Student Resource: Tools

Just getting started … should expand quickly over the coming months.

Selecting the right tool for your implementation of Configuration Management and Data Management is not easy today. Many factors must be considered such as budget, industry, size of projects, how the tool handles software, hardware, inventory, documents, and how it integrates with other tools. Once you have established your requirements the next step is evaluating the various tools on the market. This is where we plan to help.

Over the coming months CMTF.com and CMTaskware.com will contact tool companies to advertise their tools and provide links on our portals. Eventually we will include student reviews, ratings, and functionality wish lists to help the tool companies be more responsive to the needs of users.

Note, we will recommend tools, but we do not certify tools to a particular CM model. That is a training marketing strategy. Our goal is to gather a complete list of tools on the market for students to evaluate so they can find a tool that is right for them. We will however attempt to solicit CMTF student discounts from tool companies to help in these times of tighter budgets.

VisibleThread: CMTF Recommended

For a limited time only VisibleThread is available to CMTF students at a greatly reduced price.

At CMTF we highly recommend VisibleThread as the perfect tool for Configuration Managers, Data Managers, and anyone preparing or reviewing CDRL submittals, including customers, contractors, and suppliers. With a single click you can generate a first pass MS Excel Compliance Matrix from any contract, Mil Std, CDRL, DID, or requirements document. This Compliance Matrix is then converted to a dictionary of terms, phrases and outline structure, which can be run against CDRL submittals for compliance, language, and outline format compliance checking.

How did I discover that Mil-Std-973 has 680 shall statements while EIA 649-B only contains 5? I ran those documents through VT and in less than 60 seconds I was given a report with every instance of the word “shall” in both documents. Try doing that manually. VT is not only the best proposal preparation tool, it also fully automates the CDRL review process. In the coming months CMTF will develop and post custom dictionaries for common standards, initiatives, and CDRLs and offer them as downloads on the student resources section at CMTF.com and CMTaskware.com.

Don’t miss this fantastic opportunity to automate your TDM system with VT for only $1,500! Offer good for CMTF students only. A tool that otherwise would cost much more for a limited time only offered at a fraction of the normal price. Think of the process efficiency, scan plans, specifications, design documents, proposals, any CDRL submittal with the push of a button, and in seconds you can discover passive language, bad language, requirement compliance, format compliance, it is the most amazing tool I have ever used. And the learning curve is only a matter of a minutes. If you would like to inquire into VisibleThread please visit them at VisibleThread.com. To start using VT now contact Rowland Bradley at 202 438-5088, Rowland.Bradley@visiblethread.com, or just download the Compliance Management Subscription Form and submit it along with your check to:

VisibleThread
1101 E. 33rd Street
3rd Floor, Suite #C300
Baltimore, MD 21218