Conference ilbbak::ibi_focus

394.0. "4GL/QCA Project - Request for Competitive Info" by TLE::MMURPHY () Wed Feb 13 1991 18:18

This is an invitation to participate in Digital's 4GL Market Requirements
Project.  The project team includes:

	- Marie Murphy         SDT Product Management - RALLY Product Manager
	- Tony Rogers          SDT Engineering - RALLY Supervisor
	- Dennis Wixon         SDT Engineering - Software Usability Engineering
	- Jack Gilmore         BOSE Engineering - QCA (Quantitative 
                                                  Comparative Analysis)

The goals of this project are:

	o to enhance DEC's understanding of the product space for 4GLs

	o to understand the position of DEC RALLY in relation to some of 
          its competitors (FOCUS, Powerhouse, SmartStar, Ingres, Oracle 
          and Uniface)

	o to utilize data collected to prioritize the functional requirements
	  for DEC RALLY V3.0 prior to the close of phase 1 (March 1991)

	o to prototype QCA (Quantitative Comparative Analysis) as a process 
          for understanding markets

	o to prototype QCA tool in the product development process

There are two major deliverables in this project that will be used as part of 
the phase review process for DEC RALLY V3.0:

	o A hierarchical feature map of the 4GL product space with
          importance ratings by significant groups.  
	  
	o A set of QCA diagrams for DEC RALLY and its competitors with 
          ratings on features established in the hierarchy.

The 4GL QCA hierarchy was developed in December at a meeting of 4GL experts:
a consultant, 4GL customers, and internal 4GL users.  This hierarchy was
then used as the basis for development of questionnaires for rating the
importance of various 4GL features and evaluating how well specific 4GL
products deliver these features.

To date we have received over 100 completed questionnaires, but we are still
lacking data in some areas.  Specifically, we need more data on the
competing 4GL products:

    o Powerhouse
    o Ingres
    o Focus
    o Oracle
    o SmartStar
    o Uniface

The questionnaire can be mailed to you in text form, so that you can
fill it in with a text editor and mail it back to us by electronic mail.
We have been told that it takes about two hours to complete these
questionnaires.

If you, or someone you know, could complete a questionnaire for one of these
4GLs, please send mail to Marie Murphy at TLE::MMURPHY.  We encourage
customer participation in this process (under limited-disclosure agreement).

Our original deadline for this information has passed, but because of the
importance of this competitive information we have extended it.  We will use
any survey data returned to us before Wednesday, February 20.

If you have any questions concerning this project please contact me at 
DTN 381-1918.

Thank you in advance for your participation.

Regards,
Marie Murphy