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How to Build an Engineering Change Management System in 5 Steps

Managing changes to engineering projects can be an incredibly tricky process. Even seemingly minor changes must be accurately assessed for risks, costs, compliance issues, and potential impacts. This applies to almost all kinds of engineering, including software, construction, and others. The key challenges here include identifying a need for change, assessing the impact of potential actions, and applying consistent business rules to authorize new change initiatives. However, engineering projects also introduce additional difficulties.

Ronan McQuillan

Feb 27, 2025

6 ServiceNow Alternatives & Competitors for 2025

ServiceNow is totally synonymous with IT service management. In fact, it’s hugely embedded in how countless IT teams deliver services to colleagues. However, despite its dominant market share, it’s not the only option out there. See, service management is a hugely varied field. Even the most basic processes can look completely different from one company to the next. This raises a couple of problems for COTS ITSM platforms. Vendors inevitably need to position their solutions towards one type of team or another - even at the level of individual features.

Ronan McQuillan

Feb 25, 2025

ServiceNow vs Zendesk: In-Depth Guide

Zendesk and ServiceNow are two of the biggest names in the service management space. Each platform offers a distinct slant on similar core functionality, including service desks, request management, ticketing, and related ITSM, ESM, or external-facing service workflows. Which is not to say that one platform is necessarily better than the other. Rather, each one is optimized for its own target organizations, teams, and use cases. In this guide, we’re diving deep into what each one offers, who it’s aimed at, where it’s a viable option, and what practical considerations we’ll need to make before rolling it out.

Ronan McQuillan

Feb 25, 2025

4 Methods for REST API Authentication

Understanding the different methods of API authentication is a core competence for any would-be developer, data professional, or anyone else who wants to connect to external tools, data sources, or other resources. Nowadays, APIs are fundamental to the way we build, integrate, and use all kinds of digital tools - whether this is building custom software from scratch - or simply connecting existing SaaS platforms to create streamlined workflows. So, you need to know how to use the different authentication methods that vendors could implement for their APIs.

Ronan McQuillan

Feb 21, 2025

Top 6 Software Asset Management Software Tools

Businesses of all sizes face a growing challenge of staying on top of the software tools they use. Combating shadow IT, managing costs, and ensuring our team have the capabilities they need can be a massive undertaking. But, the actual practicalities of this can vary from one organization to the next. For example, because of the scale of your team, the scope of the tools they need, or the complexity of your wider IT environment.

Ronan McQuillan

Feb 21, 2025

5 Open-Source Jira Alternatives for 2025

Jira is one of the most widely used platforms for IT teams on the market today. More specifically, it offers a highly advanced, ready-to-use solution for managing software projects. However, it’s not necessarily suitable for all teams. Like all COTS solutions, it has its own target use cases and ideal customers. Outside of these, some teams may find that it lacks the flexibility for more fringe use cases or isn’t a cost-effective option for simpler ones.

Ronan McQuillan

Feb 19, 2025

How to Build a Feature Request Management Tool in 5 Steps

Feature request management tools are some of the most common workflow apps for both internal and customer-facing use cases. However, the specific information you need to gather and the process for approving requests will vary from one team to the next - or even between individual projects. So, this is also one of the most requested internal tools. Today, we’re checking out how to build a custom solution with Budibase. By the end, you’ll have a fully-functioning app that you can modify with your own data model or approval workflows.

Ronan McQuillan

Feb 18, 2025

FreshService vs ServiceNow | In-Depth Comparison

ServiceNow and FreshService are two of the main players in the ITSM space. However - although their core functionality and use cases are similar, they target very different segments of the market. Because of this, they diverge quite significantly across pricing, user experiences, implementation processes, and NFRs, such as hosting, security, and configurability. Today, we’re diving deep into where each of these tools sits in the market, including who they’re for, what they cost, and what the offer.

Ronan McQuillan

Feb 13, 2025