Somehow I missed this from a couple of weeks ago. DOORS 9.3.0.5 has been released.

You can grab it here.

There’s one new feature, according to this page:

Control over the location of key database files

You can now use the registry or the command line to specify the folder that contains the key database files that contain the keys for the Rational Directory Server and Rational DOORS SSL.

The certdb registry entry allows you to specify the folder that contains the key database files. It is also available as a command-line switch (-certdb), where it works alongside -keyDB to control the Rational Directory Server and Rational DOORS SSL authentication.

If you want to put the key database files for Rational DOORS SSL authentication in a separate folder, use the -keyDB switch. The -keyDB switch takes precedence over certdb.

A complete list of fixes can be found on IBM’s site here.

Saw this on the IBM Rational Forums:

Are you a current user, administrator or currently evaluating IBM Rational DOORS? Would you like to know more about the exciting future direction the product is taking? If so, then this webcast is for you. Richard Watson, product manager, will cover IBM Rational’s requirements definition & management strategy and the roadmap for DOORS including its next generation evolution onto the Jazz platform, while strengthening the lifecycle integration capabilities of the current DOORS 9.x architecture. When you’ve heard the presentation, you’ll get a chance to ask questions.

The webcast will be held on 8th November at 11am Eastern (8am Pacific / 4pm GMT / 5pm CET). Register here: https://www.ibm.com/services/forms/signup.do?source=dw-c-wcsdpr&S_PKG=101511A

Given last week’s announcement of the Milestone Release of DOORS Next, I think this webcast will reiterate and further explain more about DOORS 9 vs. DOORS Next. DOORS Next is where the future of DOORS is going. DOORS 9 will continue to be supported but DOORS Next is where development resources will be pulled. DXL won’t be getting many new features. When DOORS Next is stable, IBM will create tools to migrate DOORS 9 to DOORS Next. This is all just my prediction. Time will tell if I’m right.

DOORS 9.3.0.4 was released on June 29, 2011. Among notable fixes are that the copy objects bug from DOORS 9.3.0.3 has apparently been fixed and Office 2010 support.

I haven’t gotten my hands on it yet…but you can click here for all the details.

I am writing this not as owner of Baselines Incorporated but as someone who makes his living doing DOORS work.

While Baselines Inc does keep me busy, I cannot currently make enough from it personally without a full-time job. So even though I do some Requirements Management consulting, I also work DOORS during the day. DOORS has been my day and night job for quite some time. 

I currently do not have a full time job, so I’m out and about searching postings and putting my resume out there. And I’m starting to notice a disturbing (to me, anyway) trend: companies don’t want to pay DOORS admins what they’re worth.

I’ve had a few conversations with recruiters and headhunters saying that I am definitely qualified for the positions they have but the problem is they don’t know if the client will pay the rate. 

The economy is slowing down so prices are down in many sectors. But they aren’t down among all sectors. I worked for a nuclear engineering company last year and in that sector, nuclear engineers are currently very expensive to attain and retain. Why? Because they are specialists.

I’m a specialist too, and as such, my work costs money.

My response to these recruiters and headhunters is always the same, and if any of you out there are ever in my position, I highly recommend this response: “Your client purchased a $10000 per license program. I have a hard time believing that they can’t afford to hire someone who knows how to maintain it.”

It really bothers me that the people who buy DOORS don’t always seem to understand this. Whenever you buy a software package like this, there are always extra costs. We could debate all day whether or not DOORS is truly worth what IBM charges, but that’s not the point. The point is it’s expensive.

I drive an Audi TT. When I take it to the shop and something needs to be replaced, am I surprised that it costs more to fix than my old Saturn SL1 did? 

When customers purchase DOORS, they are told that there is also a yearly maintenance fee that is per license. So the more you lay out initially for DOORS, the more it costs you to maintain DOORS.

To me the whole purpose of DOORS is to help do things right the first time. Requirements Management is a cost center. You do it up front so that at the end of your project things aren’t so expensive to fix. A competent DOORS administrator is the same way. I’ve seen just about everything that can go wrong in a requirements management database. And I’ve had to fix it. And that takes time.

So all you project managers/budgeting types out there using DOORS need to budget for a competent DOORS admin, and this means researching what they make. Sure, you could hand DOORS off to IT and you won’t have the expertise to help plan your schema, but DOORS will be up and running. Do it yourself and you may have install, backup and license issues. And in both cases, you won’t have anyone who readily knows some DXL to make life easier for everyone.

Think about my nuclear engineering example above. College kids studying nuclear engineering are being wooed with $200,000+/yr jobs. Now, a nuclear power plant company could decide to save money and hire regular engineers and train them and possibly come out cheaper in the long run….but probably not.

A colleague of mine who reads this site once said to me that he learned when he was a manager that if he spent $50/hr on a contractor, he got $50/hr worth of work. So many companies don’t flinch when purchasing DOORS, but they don’t think about the total cost of ownership when they make the purchase. And even IBM/Telelogic’s training and consulting fees aren’t exactly cheap. 

If you’re thinking about buying DOORS, remember, DOORS is not for mom and pop shops. When you use DOORS, you’re saying that you’ve got money to compete with the top dogs. Telelogic knew that and thus could charge what they charge. Well, your potential admins also know it, and sure you may be able to train some intern to do DOORS administration, but it will probably cost you big time in the long run.

And if any of you know of any unadvertised openings, feel free to shoot them my way.

IBM/Telelogic have posted the white papers and presentations from this year’s Innovation User Group Conference. Like last year, you actually have to click on the workshop name in order to tell if there is an attached presentation.

I could not attend this year’s UGC. However, friends of mine that are in attendence have told me it was announced that when Telelogic officially becomes IBM on November 1, all Telelogic software that was released before this July will be pulled from the downloads area of Telelogic’s/IBM’s site.

For DOORS, this means you will be able to download DOORS 9.1, but not DOORS 8.1 through 9.

But this isn’t a DOORS-only issue. If you use older versions of any of Telelogic’s product offerings this effects you.

I was told that people at the conference are not happy about this. I’m not either, for the same reason that the people in attendence aren’t, but also that this is a major action for IBM to take, and they should have emailed ALL of their registered users and let them know about this, not just the ones at the conference.

Anyhow, that’s why sites like this one exist.

DOORS 9 was released on Friday, July 25. You can download it from Telelogic’s support site.