Establishment of the Committee for Next-generation Project Management Data Exchange Architecture

May 21, 2012

Nanzan University, IBM Japan, Fujitsu, NEC, NTT Data, Hitachi and Nomura Research Institute will establish the Committee for Next-generation Project Management Data Exchange Architecture as of 21 May, 2012. This committee is designed to support the streamlining of management of information system development project in Japan by developing core software technology for bi-directional exchanging and sharing of a wide variety of management data between project management tools.

Mikio Aoyama, professor at Nanzan University, is to act as the committee's chair, and IBM Japan, Fujitsu and NEC as the secretariat.

The goal of the committee is to facilitate timely and efficient information management between users and vendors in large-scale system integration (SI) and software development projects that involve users and multiple vendors. The committee will hold discussions to develop a standard interface for exchanging management data, including progress management and quality management data, that does not favor a particular structure or platform.

This technology will enable users to integrate management data for the management of the overall progress and quality of multiple vendors and projects in a multi-project environment where numerous projects involving multiple vendors proceed side by side.

Promoting the results of the committee's efforts will allow users and vendors engaged in large-scale SI and software development projects to build flexible, highly independent relationships, contributing to innovations in Japan's information industry.

The committee's key activities focus on the following three themes for achieving the goal of developing a standard interface for exchanging management data, the results of which will be widely disclosed.

1. Discussion on communication protocol for exchanging management data to support project management methods that are known to vary by organization.
2. Definition of data format for exchanging management data that does not depend on a particular tool or management method.
3. (3) Assessment of the feasibility of 1. and 2. through demonstration experiments.

Establishment of the committee - background and issues

The organizational structure of large-scale SI and software development today is a multi-layered, complex arrangement involving several or several tens of vendors. This structure makes it difficult for users and vendors involved in the project to monitor the project's status rapidly and efficiently. Projects involving several tens of vendors call for integration of a myriad of management data, including progress and quality. This requires direct, easy-to-conduct exchanges of project management data between users and multiple vendors or between vendors themselves over a network.

However, use of different management tools and reports by project or user often results in the use of spreadsheet software which slows down the collection of management data and hinders timely management. In addition, collection of management data from multiple vendors is a challenge for users who ordered the information system, making it hard to ascertain the status of the project.

The founding members of this committee have each been moving forward with communication protocols for exchanging management data that do not depend on existing management tools or structures.

Activity details and deliverables

In order to address the issues mentioned above, the committee's key activities focus on the following three themes for achieving the committee's goal of developing an interface standard for exchanging management data between different management tools and structures, the results of which will be widely disclosed.

1. Discussion on communication protocol for exchanging management data to support project management methods that are known to vary by organization.
   [Period: From 21 May, 2012 to the end of December]
   Formulation of communication protocol for allowing timely and efficient collection, aggregation and exchange of project management data that are managed in a hierarchical structure.
   The web-based standard data exchange technology RESTful⁽¹⁾ employed by the OSLC⁽²⁾ will be adopted as the core data exchange technology to achieve data exchange that does not rely on a specific management tool or platform.
2. Definition of data format for exchanging management data that does not depend on a particular tool or management structure.
   [Period : From 21 May, 2012 to the end of December]
   Formulation of a data model to specify the data items common to the myriad of management data, including progress and quality, in large-scale projects. Furthermore, various data formats for exchanging management data will also be specified based on the experiences in large-scale SI development to date.
3. Assessment of the feasibility of 1. and 2. through demonstration experiments.
   [Period: From January 2013 to the end of June]
   Assessment of the practicality and feasibility of the deliverables by exchanging management data via management tools used in actual projects. Additionally, operation methods for collection and management of management data will also be assessed.

Expected benefits

The efforts of this committee are expected to drive the establishment of core technology which allows shared management between the participating users and vendors, promoting the visualization of project management in SI and software development.

Users can also expect to ensure consistency across all vendors and projects and integrated management of project management data, including progress, which allows improvement in management capabilities in a multi-project environment where numerous projects involving multiple vendors proceed side by side. These improvements would also contribute to a significant reduction in project risk.

Contacts

Media Contacts

Department of Software Engineering
Nanzan Univerisity
Tel: +81-561-89-2081

External Communications,
IBM Japan
Tel: +81-3-3808-4906

Public & Investor Relations Division
Fujitsu Limited
Tel: +81-3-6252-2174

Public Relations Department
NTT DATA Corporation
Tel: +81-3-5546-8051

Communications,
Hitachi,Ltd., Information & Telecommunication Systems Company
Tel: +81-3-5471-8900

Corporate Communications Department
Nomura Research Institute, Ltd.
Tel: +81-3-6270-8100

Other Contacts

Department of Software Engineering
Nanzan Univerisity
Tel: +81-561-89-2081

External Communications,
IBM Japan
Tel: +81-3-3808-4906

System Engineering Knowledge Improvement Div. System Engineering Technology Unit
Fujitsu Limited
Tel: +81-3-6424-6068

Research and Development Headquarters
NTT DATA Corporation
Tel: +81-50-5546-2532

Project & Process Management Division,
Hitachi,Ltd., Information & Telecommunication Systems Company
Tel: +81-3-5471-2184

Systems Development Technology Department
Nomura Research Institute, Ltd.
Tel: +81-45-336-7341