Customers

DevTrack Helps to Keep GeoGraphix a Leader in Developing Cutting-edge Energy SoftwareProducts

A leader in developing and supporting data management and analysis software that addresses the fundamental and practical requirements of the energy industry, GeoGraphix, of Denver, Colorado, required a software tool to better manage and track its software development issues for its line of commercial software products. DevTrack’s ease-of-use and Microsoft (MS) SQL Server support were two primary reasons DevTrack was chosen by GeoGraphix.

In 1986, GeoGraphix software became one of the first commercial Microsoft Windows applications in the world. GeoGraphix continues to lead the industry with scalable solutions that fully integrate geological, geophysical, engineering, lease, and petrophysical information. Featuring a product suite that includes
SeisVision™, LeaseMap™, PRIZM™, and GeoGraphix Exploration System™ (GES™), GeoGraphix required a defect-tracking tool to better manage its software development process.

Quality Assurance Viewpoint

“The primary reason we choose DevTrack is its ease- of-use,” said Art Gust, Quality Assurance Manager at GeoGraphix. “It’s very easy to start using it the very first time you use it. The [MS] SQL Server support is also very important. The SQL database is a lot easier for our Information Services person to maintain than [MS] Access. We have had no problem whatsoever.

“We have become 25-30 percent more efficient using DevTrack. It is very easy to assess where we are on a project. DevTrack has been a very successful product for us. One primary reason, in a business sense, for us becoming a more mature development organization is our use of DevTrack. We are able to plan better now. We wouldn’t be as secure about releasing a new version of one of our products if we didn’t have this product.”

The intuitive searching capability in DevTrack is another bonus for GeoGraphix. “The searching is great – again, its ease of use, point-and-click. It is so easy; I rarely ever save the search condition – which I could. Searching is dynamic, I can drill down, and continue to filter down and add more conditions. Are we finding our issues in Testing? In Support? What percentage of our issues are we resolving through testing, development…what percentage of high-level issues are we not catching?”

When originally evaluating DevTrack over a year ago, four additional factors aided in DevTrack becoming the clear choice for GeoGraphix. In addition to most fields and field contents being customizable in DevTrack, DevTrack’s Custom Page provided GeoGraphix with an area to store their unique, one- of-a-kind data. Second, a powerful Import feature made the import process of legacy information less painful. Third, at the request of GeoGraphix, though DevTrack already provides extensive graphics, TechExcel added the capability of letting users create their own custom Crystal Reports and bring them into DevTrack. Better still, DevTrack is the best value in the defect-tracking arena.

Information System’s Viewpoint

Peete Monfiletto, the Manager of Information Systems at Geographix with 15 years experience in information technology, is equally pleased with DevTrack.

“What admin time?” responds Monfiletto when asked about the administration time needed for DevTrack. “My administration – all I do is add new users to it. Once you add backups to SQL – we use Backup Exec [Seagate] – that’s it. There really is no admin. All my software should be as easy to use as DevTrack. I can’t tell you how happy I am with the program.”

GeoGraphix, with 65 users, is running DevTrack on a Windows NT server over Ethernet with Microsoft SQL Server 6.5, Service Pack 1.

GeoGraphix is clearly happy with their choice

“The thing that really impressed me,” continued Monfiletto, “was the install. It created a database within SQL, and I just followed the prompts…for what it was supposed to do, it really impressed me. DevTrack is the easiest software product to work with of all the programs I manage; I wish all my programs worked so easily. All I have to do to administer DevTrack is occasionally add a new user and their password, and send it to them via email. That’s it.”

“It’s easy to add new users and rules,” added Gust. “Adding new drop-down values is very rapid and adding list boxes is very easy. This has been very good for the evolution of our own products.”

GeoGraphix also uses DevTrack remotely via a wide area network (WAN) to support users in Calgary, Canada. “This has been great for us for Information Services – we administer it here and backup the program locally.”

With six active DevTrack projects and 65 active users, performance has been equally laudable. “We have over 3,000 issues in one project and performance is great. We don’t even notice it as an issue.”

“TechExcel has also been very proactive in updating the product with a new release every 4-6 months,” added Gust.