Wednesday, June 27, 2012

OSLC Integration for Successful Collaboration

Many organizations use a number of lifecycle tools that need to share data, resources and assets. And while the existing integration methods are usually based on proprietary point-to-point APIs. With Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC) there is eaiser and more effective integrations between the many tools that software and product developers use.  OSLC  offers a set of rules as to how software development tools present and share their information with other tools.  A well defined set of regulations allows vendors and customers to focus on the ability of the tools, and not so much on the how the tools will communicate and integrate with each other. 

Tools implementing OSLC can interoperate easily using a linked data approach which enables loosely united integrations with enhanced quality, navigation and traceability of shared data. OSLC  removes complexity of multiple tool integrations, and frees data to be used by ALL tools without having to replicate data. OSLC is a different approach to tool integration that seeks to integrate the resources managed by those tools into the web of data.

Successful collaboration
Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration enable tools from different domains to provide common integration scenario. A good service provider can now connect to variety of ALM tools including HP Quality Center, Microsoft TFS, SharePoint and Atlassian Jira through OSLC linking. They must have  specifications that allow conforming tools to integrate their data through simple and live linking of artifacts contained in these tools.  It must also provide an Enterprise Service Bus-based ALM integration platform to connect different ALM tools from major vendors and open source groups.

With a successful OSLC integration you can create new artifacts in RequisitePro, Quality Center ,  TFS integration , SharePoint and Jira Integration from RTC, RRC and RQM. Users in OSLC Consumer tools will be able to follow the latest status, updates, activities and comments, as these artifacts are getting worked on by different stakeholders. With a successful integration, you will be able to update artifacts and collaborate with other stakeholders.

Organizations using JAZZ-based Rational tools can team with a good service provider to quickly integrate with a wide range of popular ALM tools. A successful OSLC solution will enable the sharing of data through live linking between application lifecycle artifacts originating from multi-vendor ALM tools from HP, Microsoft, Atlassian to ensure effective collaboration.


Other Links

Friday, June 22, 2012

Things that OSLC Integration Can Do

Simply put, OSLC is an Open Service for Lifecycle Collaboration group. In practice, people mostly use it as a generic term for every element that conforms to multiple OSLC defined standards for software development tools. Here, the general idea is to have a set of rules or standards as to how the software development tools represent and share their data with other tools and also with the world. A well defined standard enables customers and vendors to concentrate on the abilities of tools more rather than how the tools will communicate and incorporate with each other. This becomes the foundation for Collaborative Lifecycle Management that IBM prefers to emphasize with every aspect of software development sharing data. This in turn helps to automate and simplify the processes. This is how OSLC integration works.

For instance, email functionality is a component that is considered as a tool by software developers and it has an OSLC interface defined for it. There are numerous vendors who offer this email service for consumers. There is hotmail, Gmail, yahoo and many more. As each of them supports OSLC interface for email, they are considered as OSLC providers. This means each of these are considered to be a web service offering the ability for its consumers.
What does OSLC integration do?

Today eminent companies dealing in Application lifecycle management solutions have introduced OSLC integration solutions. The benefits they offer are:-

● Allow users to browse the list of requirements, test cases, work items, and sets up results and defects from OSLC consumer tool such as IBM RTC

● Any of the above artifacts contained can be linked in multiple tools in the context of requirement, test case and changed item. Users are able to see a preview of the artifact along with live data arising from the source tool

● Consumers can set up new artifacts

● As these artifacts are worked on by various stakeholders, consumers of OSLC consumer tools are able to follow the updated statuses, comments and activities

● Consumers can update artifacts and collaborate with other stakeholders

Any OSLC enabled consumer tools such as RRC and IBM RTC can connect to multiple ALM tools comprising Microsoft TFS, HP Quality Center, Atlassian Jira and SharePoint through OSLC linking. Any ALM artifact in IBM RTC can possess a live link to any artifact in Microsoft TFS. Companies offering OSLC integration are presently enabling OSLC specifications for Quality Management, Change Management and Requirements Management.

Other Links



Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Enhance Your Project with Best Requirement Management Tools

It is a known fact, that within the systems development and distributed software project, Requirement Management often plays a crucial role in the total success of any project. In fact, for an optimal and efficient handling of requirements, a comprehensive functional Requirements Management tool is more than just a necessity. It can be rather termed as a potential life saver. As soon as an organization puts into use requirement management practice with spreadsheets and documents, it is able to convert the same into a liability than just a reliable tool.

Important Aspects of Requirement Management
There are two crucial aspects of requirements management that comprises of reusability and collaboration. Collaboration forms the nucleus for operating together to share data and to complete agendas. For the new age software development practices, collaboration amidst various roles/groups working across multiple territories has become an imperative. Amidst the various stages of software development life cycle, the requirement management stages need much higher collaboration. This is because numerous distributed stakeholders are required to be involved in reviewing, creating and sanctioning requirements.

Industry Offerings in Requirement Management
Eminent service providers in application lifecycle management today have introduced efficient requirement management tools. The best way to describe this solution is by terming it “anytime anywhere requirements” management, gathering and analysis application. The solution allows team members to share project objectives and deliverables. They can collaborate on managing requirements concerns globally. Furthermore, the solution with its rich implementation of requirements gathering, management, parsing, base lining, traceability and intelligent reporting in a process oriented methodology, enables the project teams to map and manage requirements effectively. This helps to create a feature rich product.

In addition to that, innovative requirement management tools are 100 percent web based. They are especially optimized for project work that can be disseminated between buildings on a particular campus or other sites round the globe. Other features allow the following benefits:-

* Telecommuters work more effectively
* Better management and control of offshore projects
* Better collaboration with different internal functional groups
* Better collaboration with service partners

Therefore, a standard requirements management solution generally supports email notifications to any email addresses automatically or generated manually on an ad-hoc basis. At the same time, it is helpful in seamlessly upgrading the software to the end-user. The web based software results in better TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) which is less as compared to similar client-server software with a light web interface offering a comparatively small subset of features.

Other Links



Friday, June 8, 2012

OLSC Integration for Successful Collaboration

Many organizations use a number of lifecycle tools that need to share data, resources and assets. And while the existing integration methods are usually based on proprietary point-to-point APIs. With Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC) there is eaiser and more effective integrations between the many tools that software and product developers use.  OSLC  offers a set of rules as to how software development tools present and share their information with other tools.  A well defined set of regulations allows vendors and customers to focus on the ability of the tools, and not so much on the how the tools will communicate and integrate with each other. 

Tools implementing OSLC can interoperate easily using a linked data approach which enables loosely united integrations with enhanced quality, navigation and traceability of shared data. OSLC  removes complexity of multiple tool integrations, and frees data to be used by ALL tools without having to replicate data. OSLC is a different approach to tool integration that seeks to integrate the resources managed by those tools into the web of data.

Successful collaboration
Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration enable tools from different domains to provide common integration scenario. A good service provider can now connect to variety of ALM tools including HP Quality Center, Microsoft TFS, SharePoint and Atlassian Jira through OSLC linking. They must have  specifications that allow conforming tools to integrate their data through simple and live linking of artifacts contained in these tools.  It must also provide an Enterprise Service Bus-based ALM integration platform to connect different ALM tools from major vendors and open source groups.

With a successful OLSC integration you can create new artifacts in RequisitePro, Quality Center , TFS integration , SharePoint and Jira Integration from RTC, RRC and RQM. Users in OSLC Consumer tools will be able to follow the latest status, updates, activities and comments, as these artifacts are getting worked on by different stakeholders. With a successful integration, you will be able to update artifacts and collaborate with other stakeholders.

Organizations using JAZZ-based Rational tools can team with a good service provider to quickly integrate with a wide range of popular ALM tools. A successful OSLC solution will enable the sharing of data through live linking between application lifecycle artifacts originating from multi-vendor ALM tools from HP, Microsoft, Atlassian to ensure effective collaboration.

Other Links 

Friday, June 1, 2012

Requirement Management: Solutions For Effective and Agile ALM

Globalization has given the modern enterprises customers from across varied regions and locations. However, the growth of enterprises being mainly dependent on the customer satisfaction, understanding customer requirement becomes vital for every organization. The accuracy of requirement analysis paves way for the organizations to identify the areas for improvement.

Customer requirements can be gathered through sources such as emails, market surveys, online surveys or discussion forums. Keeping track of customer activities is another way of tracing changing customer demands. Such methods of requirements management will enable enterprises to work out effective marketing strategies and applications for customer retention.

ALM includes developing of applications and maintenance of its life cycle, which is a critical process. However, the requirement of cautious handling demands tools used in the requirements management process to be supportive of team collaboration. Agile requirements management tool development by the leaders in the industry besides providing the organizations with relevant information and compliance requirements will also leverage the software development process. The requirement management tools with its comprehensive traceability facilitate analysis of proactive and reactive impacts and can be reused for quality improvement of application life cycle management solutions, thus reducing time and cost.

Requirements management is a web-based application, used to gather information, manage and analyze irrespective of the time and location. This involves the sharing of information, goals, and deliverables and collaboration across various teams across various locations. However, being a process driven methodology, facilitates effective management and mapping of requirement by the project teams. In a era when most of the global organizations depend on their mobile workforce, such requirement management tools with its functionality and configuration process supported through the web provides effective work environment for the telecommuters. This also enables organizations to manage and control their offshore teams better and enhance the collaboration within the internal teams and service partners.

Further, these intelligent requirement tools should enable enterprises to determine the requirements of the vast customer base and facilitate implementing important application lifecycle management decision. The various reports generated, product road maps, compliance tests and trend charts will facilitate organizations to develop customized products. To ensure high-level of customer satisfaction, the QC integration capabilities of the requirement management tools are used by the enterprises for conducting tests, effective identification and verification of defects so as to ensure delivery of quality products in the market.

The use of efficient IT service management tools provides organizations with consistent support to carry out smooth requirement management process without disrupting their core operations.

Other Links