Monday, June 30, 2008

Rational Asset Manager v7.1 is LIVE!

Another version of Rational Asset Manager is released with very cool new capabilities including integrations with IBM Tivoli CCMDB for lifecyle managment and infrastructurally connecting development with operations.

In addition, new capabilities include support for CC UCM, batch file upload and other needed features.

Asset management is an essential part of any organizations, that enables organizations really get the most out of SOA, reuse intiatives and asset collaboration (facilitating designed framework use, patterns and other organizational IP).


For more information: http://www-306.ibm.com/software/awdtools/ram/

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Agile development with Rational

Some of you may think, that Agile development and Rational doesn't go hand in hand. That could be further from the truth!
Agile development is not about no tools, it is about just the right amount of tools and process to help you become more Agile. And well, Rational has just the right tools for that.

Within Agile projects, some require modeling. Yes, modeling. I know you thought that if you are working on Agile projects, you don't need modeling. But that is just not so. I mean, how will you break down your work, how can map out your iterative approach and how will you ensure that the work merges seamlessly. 'Just enough modeling' is the right solution.
As an article on StickyMinds http://www.stickyminds.com/BetterSoftware/magazine.asp?fn=cifea points out "Despite what you may have heard, modeling is an important part of agile software development. Sadly, it doesn’t get a lot of attention, even though it’s a fundamental technique for scaling agile to meet the needs of the real-world situations in which project teams regularly find themselves. It pays to think before you act, and modeling enables you to think through the critical, high-level issues that other techniques struggle to address. " It does pay to think before you act... doesn't it? For more information on Rational Software Architect, you can check out: http://www-306.ibm.com/software/awdtools/architect/swarchitect/index.html

Agile projects also need to be organized in a different way than traditional workflow SDLC, because of the iterative nature of the project. Components and funtionality consistently need to be located, updated, and modified. You, agile teams, may find this helpful:
Smart Agile Development within Dispersed Teams https://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/iwm/web/preLogin.do?lang=en_US&source=dw-c-wcsdpr&S_PKG=050108


Oh, and lets not forget RTC! Rational Team Concert is all about Agile development.
http://blip.tv/file/970632

Managing Solution Architectures

Hey guys,

Sorry we haven't posted for a while, no excuses, just a fact that we'll have to make sure doesn't happen again!

Well, we on the architecture management side have a lot of fun going on. There is a really cool podcast in development, by our very own James Conallen, which I will certainly let you know about once it goes live, on Managing solution architectures. The fact is, most of us are not doing 'green field' development. We are working within the architectural constraints outlined for us, with software that is already running, and sometimes multiple versions of same software due to mergers and acquisitions. How do you manage such an architecture? What is the right architecture to take the solution into the 21st century. I know you heard about SOA, Agile, MDD - but which one is right for you? This podcast positions some facts that may help you decide the right solution and approach for you. Sounds interesting? .. stay tuned!