The new capabilities, delivered through the IBM Rational Software Development Platform, help companies break down development silos by tracking software-related activities across their global software supply chains, even when those projects rely on team members and assets that are highly distributed.
For example, in a typical product development cycle, multiple teams are designated to manage specific functions such as testing software for bugs, creating a software blueprint, and pushing the final code into production. The hand-offs between these organizational silos can be manual and error prone, and are further complicated when teams are distributed, speak different languages, or involve business partners.
The new IBM Rational Software Development Platform team products help to reduce this friction and enable greater innovation by automating the software testing process and tracking changes made to software code. As a result, development, test and production teams can better collaborate and break down silos for improved delivery times, lowered costs, and greater software quality.
Today's news builds on IBM's leadership in helping customers govern their software and systems development. IBM was recently named the worldwide market share leader in the application development and project and portfolio management software marketplace based on total software revenue for 2005 for the fifth consecutive year, according to independent analyst firm Gartner Inc. According to the independent report, IBM was the leading market share vendor in total software revenue with 25.4 percent market share, more than double the share of its nearest competitor.
IBM software for business driven development
With the IBM Rational Software Development Platform team products, IBM introduces a level of business discipline that allows even the least-technical executives to exercise appropriate management to make sure that business objectives are being met -- even at the development level of the organization.
"When software development is managed as a business process it becomes a driver of innovation and competitive advantage. Governing the development process allows organizations to take an integrated approach to software development that aligns line-of-business, development and operations teams to improve overall business performance," said Daniel Sabbah, general manager, IBM Rational. "With the new IBM Rational Software Development Platform offerings, IBM breaks down the silos within development teams and allows organizations to govern their software development as a business process."
At the hub of this activity, the new IBM Rational ClearQuest 7 now delivers advanced workflow and activity management to help organizations trace an asset through the software development life cycle, and demonstrate compliance through extensive audit reporting. In addition, IBM has added test management capabilities to Rational ClearQuest resulting in a single solution for development teams to manage tests, defects and project change, while coordinating development and testing among distributed and co-located teams.
"The enhanced traceability that IBM Rational now provides helps Siemens' medical group adhere to FDA compliance requirements," said Rainer Ersch, principle engineer, Siemens AG Corporate Technology. "Quite simply, without this functionality, our products would not meet FDA approval and therefore could not go to market. For my company, e-signatures and deployment tracking are an absolute must."
The twelve new Version 7 products in the IBM Software Development Platform include:
-- IBM Rational Build Forge -- acquired in May 2006, this software helps
customers automate their build and release processes;
-- IBM Rational ClearQuest -- provides full lifecycle traceability.
Integration between IBM Rational Build Forge and IBM Tivoli Provisioning
Manager allows teams to collaborate and manage change throughout the
delivery lifecycle, from tracking requirements, building and releasing
software, managing testing processes through final deployment;
-- IBM Rational ClearCase -- provides software asset management;
-- IBM Rational ClearQuest and Functional Testing -- a new offering to
manage tests, defects and project change in .NET, Java and Web-based
platforms;
-- IBM Rational Portfolio Manager -- integrated project and portfolio
management;
-- IBM Rational Purify Plus -- a runtime analysis solution designed to
help developers write faster, more reliable code;
-- IBM Rational RequisitePro -- track, manage, and document requirements;
-- IBM Rational Robot -- a test automation tool for quality assurance
teams who want to perform functional testing of client/server applications;
-- IBM Rational Rose -- a UML visual design and development tool for
Java, C++, CORBA, Ada, J2EE and .NET-based systems;
-- IBM Rational Rose Real-Time -- a UML visual design and development
tool optimized for real-time and embedded systems with support for Java, C
and C++ languages;
-- IBM Rational Team Unifying Platform -- a new offering which combines
Rational's lifecycle management products;
-- IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager -- for automatic provisioning and
deployment to production environments
Partners Embrace IBM Software Development Platform
In support of the IBM Software Development Platform, the following IBM Business Partners are extending their compliance support and providing flexible, integrated test management across distributed teams:
-- SPI Dynamics -- build and manage secure web applications while
integrating security testing throughout the IT lifecycle.
-- Ring-Zero Software -- enables IBM Rational ClearQuest and other
Rational Eclipse-based tools to manage assets generated by Mercury
QuickTest Pro and Mercury WinRunner.
-- Akimbi -- enables IBM Rational ClearQuest to deploy and access virtual
test configurations.
-- Black Duck Software -- software compliance management solutions help
companies govern how software assets are created, managed, and licensed.
In related news, IBM is also announcing the Ready for IBM Rational program
has been expanded to help developers and customers take advantage of IBM's
industry leading software development platform. Business Partners can now
create and validate offerings to help customers govern their development
lifecycle and adhere to compliance standards. With more than 50 validated
business partner solutions to date, the Ready for IBM Rational program now
includes a simplified validation process and remote, web-based validation.
IBM is also making it easier for ISVs to become a member of the program and
validate tools while receiving access to the Rational ISV enablement team,
information, FAQs, and sample plug-ins and documentation.
Contact: Karen Lilla IBM Communications 1-617-693-8115 Email Contact