Enterprises that can best benefit from the adoption of Project Management (PM) tools are those with an organized PM process and methodology in place. Only PM teams with full user buy-in tend to realize the full benefit of collaboration tools. Use the recommendations in this note to avoid failure and wasted investment by knowing how to determine if the enterprise is ready.
IBM's Rational Software Division recently held its 2008 Software Development Conference. Key announcements included significant Jazz platform developments with Rational products and new collaboration tools supporting the entire application lifecycle management (ALM) process.
Periodically, every enterprise should consider how advancements in technology or technology management practices can be applied to drive business value. Advancements can be new product announcements or new uses for proven technologies.
With the increasing complexity of software development in terms of Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), security, and globally distributed development, there is a need for better collaboration. Consider ALM 2.0 while staying well grounded with these three recommendations.
At its annual "Max" conference Adobe showed off its Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) which brings rich Internet applications (RIAs) and the best of Web development standards to the offline desktop experience. In the enterprise, Adobe hopes to mashup any distinction between Internet, intranet, enterprise and desktop application development with AIR.
An open source solution (OSS) such as LAMP can offer capital cost savings. However, choose LAMP only if the development team has the right skill set and experience to leverage the flexibility of an OSS to produce high performance Web applications.
Microsoft's Visual Studio Team System (VSTS) 2008 supports collaborative Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) in Microsoft shops of all sizes. Small enterprises interested in expanding established collaborative workflows with an ALM suite should review VSTS 2008 to determine if it can meet internal requirements.
Software change and configuration management (SCCM) tools provide development teams with a way to optimize processes and manage changes in code that arise in response to changing requirements and defect correction. SCCM tools also provide management with visibility into project progress and team performance. AccuRev 4.7 is one such tool and is noteworthy for its simple setup and maintenance.
UAT can increase customer satisfaction in the development of an application and validate that requirements have been met. Do not overlook this important stage in the software development lifecycle.
An application generator can provide great benefits to the development process, but also can bring significant risk. Understand the tradeoffs of this code creation tool and apply it judiciously to ensure successful outcomes.