Value: Quality

20 May 1996 updated

Typical quote from one guest: "What kind of issues are you looking for for the web page? If you're looking for unresolved bugs, I've got several to send ... but I'd get the most bang for my buck if they'd just shore up their existing support structure and fix the known bugs in the code."

See also PowerDesigner Bugs and AIS's detailed analysis of V5.0 . Of 25 bugs reported by AIS in Version 4.2.1, 20 were repaired in Version 5.0 and four more are scheduled for repair soon. However, other new and critical bugs were introduced in the 5.0 release.

John Pederson has some extensive analyses on the useability of S-Desingor's GUI done in the Mayo's useability lab.

"***** is disgusted and questions the purchase. 'Very poor support', struggling with features (e.g., merge FK in the PDM, repository install and setup)."
"Had a call out of the blue from ******. Also disgusted with support and lack of communication to existing customers."
"I am really frustrated with the lack of information forthcoming from PowerSoft - which in our case has been none. We either find things out second hand or by accident. "

"A clear understanding of the development process for future releases of PowerDesigner including the engineering highlevel specs on-line via the web."

How are we notified of bug fixes? Veronique : Formal release per qtr; maintenance release per month.

Try finding "Rules" in the on-line help. Even though nearly every definition dialoig has a [RULES] button, you must know enough to search for "Business Rules" to find help. This is a tiny example of the incompleteness, obscurity, and circularity of the documentation.
There needs to be a complete cross reference of DDL options listing the CDM or PDM features which influence the DDL.
All file formats for PAM, CDM, PDM, DEF, CDF should be published.
There is urgent need of an on-line turotial for PowerDesigner. See OnLine Applied Information Studies for a demonstration of this approach:

The help has gotten better but, we need a full tutorial included with the tool. Topic to be included: IE methodology, Creating a CDM, reverse engineering, discussion of normalization, examples of the different relationships, entity types etc.