I remember back when I was involved in raising some venture capital, one of the angel investors had not worked in the software industry before. His background was not far off, scientific/engineering, but he asked a very reasonable question:

"When's the software going to be done?"

I remember being almost floored by the question, because the reality is for successful products, it almost never is. There are always things that can be done to make the software more efficient, easier to use, more capable, or just to take advantage of new features of the platform it runs on. This feels as true today as it did then (you'll forgive me if I don't reveal just how long ago it was). We have some products that have matured and require few changes, but these things tend to have cycles and there always seems to be some hot area we need to focus on.

The challenge has never been finding something to work on, but knowing where to focus our resources. The process in place so far has served us very well, using SupportNet you can submit an SR which will then be reviewed. If indeed it's found that it requires an enhancement, it is passed on to marketing (that's my team). Hopefully, at some point you receive an e-mail telling you your feature has been implemented. However, many customers have told me that they want more. They'd like to know how others are getting around the issue today, or even if their requirement is a one off and they shouldn't spend time worrying about it. They'd also like to have more feedback on the process, so that they can start to make plans when a long wanted feature starts the journey to implementation. These are all very reasonable requests.

We've been working for the last couple of months on providing a system that does just that. You will have direct visibility of the state of your enhancement requests, can comment on the enhancement requests of others, and can even indicate your support (or otherwise) of the ideas others have had. This is all backed by a new website called "Mentor Ideas".

The Mentor Ideas website replaces the old Enhancement Request process used in the past, and is available to all customers. You no longer need to submit a Service Request to Customer Support, then wait for your suggestion to be qualified, reviewed, and prioritized. Instead you can go to the Mentor Ideas website and submit your suggestions directly. You will have immediate visibility of your Idea as well as Ideas from other customers.  You can discuss them by posting comments. When searching the Mentor Ideas site you may find that your Idea has already been entered by another user. This will save you time entering the information: you can simply vote for the Idea to help get it promoted. We then use Mentor Ideas to help us understand which enhancements we should consider for future releases.

To submit your Idea follow the steps below:

• Go to the Mentor Idea site: http://mentorideas.brightidea.com/iesd using your own SupportNet login (the one you use to login here)
• Click “Post Idea” at the top of the page and fill out the entire form
• Your Idea will be given an identification number. For example: “D1543”

It’s that simple! We are not turning the old system off yet, we're still using it in our planning, but we strongly encourage you to use the new system. You'll get an e-mail in the next 24 hours giving you a bit more information, and inviting you to join a Webinar where we'll take you through the basics of the site. I look forward to seeing what you come up with. In true infomercial style... here's that link again:

http://mentorideas.brightidea.com/iesd

I would have to be the first to admit that this is not the catchiest release name (and yet I feel guilty whenever I consider copying Apple with its big-cat releases, or Ubuntu with its menagerie of release names), but we hope we have delivered a small and focused set of changes that will make things that little bit smoother for our customers and evaluators. You may remember I blogged about this at the time that we received the feedback (VeSys 2.0: The First 30 Minutes), and I am very pleased to announce the general availability of the release (links to download at the bottom of this blog). I thought it was worthwhile stepping through what we've done....

Firstly, the installer has had a lot of attention and tries to address the various Windows security measures as much as possible (obviously the security is there for a reason, so we don't try and circumvent anything). Where the installer can't install because of a security setting or the user's permissions, we'll tell you. We've also simplified the Start Menu items, but the intension is still the only one you should have to worry about as a normal user is "VeSys" (the screen shot below can be clicked to see it full size and clearer)

Next something you won't see... the login screen. Now, if you only have one user, and that user has the default username and password... you don't see anything. As soon as you chose to use the user management capabilities by creating users or editing the defaults, then the login screen will appear.

The second change happens the first time you run VeSys 2.0 (and only the first time, we don't want to nag), and will offer to create a new empty project for you

You'll notice at the bottom of the dialog you have a choice about what happens in the future (Do nothing, Open last project, Display Open Project Dialog) so that should cater for most needs. It will also create an initial design (either wiring or harness depending on which licenses you have, or your preference at the time), which will be opened automatically. This is also part of the standard New Project dialog also. For existing projects you can now create new designs (and diagrams for wiring schematics) directly from the tool bar without using the project browser.

The new diagram button is smart too, if you select a design in the project browser, it will create the diagram in that design. If nothing is selected in the browser, it will create it in the design  you are currently working in. Most of the time you won't need to think about it at all. However, the most important thing is

Not revolution by any means, but a set of changes designed to make the all important first 30 minutes that bit easier, just pick a name for your first project and you'll be ready to go immediately:

How do you get the new version? You have a couple of choices depending on who you are:

1. Evaluators: The evaluation download has been updated with the new version, you can download it from: http://www.mentor.com/products/cabling_harness/design-flows/vesys_elec_series/evaluate
2. Clean Install: If you are able to do a clean install, you can download the new version from SupportNet now from: http://supportnet.mentor.com/downloads/200906049.cfm
3. Update Existing Install: These changes are being folded into the next service pack, and everyone on support will get a notification in their Support Pro newsletter the week it's released

As we continue to work towards our next scheduled release we're still looking for improvements to be made, and are planning better ways for you the users to get their ideas to us. Watch this space.

Control is a good thing. It helps us as designers improve quality, to ensure that mistakes aren't made that impact your customers. CHS is designed with control (and therefore constraint) in mind. From tagging wires with valid option expressions to selecting valid names for components (selecting, not entering, from a list of pre-defined names) to full physical wire synthesis untouched by human hands and guaranteed to implement the signals in a device or system led design perfectly for every configuration of every vehicle, different levels of control are available to our users. I think we all know this, however, when a software tool we are using tells us that we can't do something, gives a list to choose from rather than a free text field, or just does it automatically... it can be hard to believe that the software is making our lives better.

In general we design CHS to allow configuration of which controls are in place. You can restrict what individual users, or groups of users, can or can't do. You can restrict what operations anyone can perform on designs at a particular release status. Of course, you can just not set any of that up and let every user do everything at every stage. I'm sure we all agree that's probably not a good thing for all but the smallest of organizations.

However, with control (and therefore correct by construction, you just can't make the mistake; you're not allowed to or the task is completed automatically) there are however some perceived costs, and in general it's the engineer, the individual working on the wiring/harness/system design that feels them most directly:

• Flexibility: There are always times where (especially in this industry driven by change) there's a quick way to do it, and the absolutely right way of doing it. As problem solving creatures, we like to find the quickest route to solving the problem. However, we should question the benefit if in our haste we introduce a new problem...
• Control: Automating a manual task is not always seen as liberating, but sometimes a sense of lack of control can be introduced; how do I know it's right? Of course the reality is that software is much better at the repetitive tasks we are most likely to make mistakes whilst completing.
• Creativity: We all believe that design is about more than just clicking the mouse-button, that there is a genuine creative process. Automation or constraints can make us feel that the opportunity for creativity is removed. Although the perception is understandable, I suspect the reality is the opposite. Because we are not having to worry about if we typed a name correctly, or got the option expression for one out of the millions possible build-able vehicle  configurations, we can get on with finding innovative solutions to new problems
• Configuration: Setting up constraints, getting the right data in can be seen as another overhead. Again, this is typically just perception. Once the data is there, it's re-used countless times. More importantly, it can normally be easily imported from other tools in use around an organization (especially tempting if the data is constantly changing... web-services anyone?)

The response to a computer doing something for you that you used to do, or telling you you are not allowed to do what you want to do is sometimes an uncomfortable one. We all feel that our minds, our technical ingenuity adds some very real value to the work we are performing, and it does. However, when you look at the impact of mistakes, it's perhaps important to look at the true cost of total freedom. We can't just consider the direct costs either, there's an impact on the brand as well which can be much harder to measure (and indeed to overcome). Here are a few interesting bits of data about recalls (it should be noted that these are in general automotive in general rather than specifically electronic or electrical). Let's start with an estimated impact on customer loyalty.

These figures are quite old now (2000, it's surprisingly hard to find publicly accessable data one can link to in a blog), but it causes you to stop and think about whether or not the internet may have made the impact greater, as the speed of information trends ever upwards. The numbers aren't small either: US Auto Recall Statistics: 1993-2004

So the impact is real, and software like CHS and VeSys have a real contribution to make to solving the problem. I believe that instead of there being a cost of loss of flexibility or creativity that correct by construction methodologies actually have a benefit for engineers. The safety net that software and automation provide allows them to be more creative and responsive, safe in the knowledge that the software is not going to allow them to make a potentially costly mistake.

What do you think? Where do you think the right balances between constraints and freedom can be struck?

I've now had this blogging capability enabled for me since December of 2008, and this is only my second post (the first has been eaten by the community upgrade in February, but I suspect that's probably for the best). I recently noticed one of my colleagues blogging about CHS over on the main Mentor web-site (http://blogs.mentor.com/paul_johnston/) and realized that I had really not engaged properly here. Of course, reading other people's blogs is a humbling experience, but I will do my best to provide commentary on our industry, products, and perhaps a little technology in general.

Perhaps we should start with a little about my role at Mentor Graphics? I have the rather numbing title of Product Marketing but before you stop reading... my team is charged with technical marketing. What does that mean? Essentially every enhancement request submitted goes past one of the members of my team, who may contact you to ask questions about it, and they take those in order combine them with other enhancement requests if it's not unique or perhaps related to another. Of course, in a few cases we may reject an enhancement request (we might already support what the user wants to do, or it's simply out of scope for the tool), but not before we've understood perhaps the most important question... why you are asking for the enhancement. We might just have an even better solution for you. We then work with customers and the engineering teams to develop the use-cases or requirements documents before handing them over to engineering (perhaps not immediately) to be implemented. Once that's happened we manage beta-tests, early access for Mentor's own staff, and producing various presentations/AVIs and the like to help customers quickly get to grips with the new functionality. If you've watched the Test Drive that's shipped with CHS 2008.2 and VeSys 2.0 you'll get the general idea (that particular one was the work of Vincent Pinto, and he's set the bar very high for the next set). As with everything there are a hundred other little things we do from training our own staff, to visiting customer sites before and after sales doing demos and the like.

One of the things Paul did in his first post was to lay out some of the topics he would be discussing, so I thought I would do the same seeing as that I would not have sat down to start this without some idea of the topics I wanted to cover:

1) Many of our customers are working in the automotive industry, and as the old Chinese curse goes (I have no idea if this is really an old Chinese curse, but if it isn't it should be, it's very clever)... "may you live in interesting times". Well, it's certainly "interesting" right now. Of course with big changes can also mean big opportunities, and whilst we may or may not have hit the bottom of the curve it certainly feels time to start looking forward. Of course things are also interesting in the Aerospace market, although there are many many differences (scale of the data generated, rates of change, I could and will go on), there is also much that both can learn from each other.

2) VeSys 2.0 is a brand new version of VeSys (a very well loved tool for those of you who have been focused on CHS). We are now a couple of months into the first release of the software, and we have some lessons learned I would like to share and perhaps explain a little about the whats and whys behind developing the product as well as the next steps for us

3) CHS is another exciting product line (much larger in scope than VeSys or its predecessors TransCable & LCable) and much of this community is filled with (and it's hard to believe it's grown this quickly in just over 6 months) discussions and documents talking about it. There are a couple of threads I'd like to draw out of the community and comment on a little more, as well as keeping you all up to date with news about the tool.

4) Technology in general... I am, for want of a better word, a geek. A nerd. What's been interesting over the last 10 years is that being a geeky nerd has turned out to be a pretty good thing to be, and I'm very proud to be one. My desire to play with the very latest bleeding edge tech positions me (and hopefully as a result my employer!) well to exploit new technologies as they come along. Before I make any comments, I should perhaps think about a little disclosure. I am a Mac user. I have an iPhone. That does not mean I hate Microsoft (there are some products I'm not in love with, but the same is true for Apple), and I have been happily using the Windows 7 Public Beta (it's a real step in the right direction, and there are things in it that I immediately missed back on the Mac)... That said, you may find the occasional mac-ish comment/sentiment posted here.

5) User Interface & Design... if I let myself I could really get lost in this area, I love seeing and using good design (not just software, or phones) and the very creative process behind it. Of course for most readers it's what you do all day every day. Perhaps sadly, if you've done your job well the end user isn't even aware of the fact you've done your job well. It just works.

6) This community is a topic all of its own. We've put a lot of effort into making this a useful resource for VeSys & CHS customers, and it's probably worth exploring why we did, whether or not we are getting it right, as well as what we might do differently or better in the future.

That's it for now (feels like there should be 10), please do pop over to Paul's blog, it's very good and I hope you'll enjoy this one. Regardless, there's a comment button just below, tell me what you want to hear and I'll respond or try and find someone you can. For now let me leave you with one of my favorite quotes:

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." Antoine de St. Exupery, Wind, Sand and Stars, 1939

That's it, the end of the second first blog. I feel committed now.