Our global production and trading company for automation technology systems and components has set itself the goal of completely digitizing the distribution of all our software products (SW products). To this end, a Software Download Center (SDC) is to be integrated into the system landscape, which will work closely with the existing e-commerce solution (“sales platform”) to organize the distribution of SW products worldwide.
Project objectives:
- Creation of a uniform platform for downloading free and paid software and updates
- Easy handling of downloads and installations for customers
- Customers have immediate access to all software products without waiting times
- Customers have transparency regarding versions
- Customers are proactively informed about new updates
Users of the product:
- Customers
- Over 100,000 registered customers worldwide who have access to all company products in over 70 countries via the sales platform. The sales platform and its content are presented in 30 different languages. Use the product as consumers.
- Product managers
- Responsible for marketing and releasing software products. Use the product to define the content and presentation of software products.
- Software developers
- Responsible for developing software products and creating releases. Use the product to provide software products.
- Sales staff
- Responsible for customer care and sales strategies. Use the product primarily as a reporting tool.
- Administrators
- Responsible for system administration. Use the product to assign user authorizations, configuration, etc.
Assumptions:
- Article reference
- Each SW product has a unique article number in SAP.
- Version numbers
- Each software version has a unique number and a reference to the software product in SAP.
- Software product data
- Descriptive data for software products is managed in PIM.
- DAM (Digital Asset Management)
- Supplementary files for software products are managed in the DAM. The DAM enables references to the underlying software product.
- sales platform (sales portal)
- Sales and access to downloads (including supplementary files) for customers are handled via the sales platform.
The following function-specific requirements must be met:
Provision
For product managers
- User story 39 (must have)
- As a product manager,
- I want to give approval before new versions (software, firmware) are released so that I can check them in advance.
- The approval process can take place outside the system
- The approval itself must take place in the system, e.g., using a check box
- ...
- User story 19 (should have)
- As a product manager
- I want to add metadata (e.g., feature description) to each software version so that I can describe the special features of the software version.
- Metadata is used to
- display it to the customer when selecting the software
- fill the full-text search with keywords
- define criteria for the software selector
- ...
- there is a minimum amount of metadata (mandatory fields) and optional
- ...
- User Story 24 (Should Have)
- As a product manager
- I want to highlight important changes or additions to the metadata in a suitable way (e.g., bold, red font) so that I can show the changes/additions to the customer particularly clearly.
- Descriptive metadata (text) can be stored using standard formatting
- Text in notification emails can also be formatted
- ...
For software developers
- User Story 11.A (Must Have)
- As a software developer
- I want to be notified of existing rules when uploading software versions via the GUI using mandatory fields so that I can provide all the necessary information/metadata (tbd).
- A suitable message appears if not all mandatory fields are filled in
- Mandatory fields are clearly recognizable in the GUI
- ...
- User Story 11.B (Must Have)
- As a software developer
- I want the uploading of software versions to be automated so that I don't have to take care of it myself.
- The interface checks the mandatory fields.
- The software and all necessary information (documentation, release notes, etc.) are transferred to the defined locations via the interface.
- Enrichment with additional information (prerequisites, description, metadata) takes place as in the case of manual uploading.
- ...
- User Story 12 (Must Have)
- As a software developer
- I want to be able to select the software version to be supplemented when uploading supplementary files so that the reference between files and software is established correctly.
- The referenced software can be searched for and selected in the GUI.
- The GUI offers a selection of which type is uploaded (software, referenced file, software version, etc.).
- Mandatory fields depend on the selected type.
- The files must be different if several of the same type are uploaded.
- ...
- User Story 23 (Should Have)
- As a software developer
- I want the previous version to be automatically moved to the second position when uploading a new software version so that I don't have to manually set the order.
- “Archived” does not mean that the older versions are no longer available
- The system recognizes which is the current version by the version number.
- ...
- User Story 15 (Could Have)
- As a software developer
- I want to be unable to upload certain file types because the download of certain file types is blocked for many customers.
- The file types that are excluded from upload can be defined centrally
- When attempting to upload a file with an excluded file type, the upload is aborted and an appropriate error message appears
- ...
- User Story 29 (Could Have)
- As a sales employee
- I want to be able to put together hardware and software as packages so that I can offer customers complete solutions.
- Solutions can be entered as items (e.g., in SAP)
- Solutions can be described in detail
- Hardware and software can be selected and easily assigned to the solution item.
- ...
Miscellaneous
- User Story 27 (Should Have)
- As a sales employee,
- I want to be able to view the complete order and download history for each customer and each software product so that I can use this information to carry out better marketing campaigns, promote solutions, etc.
- The order history can be opened after selecting the customer. It contains
- The purchased or downloaded product (name, item number, price)
- The order or download date
- ...
- The order history can be opened after selecting the software product. It contains
- The number of downloads
- ...
- Display according to default (20 items per page, scrollable pages for more than 20, etc.)
- The order history can be printed.
- ...
- User Story 36 (Should Have)
- As a customer
- I want the documentation to be included with each software version so that I don't have to download it separately.
- When downloading the software, the documentation is included in the download
- The documentation can also be downloaded separately
- Interfaces to SAP and to the shop solution, which is currently being created internally
- Extensive customization options
- Providers or IT service providers should offer excellent integration options
Our idea now would be to find suitable providers who send us their company profile, describe their system solutions or services, and refer to the user stories (requirements). After a preliminary selection, we would then like to invite the potential candidates to a presentation where they demonstrate 2-3 user stories (requirements) in the software.
Approximately 50 software workstations are planned for software developers, product managers, administrators, and sales staff. Approximately 100,000 customers are expected to have access to the download center.
Note from SoftGuide: Detailed requirements documentation can be provided by the company seeking software.