Set to unveil dashboard to measure whether projects are meeting expectations

Compuware Corp. is set to unveil a tool and a strategy that aims to ease some of the angst of IT managers struggling to deliver projects that meet user requirements on time and within budget. The company next week will announce that it is integrating its application life cycle management products, and that it has developed a new set of dashboards to measure how various activities like project management and quality assurance are performing compared with a list of requirements created at the beginning of the project. 

The new Compuware Optimal line of integrated life cycle products was created to ensure that the requirements of the business are infused into all phases of the application development process, said Mike Burba, Compuware’s marketing director for application delivery management solutions. To that end, its DevPartner, OptimalJ, Optimal Trace and QACenter products will all be linked through the new Optimal Delivery Manager integrated dashboard, which will enable users to measure the effectiveness of the requirements management efforts. 

“The intention is to give end-to-end life cycle visibility into all the projects going through an application delivery organization,” he said. “We are now automatically pushing metrics from each of those tools into an integrated dashboard. That means all the metrics on these dashboards use business requirements as the unit of measure.” The goal of tying the tools together with the dashboards, he added, is to help IT executives better grapple with the Achilles’ heel of development: building software that adequately meets end user requirements. 

“Historically we have been horrible at delivering projects successfully,” Burba said. “IT executives are saying, ‘Lets figure out why we’re not doing this well and find out what we need to do to become more predictable. All they want is the ability to get better visibility into project status and project quality.” 

Optimal Delivery Manager will be available June 15.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced that analyst firm Gartner, Inc. has ranked IBM as the worldwide market share leader in the application development marketplace based on total software revenue in 2006. This marks the sixth consecutive year that IBM is the global leader in the application development software market, according to Gartner. 

According to the independent report, IBM is the leading market share vendor in total software revenue, with 25.2 percent market share, more than double the share of its nearest competitor. The worldwide application development and project and portfolio management software market grew 7.2 percent in 2006 to nearly $7.2 billion, according to Gartner. “Customers need an open and flexible environment for developing software. The one-size-fits-all approach does not work for the multi-platform enterprise customer,” said Dr. Danny Sabbah, general manager, IBM Rational Software. “IBM’s continued market share leadership is a clear testament to our cross-platform strategy and end-to-end software portfolio.” 

IBM was also noted for its overall leadership across application development market sub-categories, including Java AD Tools, Object Oriented Analysis & Design, Software Change & Configuration Management-Distributed, and Language-oriented development — the largest application development submarket. In addition, Gartner named IBM market share leader in the Requirement Management sub-category in the Middle East and Africa, Japan and Latin America regions. According to the report, IBM is also the market share leader for the Testing-Mainframe category in the Middle East and Africa and Japan. IBM Rational helps clients govern the business process of software and systems delivery. IBM Rational products and best practices power the IBM Rational Software Delivery Platform, the premier platform for teams who build, extend, modernize, integrate and deploy software in business applications, embedded systems and software products. This cross-platform solution offers IBM customers and business partners an integrated application development environment that is based on open standards, including the universal Eclipse framework. 

Gartner’s Market Share Report titled “Market Share: Application Development and Project and Portfolio Management, Worldwide, 2006″ is authored by Laurie Wurster, Fabrizio Biscotti and Asheesh Raina and was published May 22, 2007. The report analyzes the total software revenue for vendors in the application development and project and portfolio management markets. Gartner is a leading provider of research and analysis on the global information technology industry. IBM helps developers remain competitive in today’s fast-paced development environment. Innovative programs such as IBM developerWorks, the premier technical resource for software developers, and IBM alphaWorks, IBM’s emerging technologies outlet, provide an online community for the developers of today and tomorrow. Developers who are independent software vendors can take advantage of sales and marketing tools, skill-building courses and technical support by joining the worldwide IBM PartnerWorld program. IBM’s Academic Initiative and IBM Rational Software Development Conference are examples of the ongoing learning and community-building programs needed by students, educators and developers worldwide. 

For more information, visit http://www.ibm.com/rational. 

Checkpoint Technologies, a premier professional services firm specializing in software quality assurance and testing, announced that it has become an authorized reseller for SPI Dynamics, the leading provider of web application security testing software.

Checkpoint Technologies will offer SPI Dynamic’s comprehensive and accurate suite of application security products that support the entire Web application lifecycle, from development and quality assurance to deployment, ongoing operations management and auditing.

“Our partnership with SPI Dynamics enables us to provide web application security solutions that will further enhance our client’s ability to deliver trustworthy software”, said Bob Crews, President of Checkpoint Technologies. “SPI Dynamics is widely known as the web application security experts.”

About SPI DYNAMICS
SPI Dynamics’ comprehensive suite of products and services identify and remediate web application and web services security vulnerabilities throughout the application development lifecycle. These award-winning solutions also enable security professionals, QA testers, and developers to work together to verify compliance with over 22 security policies like SOX, HIPAA and PCI. For more information, visit http://www.spidynamics.com.

About Checkpoint Technologies
Checkpoint Technologies is a premier provider of leading edge solutions and services in all areas of Quality Assurance and software testing. The company delivers a wide range of highly customized and focused solutions including senior-level consulting, training, mentoring, contracted staff supplementation, outsourcing and Quality Assurance software products that optimize an organization’s investment in technology. More information about Checkpoint Technologies is available at http://www.checkpointech.com.

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General Robotics Limited (GRL), the leading supplier of subsea simulators, and Saipem UK’s Sonsub Division have signed a framework agreement to cooperate on future product development. The first bespoke product from the agreement will be a Soil Mechanics module designed as an add-in to GRL’s  DeepSim desktop subsea planning simulator. GRL is writing the software with scenario input from Sonsub. Sonsub’s contribution is general in terms of its wide experience of seabed conditions, but highly specific where this relates to the behavioural characteristics of the equipment it uses on the seafloor. The result is a generic, open architecture, seabed soil mechanics simulator which GRL will add to its product line, and plug-in modules which are specific to Sonsub’s techniques and equipment, and which will remain Sonsub’s property. Sonsub’s engineers will be able to develop these models further for themselves. GRL can supply soil mechanics simulators to other customers and help them to develop their own modules built around the equipment and methodologies they employ. 

“Cooperation between Sonsub and GRL is proving an excellent vehicle for ventures into uncharted engineering and operational areas,” said Giorgio Martelli, Sonsub’s General Manager.  “The ability to model complex interactions between seabed and offshore equipment in a way that is both intuitive and real-time, will increase the accuracy of our subsea project planning.” “The importance of this agreement with Sonsub is the high level of commitment on both sides to developing advanced tools to meet the immediate operational needs of both parties,” said Dr Jason Tisdall, Managing Director, General Robotics Limited. “Attempting to predict what happens when you try to position pipelines and other equipment on the ocean floor is complex and very expensive when you get it wrong. The significance of the new product will lie in modelling seabed behaviour so as to predict and avoid problems.” 

About General Robotics Limited  Founded in 1988, GRL is the world leader in developing customised, subsea simulation solutions. GRL has established a reputation for delivering high quality, innovative simulation tools for: 

• Visualisation, planning and inspection for the off-shore oil industry 
  

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• Training/planning simulators for ROVs and submarine rescue vehicles. 
  

Central to this success is the exceptional quality of GRL’s engineers many of whom have been with the company since it began.  www.generalrobotics.co.uk  About Sonsub Sonsub is a part of the worldwide Saipem group that specialises in subsea intervention and remote technology via three main business service lines: Subsea Construction, Remotely Operated Vehicles and Tools, Inspection, Repair and Maintenance of subsea oil & gas facilities. The Sonsub Division maintains offices in the USA, United Kingdom, Norway, Italy, and Singapore.  Supporting Sonsub’s capabilities is its fleet of over 60 remotely operated vehicles, specialised tooling packages for intervention and tie-ins, and 10 installation vessels

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