, and an agile iterative proc-
ideathlon
ess for developing software, services and radical
2
http://www.google.com/ig innovations. Highly automated, ready process
flows and ready templates make project manage-
ment highly efficient. Henry Palonen
CEO
Inno-W Oy
Portfolio management is an on-going decision- henry.palonen@inno-w.com
making process to update and revise projects www.inno-w.com
6
7. Owela − Online tools for user-
driven innovation
Owela (Open Web Lab) is an online space for open
innovation with users, customers, developers and
other stake holders. It provides tools for under-
standing users’ needs and experiences as well as
designing new products and services together.
With the help of online collaboration, users can
be involved in the innovation process regardless
of time and place.
Owela project spaces may be used as co-design
platforms from first ideas to final testing or only
in selected phases of the innovation process (from
one week to a few months). The project spaces can
be either open for everybody or limited to a certain
user group.
The tools can be tailored for each project and con-
sist e.g. of the following parts:
Online focus group discussions
Questionnaires
User stories in a shared blog (web/mobile)
IdeaTube: add ideas, comment, rate, vote
Chat sessions
Visual/video presentation of scenarios or
mockups
Bug reports
Developer blogs
Community space during living lab studies “Owela functions the best when incubating novel ideas together with a user
Continuous communication channel during an community. The community functions as an idea review board with whom a
innovation project community member can interact and develop ideas. The interactive idea
User participation in design tasks and decision development is allowed via idea rating, idea reviewing and real-time chats. Also
making access to changing data is well arranged at Owela. User can easily receive up-to-
date information about ideas via idea search and news section.”
Benefits of Owela for companies
Owela innovation space offers an efficient way to Suvi Keinänen, Project Manager, Movial Creative Technologies Inc
apply user involvement in innovation activities.
Through Owela companies are able to get quick
user feedback and be in a continuous contact with other innovative users and be in direct contact
end users throughout the innovation process. The with companies and developers. For users, it is
online tools can be easily combined and tailored easy to participate, since there are no restrictions Pirjo Näkki
for different purposes and both quantitative and on time and place. An internet connection is all Research Scientist
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
qualitative user experience and feedback can be you need to be involved! pirjo.nakki@vtt.fi
collected. http://owela.vtt.fi
Benefits of participating in Owela: Kaisa Koskela
Research Scientist
By participating in Owela, consumers have the op- VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
portunity to co-create products that meet their kaisa.koskela@vtt.fi
needs. Through Owela, users can interact with www.vtt.fi
7
8. Competence centers
– source of innovation and quality
HiQ is a Nordic IT- and management consultancy
company specialized in communication and soft-
ware development. We strive for quality, expertise,
and profitability. Competence centers are one
solution to achieve these goals and improve in-
novation activities. At their very best competence
centers may drive strategy, generate new lines of
businesses, solve problems, promote the spread of
best practices, develop professional skills, and help
a company recruit and retain talent. Furthermore,
they are especially good in applying new technolo-
gies and doing innovative tryouts with customers.
Competence center builds around a group of ex-
perts with interest to a certain topic that is aligned
with the company’s business strategy. The compa-
ny must recognize and engage its internal and ex-
ternal key players and champions in order to cre-
ate a successful competence center. Competence
center also needs support from management in
form of diverse resources and mental coaching.
Competence center is a dynamic community that
has an empowering coordinator, inspiring leader
and enthusiastic participants. Meetings, trainings,
and documenting are essential parts of commu-
nity’s practices to enhance the sharing of ideas,
Competence center framework
experiences and expertise. Competence centers
provide the clientele usage of a whole pool of results applied are more than the sum of their edge and motivation to keep abreast of the latest
competence, not only individual expertise (see pic- parts. Competence centers are high-spirited to try development in the field. All in all, competence
ture “Competence center framework”). new and innovative pilots with advanced clients. centers are an efficient and simple solution to
They also enable continuously improved quality provide HiQ and our clientele profitability, quality
Continuous collaborative development, learning, through controlled processes as well as a progres- and innovative edge.
improvement, and ideation guarantee that the sive approach by combining shared expert knowl-
Kaarina Kaste
Business Analyst
HiQ Finland
kaarina.kaste@hiq.fi
www.hiq.fi
8
9. A concept for NSN
innovation management tool
NSN Innovation Management tool aims to be a on the constraints that shape the work patterns. guiding the dataflow; receiver for each task,
centralized interface for managing the transfor- Constraints shape the workers’ activities by set- activity or work object, based on stakeholder
mation of internal and external ideas and needs ting limits that define the boundaries of accept- analysis.
into concrete characteristics of a product. The able performance. Tools: A list of available tools; interface to
transformation must be done in a way that guar- tools; the data manipulated is transformed into
antees successful business for the company. The The main elements of the tool a format that all other tools in the workflow
purpose of the tool is to make sure that all main The interface provides access to several tools and can use it.
stakeholders are analyzed as well as the induced methods for analyzing different aspects of inno-
costs and benefits for them during development, vation and implementation for six conceptual lev- The main benefits
and the value produced by the actual implemen- els from each relevant stakeholders point of view. The main benefits of using the tool is the ability to
tation. The tool provides understanding of the in- First level describes high-level view of the idea, align financial, market, and technical data related
teraction between workers and information in the while each subsequent level shifts the focus closer to innovation, and other ideas and needs for de-
work context. to practical implementation. Each idea will get cision-making purposes. Secondarily, communities
suggestions on treatment for each phase of the associated with innovation, need or idea can be
The main challenge to be solved development process per stakeholder. The concep- identified via interrelated tasks providing the list
In routine situations decision-making is straight- tual levels, and information content is as follows: of relevant stakeholders and the tasks that need to
forward and either skill- or rule-based. However, in Purpose: Description of innovation, idea or be done. The tool helps also to deliver the data and
novel situations, such as NPD, all means-ends re- need; its purpose, constraints, functional work objects from [one] stakeholder to another.
lations must be considered in the given conditions capabilities and limits.
and then select the most suitable option. Thus Values: The value for the stakeholder;
decision-making is challenging and characterized acceptance criteria derived from the original
by knowledge-based reasoning. Providing proper idea and transformed into definition of done;
data and structure for decision-making activities status of the treatment.
is the main challenge that the tool solves. The Decision points: Relevant decision points
tool ensures rigorous and uniform treatment of to synchronize the work and process level
innovations, ideas and needs. In addition the tool coordination; decision criteria to drive the task
provides an interface to innovation lifecycle man- contents and objectives. Jarkko Hyysalo
agement workflow. The interface is build on top of Tasks: Localized tasks, supported with guides; Researcher
Department of Information Processing
situation aware workflow model. The model sup- tasks compose a common set of competences. Science, University of Oulu
ports the workers in novel situations by building Processes: A map of tasks and activities jarkko.hyysalo@oulu.fi
9
10. ICM2.0: Not Yet Another Maturity Model!
Innovation and collaboration are pervasive sub- To bridge this gap, the Innovation and Collabora-
jects today as organizations strive to achieve com- tion Maturity Model (ICM2.0), developed in the
petitive advantage. Present collaborative networks context of the ITEI project, and extended from the Juncal Alonso
R&D Engineer
are based on complex collaboration forms and Enterprise Collaboration Maturity Model (ECMM) Tecnalia-Software
they involve distributed collaborations of individu- [1], will provide organizations a method to know juncal.alonso@tecnalia.com
als and organizations. Co-creation, crowd sourc- their maturity level in innovation and collaboration. www.tecnalia.com
ing and open innovation sources are one of these Furthermore, ICM2.0 will also contribute to the or- Iker Martínez de Soria
new collaboration forms where the value is not ganization improvement by providing a roadmap R&D Engineer
Tecnalia-Software
created within one single organization. Instead, for planning future ways of actions towards a cul-
iker.martinezdesoria@tecnalia.com
that added value is commonly created within the ture of process improvement excellence. www.tecnalia.com
participation of the organization and third parties
Leire Orue-Echevarria
(users/consumers, providers, competitors, etc.) However, innovation cannot be treated in isolation R&D Project Leader
as many other processes in the company affect or Tecnalia-Software
Innovation, be it open or closed, is a process, and are affected by the innovation process itself. In- leire.orue-echevarria@tecnalia.com
www.tecnalia.com
therefore it has to be applied and incorporated to novation projects need to manage requirements,
all the statements of an organization. As every need a product solution, the team must have some Miker Vergara
R&D Project Leader
process, innovation can be improved. Existing ap- competences, the business needs to be governed Tecnalia-Software
proaches point out different definitions and anal- and managed in accordance to some processes, mikel.vergara@tecnalia.com
ysis for this innovative collaboration and innova- and there must be a risk analysis … All these ideas www.tecnalia.com
tion practices. However, organizations do not have have been formalized in terms of maturity levels,
the knowledge needed to identify best practices process areas (a set of best practices) and domains [1] “Enterprise Collaboration Maturity Model (ECMM):
Preliminary Definition and Future Challenges”, Juncal
and improvements to start implementing those (a domain joins up several Process Areas related to Alonso, Iker Martínez de Soria, Leire Orue-Echevarria
innovation and collaboration practices. one topic). The next figure depicts these concepts: and Mikel Vergara, IESA – 2010 Proceedings
Project and Business Customer Collaboration, Organisation ICT Innovation
Product Process Legal infrastructure
Management and environment and
Strategy and Trust Interoperability
Level 2 Collaborative Business Intellectual Measurement
Project and Analysis
Management Property Rights
Management Resource
Collaboration
Configuration agreement Management
Management Trust
Requirements management
Management
Process and
Product
Assurance
Level 3 Risk Business Collaborative Defect and Interoperability Organisational
Management Governance Customer Problem and Collaboration Innovation
Prevention technologies
Collaborative Collaborative Relationship
Product Business Management
Solution Process
Level 4 Quantitative Customer Training and Open
Competency Innovation
Project Evaluation
Development
Management
Collaborative
Business
Process
Performance
A maturity model is a framework that describes, for a specific area of interest, a number of levels of sophistication at which activities in this
area can be carried out.
10
11. Innovation and collaboration
maturity model (ICM 2.0)
– Case Keraben
Tecnalia-Software institute has performed an as- The Specific Goals, and Practices by Goal, studied in each Process Area were:
sessment of three process areas of the Keraben’s
business model used in its international produc-
BG / Business Governance
tive collaboration projects, comparing these to the
best practices defined in the ICM 2.0 model devel- Establish Governance Plan: Set Business Objectives, Implement Common Mechanism and Actively
oped by Tecnalia-Software. Design Governance.
Establish Governance Structure: Build Organizational Structure, Assign Ownership and
The Tecnalia-Software assessors have compared
accountability for Governance and Involve Senior Managers.
the current and actual practice in Business Gov-
ernance (BG), Business Management (BM) and BM / Business Management
Risk Management (RSKM) areas to the ones sug-
gested in the model at project level and organiza- Define Capabilities and Features: Assess the Market Situation and Trends, Establish Descriptions of
tion level. Business Requirements and define Business Goals.
Define Collaborative Business Case: Develop Cost Structure, Generate Estimates of Financial Return
Business Governance ensures executive account- and Establish Business Justification.
ability for the management and performance of
Manage Collaborative Business Aspects: Devise Business Plans, Establish Business Risk
the organizations’ work and results. Management Plans, Address Significant Deviations and Communicate Business Results.
Business Management plans and manages the RSKM / Risk Management
business and financial aspects of the organization.
Establish Collaborative Risk Management Strategy: Determine Risk Sources and Categories, Define
Risk Parameters and Elaborate Collaborative Risk Management Strategy.
Risk Management identifies potential threats be-
fore they occur so that risk-handling activities Establish Collaborative Risk Mitigation Plan: Identify Risks, Assess Risks and Establish Collaborative
can be planned up front and resorted to when Risk Plans.
needed across the life of the organization, prod- Handle Collaborative Risks: Develop Collaborative Risk Mitigation Plans, Monitor Collaborative Risk
uct or project to mitigate adverse impacts on the Mitigation Plans and Communicate Risk Information.
achievement of innovation objectives.
The comparison results in the Tecnalia-Software
assessment regarding the strengths and weak-
nesses of Keraben’s business model and improve-
ment recommendations have been presented to
Keraben. The evaluation result was “Excellent” in Luís Guaita
Project Manager
all the three areas. KERABEN GROUP
l.guaita@kerabengrupo.com
www.keraben.com
11
12. Innovation Project Management
with AuraPortal
use complex forms and the required underlying
data repositories. By this way, each partner that
selected AuraPortal for its Pilot implementation
had benefited from it, focusing only on their Pilot
case processes without worry too much about the
required software infrastructure.
In addition to its current functionality, AuraPortal
develops a more complete solution trying to cover
all SInnoBoK practice areas applied to the man-
agement of Software Innovation Projects. These
projects are dynamic and the ideas to be managed,
the tasks to be performed, the resources to be used
and the decisions to be taken could change at any
moment. Using the AuraPortal Innovation Panel
concept each user will have access to his own In-
novation Panel where he will be informed, for each
Innovation Project where he is involved, about his
These panels also show an inbox for each practice area where related activities sent messages to help to
manage efficiently this kind of projects providing to the user a general overview about what is happening. tasks and the status of each SInnoBoK practice
area.
What is AuraPortal? Using AuraPortal to manage Software
AuraPortal is a software platform offering in one Innovation Projects
package Business Process Management, Intranet/ The core of the ITEI Project Methodology is a body
Extranet Web Portals and Content Management of knowledge called SInnoBoK, the Software In-
among other enterprise essential applications, novation Body of Knowledge. It consists of 9 fun-
sharing the same environment in a seamless inte- damental practice areas that a software intensive Manel Orovio de Udaeta
Chief Technical Officer
gration and friendly way using web portals. Its ho- product builder needs to master in order to be
AuraPortal
listic conception covers not only the process mod- successful with its software innovations. In order manel.orovio@auraportal.com
eling, execution and monitoring, typical of BPMS to put in practice the SInnoBoK practice areas www.auraportal.com
tools but also a powerful communication and recommended processes, AuraPortal offers a solid Pepe Fuster Alandete
collaboration platform in Intranet and Extranet for platform where these processes could not only be Responsible of communication
employees and external agents (clients, suppliers, modeled using standards like BPMN process nota- and cooperative projects
AuraPortal
etc.), and a versatile Documents management sys- tion to describe its activities, but also support its pepe.fuster@auraportal.com
tem (based on MS SharePoint). execution providing functionality to design and www.auraportal.com
The generation of ideas within the
human resources – Case Answare
Idea Harvesting may take place in many fields. managed manner. Everyone in the organization sion. The first of them takes place when a problem
One of the most important is the company itself: should feel free to expose her or his worries and is noticed and a solution is required. Then, during
people working together as a team seeking for possible solutions. A good process or set of proc- Management phase, a responsible takes charge
common objectives may have a lot of unexploited esses is needed to assure the accurate atmosphere of organizing the meeting by supplying the team
ideas that can be of great interest to harvest, man- and motivation to develop this framework. with needed resources and support.
age and analyze them.
Answare’s method on Idea Harvesting within its The main phase is Decision. Answare provides
Traditional brainstorming methods have evolved Human Resources has proved to be reliable and three different subprocesses to harvest ideas.
and adapted to a more competitive and dynami- robust enough to assure this issue without losing The responsible of the Management phase takes
cal environment: New ideas should be recollected, a piece of flexibility. Our framework consists of charge of selecting one depending on the prob-
discussed and applied in a standardized and well- three phases: Detection, Management and Deci- lem context. L-M-N method obliges everyone to
12
13. participate in the brainstorming, providing new
ideas and/or commenting other’s. Metaplan is a
more flexible frame, but cannot prevent one par-
ticipant to refuse joining the discussion. 6 Hats
method needs more training, and fits well when
the team is experienced and motivated. Finally, re-
gardless of the selected branch, a balloting process
is launched to obtain a sorted out list that must be
checked by an authorized committee.
Auraportal tool has helped Answare to model,
clarify and distribute the whole process, adding
the possibility of automating the decision meth-
ods, driving the harvesting and balloting processes.
Eduardo Riol
Software Engineer
Answare Technologies
eriol@answare-tech.com
www.answare-tech.com
Open the doors of the company to
innovative ideas – Case Sisteplant
Sisteplant is Spanish maintenance manage- no matter if the origin is inside –developers, prod- people not physically present in the review, a web
ment software vendor that offers two standard uct managers, sellers- or outside of the company cast mechanism has been be established, that per-
products: a maintenance management software, –clients-. mits a bi-directional flow of information. This way,
Prisma, and a manufacturing execution system, the experimentation of ideas, that is a basic agile
Captor. A new release of both products is delivered Impact and benefits principle, is strengthen.
every year. Software development at Sisteplant is Although the opinion of customers was previously
based on Scrum, an iterative, incremental frame- taken into account in the product development And what about motivation? The best way to mo-
work for agile software development. process, the use of an online tool made the partici- tivate a customer to generate and share his ideas
pation easier and in several phases of the process. is to let him opine about the definition and evolu-
Improving the application life Hence, opening the innovation process to external tion of the product he need, so he can shape the
management environment. final product. Inside the company, developers and,
As a proof-of-concept of the innovation approach in general, the cross-functional project team, feels
developed at the ITEI project, an industrial case Stakeholders (internal or external) will use a public that his job is focused into real problem solving,
was defined to improve the Sisteplant process. In portal where they can input new product require- and that their ideas are discussed and feedback
collaboration with Robotiker-Tecnalia, the soft- ments and help the product owner to build the provided, which is good for motivation. All this
ware development workflow was analyzed, iden- product backlog, voting among suggested ideas fosters innovation stimulation.
tifying areas for improvement. The main challenge to select the preferred ones. This implements idea
was to foster the generation and flow of new ideas harvesting and valuation.
among the internal and external stakeholders par-
ticipating in the process, focusing in the product Stakeholders can complete the details of specifica-
improvement. tions to make them more mature, well understood Ander Gorostiza
R+D+I Manager
and with the possible ramifications more clear. SISTEPLANT Lean Management
To implement the new process, the online business This collaborative thinking contributes to polish agorostiza@sisteplant.com
process platform owned by ITEI partner Aurapor- the good ideas and, eventually, to discard the bad www.sisteplant.com
tal, was selected. The tool, offering powerful com- ones. The technological uncertainty is also reduced
munication and collaboration features, is designed in this idea incubation process.
to cover the whole Scrum process, beginning with
the product backlog definition, and going through At each sprint review, sometimes long before the Iñaki Etxaniz
estimation meetings, development cycles and annual installation, stakeholders can see and ex- Project Manager
Tecnalia-Infotech
ending with the public demos. Moreover, it allows periment with the beta product. Their feedback Inaki.etxaniz@tecnalia.com
to have all the ideas and discussions centralized, can be taken into account in next cycles. For those www.tecnalia.com
13
14. Innovation Process for Ideas Management
– Case DS2
Main Challenges
Acknowledgment that ideas emerge continuously
across and beyond the organization.
Lack of resources for innovation due to market
time restrictions.
Time is a key issue when fast product development
is required.
Ideas Management: proposing, discussing, filter-
ing, formalizing, publishing, assessing and voting.
Tool/Method
Business Process Model (BPM) built from refined
DS2 requirements and improved for the ideas
management.
BPM deployment through the AuraPortal’s BPMS
suite that offers the ability to deploy, needless of
programming, business oriented portals.
Main benefits BPMN model for Ideas Management in DS2 company.
Suitable methodology for gather and choose of
DS2 ideas.
Web portals provide innovation involvement eve-
rywhere.
Customers, technology providers and contractors
can be easily included within this process. Differ-
ent roles can be defined to control the access and
the allowed activities.
Urko Rueda
PhD Researcher
Research Center on Software Production
Methods of the UPV university of Spain
urueda@pros.upv.es
www.pros.upv.es
Juan Sánchez
Associate Professor
Research Center on Software Production
Methods of the UPV university of Spain
jsanchez@dsic.upv.es
www.pros.upv.es
Auraportal’s BPMS built form for Ideas Harvesting.
14
15. Driving and supporting distributed
innovation – Case Keraben
“The best way to ensure your speed to market with agile product
development is provided with guarantee when all elements are
defined and assigned for actioning. Auraportal Innovation tool
covers these features; it’s easy to use and complex enough to do
what we need.”
Miguel Angel Bengochea, R&D Director, Keraben
How has the innovation tool been Challenges and performance indicators. However, the most
utilized and customized in the Our primary goal was to set up a common frame important issue for our company is that now, by
company? which enabled teamwork and effective remote using this innovation tool, the organization can
AuraPortal BPMS solution has been Keraben’s collaboration, as well as document management, experience a continuous process improvement,
choice to drive and support a pilot concerning the workflow processes and project follow-up. and can learn and improve its innovation skills
management process of new products remote de- thanks to the feedback we obtain from each previ-
velopment within an international manufacturing AuraPortal tool makes the definition of a project ous project.
network context. feasible and accurate in terms of innovative prod-
uct development management. It offers total
In order to develop this project, i.e. customize and control over activities, responsible roles, budgets,
implement the tool, we have worked in collabora- estimated costs, etc. The tool has all the necessary
tion with University Jaume I researchers. The main features such as publication of announcements,
activities we have conducted are: 1. To develop a several types of surveys, forums and on-line de-
model to assess the ‘Original Company State’ in bates, shared agendas, etc.
order to compare it with the state of the art & to
determine the necessary company requirements; How has the innovation tool made
2. To design and develop the tool to frame “My some impact on the innovation
Cyber Room” concept design and to perform its process/activities of the company? Luís Guaita
implementation; and 3. To validate the Results The immediate outcomes of using this tool are Project Manager
KERABEN GROUP
Analysis in relation to the Pilot execution and the transparency, role clarity, effective communica- l.guaita@kerabengrupo.com
consequent optimizating activities. tion, progress tracking, easier risk identification, www.keraben.com
15
16. ITEI Project
Consortium
BELGIUM
Indie Group
Mentis
Sirris
Spikes
Steria
FINLAND
Inno-W
Metso
Movial CT
Nokia Siemens
ITEI project is a part of ITEA 2 programme, which is a strategic pan-European HiQ
University of Oulu
programme for advanced pre-competitive R&D in software for Software-intensive
VTT
Systems and Services (SiS).
ITEA 2 stimulates and supports projects that will give European industry a leading SPAIN
edge in the area of SiS (in which software represents a significant segment Answare
in terms of system functionality, system development cost & risk and system Auraportal
development time). Carsa
DS2
As one of the main EUREKA cluster programmes ITEA 2 has close links with other E&D
EUREKA projects and the Framework Programmes of the European Commission. Keraben
Robotiker
ITEA 2 projects are supported financially by all members of the EUREKA framework. Sisteplant
Tecnalia
Trimek
UJI
UPV
ISBN 978-951-38-7429-2 PUBLISHER ITEI research project DESIGN Kaisa Kuisma, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland