Jenz & Partner has developed a new Evaluation Specification Browser. It is targeted at users who wish to perform a spreadsheet-based software evaluation, using a popular spreadsheet application such as Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice Calc.

Use Cases for the Evaluation Specification Browser

While the Evaluation Specification Browser has been designed for users who wish to use a spreadsheet application for product comparison, you can also use it to augment your Evaluation Specification with ready-made requirements.

Use Case #1

You can request generation of a spreadsheet file in Microsoft's xls format. After download from our server, you can open the spreadsheet file in any application that understands the xls format.

Use Case #2

You can browse an Evaluation Specification and import ready-made requirements into your custom Evaluation Specification via copy & paste.

How it Works

The new Evaluation Specification Browser lets you generate a spreadsheet in Microsoft's Excel file format, which you can download from our server. A download link will be sent to you via e-mail. You can open a generated file in Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice Calc, and other Spreadsheet tools that can understand Microsoft's Excel file format (.xls files).

Since a spreadsheet is generated on-the-fly, you can specify how many software products you wish to include in the spreadsheet. The application will generate a set of columns for each software product.

Since an Evaluation Specification represents a structured document, the application can automatically generate all of the formulas needed to compute aggregates at various levels of detail. Thus, you can start immediately with product comparison and you can easily and clearly identify each product's strong and weak areas.

An Evaluation Specification contains rich information that helps you with product evaluation. Some information items, such as requirement statement, rationale, and quality measure (fit criterion), go in dedicated columns. Other information items (private and public comments) are added as comments to worksheet cells to save space.

Of course, you can enhance the generated Spreadsheet, using the spreadsheet tool's functionality. It will be quite easy to adapt the spreadsheet to your specific needs. You can also import requirements from the Requirements Package Browser via copy & paste.

How to use the Evaluation Specification Browser

You can browse Evaluation Specifications regardless of whether you have a license key. However, restrictions apply if a license key is not provided.

To receive an Evaluation Specification Spreadsheet file, please proceed as follows:

1. Select the Evaluation Specification that you wish to browse.

2. Enter a license key if you wish to view the entire Evaluation Specification.

3. Press the "Generate Spreadsheet" button if you want to have the Evaluation Specification Browser generate a spreadsheet file for you and send a download link to you via e-mail.

   1. A dialog window will pop up, which lets you type in your e-mail address and the number of products you wish to compare.

   2. You need to accept the License Agreement, since all Evaluation Specifications are protected by a license agreement. The "Generate" button becomes active once the check box is ticked.

   3. Press the "Generate" button to initiate Spreadsheet generation. The dialog box will disappear after a moment and an e-mail with a download link will be sent to you.

To invoke the Evaluation Specification Browser, please go to http://88.198.14.98:8084/BMO-ES-Browser/esb/ .

How is it different from the Evaluator's Application Suite (EAS)?

Unlike the Evaluator's Application Suite (EAS), the Evaluation Specification Browser is a Web Application, meaning that it executes in your Web Browser (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, for example). Thus, there is no need to install software on a desktop or notebook computer.

Since the Evaluation Specification Browser has been designed for users who wish to use popular spreadsheet applications for product comparison, it does not provide the same level of functionality as the EAS. The following table identifies the major differences.

In order to reflect the different usage scenarios, licenses will be available at considerably lower prices. However, as noted above, license keys cannot be used in the Evaluation Specification Editor, which is part of the Evaluator's Application Suite (EAS).