Frequently Asked Questions: Centercode Options for Product Managers
October, 2017
Target Audience:
CA Product Managers and Product Owners, CA Program and Project Managers
Objectives:
Evangelize the value that we've proven out over the last several months. Assist CA Product Managers in determining if Centercode is right for their next product validation cycle, and if so, help them get started quickly.
What makes Centercode the right option for managing product validation?
Centercode is a purpose-built tool for running product betas that makes it easy for CA core teams to deliver a modern and secure user validation experience without depending on specialized resources from other departments, or waiting for other corporate infrastructure to become available. Both On-Premise and SaaS customer testing have already been accommodated, and the implementation is legally reviewed and CA branded.
How is Centercode different from the previous 'BetaTracker' system?
In short, Centercode can do everything our legacy system did, and lots more. Major differences include quicker time to value within a modern website look and feel, worldwide deployment on a modern SaaS platform, automatic e-mails and notifications, easy to use surveys, plus reporting and mobility.
How long will Centercode be available for CA teams to use?
Because of the richness of features and quick time to value we expect Centercode to remain an option for core teams to leverage indefinitely. Mainframe, ITBM, and Agile Services teams started running multiple validation projects in March 2014 and other teams are welcome. Currently CA has licensed the tool through July 2018, which includes full technical support.
Is Centercode Agile-Ready?
Arguably the answer is 'Yes'. We have working examples of how to engage both On-Premise and SaaS customers starting with User Experience design and End of Sprint review processes, through to feature testing and full product delivery. The out-of-box surveys in Centercode are Net Promoter Score (NPS) ready, as well.
What are the options for onboarding my customers in this tool?
Centercode is rooted in the concept of user profiles. In order for a customer to participate in your product validation cycle they must first have membership in the Centercode CA Validation Community.
We have used three basic options for first time users:
1) Enter your customer's names and corporate e-mail addresses in the Users object, and have Centercode send them an automated e-mail invitation with a registration link. This method not only includes your product or community e-mail address, but it also allows the user to opt-out per CA policy.
2) Have the Recruitment object in Centercode generate a Registration URL that you can publish on your product community site, send out on your product 's twitter handle, or provide to customers in e-mail manually. The user registration process is the same as #1.
3) Direct account creation in the Users object where you enter the customer name and corporate e-mail, and assign them an initial password. This skips the registration steps so it is really only a valid option for adding CA internal users.
Also: once an internal user has joined the centercode community, they can easily be joined to additional validation projects by leveraging the 'Add User' method. No need to re-register.
Options 1 and 2 require users to sign the standard CA Non-Disclosure Form. Users that are already members of the Centercode validation community can be added to any active project in the system, but still have to sign each project's NDA.
How about E-mail and Content Management?
Before you recruit or invite customers and partners to your validation project you will need to tweak the Centercode e-mail and content templates to match your needs. Typically you will update the following items:
Centercode has a strong template functionality for re-use and maintainability. It makes it easy to manage user-related events and their communication, such as design interviews or end of sprint demos. In those cases a few more content items (such as webex links and ICS calendar files) will need to be provided.
What's involved with gathering customer feedback using Centercode?
Customers have a variety of options for giving us their feedback about the direction we're taking with our products. The items marked 'private' are visible only to the users who entered them, and the CA validation team.
Is Centercode Single-Sign On?
Centercode is Single Sign On enabled. Afterwards validation project members who log in to the CA domain (i.e. support or community sites) will be able to access Centercode without an additional log-in.
The SSO URL is 'http://validate.ca.com', and existing user accounts in Centercode will be modified at the time of conversion. The Centercode system will be used to message the change to users.
What are the plans to integrate with CA Community sites and JIVE?
Because Centercode is SSO enabled, users have the ability to navigate seamlessly from other CA systems such as product community sites.
The most common scenario we're seeing is to publish a Centercode registration URL in the appropriate place on the JIVE site for your product, so that users of current product can see that a new product validation is underway, and get involved if they like.
Any issues with Product Access and Delivery?
Centercode offers the ability to securely publish product access codes, license keys, and software downloads. The software is hosted in the US. We currently have over 200 active external (non-CA) users in 22 different countries worldwide, and so far uptime, access speed, and file size have not been an issue.
How does defect tracking work in Centercode?
Centercode provides detailed defect tracking, workflow, and reporting so that you can easily stay up to date with issues and problems that your pre-release testers are encountering. One thing to keep in mind is that the defect tracking is standalone, so it currently does not connect to other CA systems.
What are my options for getting started with the tool?
Below are the people that you can reach out to for more information about how they leveraged Centercode for their product. They can also create a new validation project workspace for you to use once you're ready to get started.
Name
Group
Product
Robert Kennedy, Kevin McGuire, Victoria Ratchford
CA Engineering Services
Centercode Community Managers
After you start your first project, you will be able to file any issues for the validation portal on the GIS Service Desk, or you may elect to contact centercode for technical support directly (support@centercode.com). I have found that if you have a concise question you will get a detailed response to e-mail almost immediately every time from their support staff.