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

IT service management 

Requirements management software

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

Requirements management tool

Visual Studio Integration

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 

eclipse integration

requirements management software

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

enterprise service bus

change management

Fulfilling Results with the Integrated ALM Tools

The globalized business environment is the result of technological innovations which have arisen from factors such as customer demands and scientific inventions. However to meet the aggressive competitiveness prevalent in such an environment, organizations still struggle to develop new products, services and applications that adhere to IT governance and compliance practices. Irrespective of the type product or application, these are further bound by its respective lifecycle period.
Application Lifecycle management or ALM is a continuous process which involves managing the lifecycle of an application through its development, maintenance, governance and compatibility stages. These three, governance, development and operation are the distinct aspects of ALM. Governance extends over the entire application lifecycle and includes all of the decision-making and project management aspects.  Development, which spans through an application’s lifecycle, includes the process of creating an application and its multiple upgrades and newer versions. Operation refers to the work required to run an application. The business value of the software or application is thus dependent on all these aspects.

Further, the successful implementation of IT governance and compliance practices paves for an increased productivity levels in the organization.

Technological innovations have paved way for the development of a number of ALM tools However, the diversity of these tools makes application lifecycle management a complicated process. Since ALM refers to the management of all phases of an applications lifecycle, through one tool, integrating the various tools will not only simplify the diversity and will also make ALM implementation a much easier process.

In an environment where most of the projects are handled by teams which are distantly located, ALM tools thus developed must be one that would cover aspects like requirement management, test management, issue management, change management, release management,  collaboration management etc . An integrated tool will help project managers gain better control over their projects, provide better collaborations between the distantly located team members and facilitate traceability between project artifacts while eliminating unnecessary documentation. Ideally integration should be both horizontally and vertically.

Leading service providers however offer client organization with software development life cycle tool integration process with three alternative approaches; a point-to-point integrated multi vendor tools, single vendor integrated ALM tools and a multi-vendor best of breed Integrated ALM Tools. The point-to-point integration though simple has complications when implementing changes. The Single vendor tools integration also has limitations, whereas the multi-vendor tools integration process is free from any limitations.

The  integration approach based on  ALM platform technology makes application development significantly simpler, protects investments, allows organizations to use best of the breed tools by integration multiple third party ALM tools such as eclipse integration, TFS integration etc from various vendors in a single ecosystem. Further, without any hard-coded integration business rules, these are configurable at the mouse controls and has a multi-tool proactive change analysis with a flexible traceability matrix between various artifacts.

Other Links

Enterprise service bus

SDLC

Advanced ALM Solutions Offerings

Defining Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) is not very easy. Different people and organizations have their own take and perspectives on the same. Still, ALM is a crucial topic in today’s corporate world. Sometimes people confuse ALM with Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). ALM is way different from SDLC. An application’s lifecycle comprises of the total time through which an enterprise is incurring expenditure in this asset i.e. from the beginning idea stage to the final phase of the product’s life. To be both accurate and useful, ALM today needs to have an equally wide perspective.

Features of Advanced Application Lifecycle Management Solutions

Today there are leading market players providing a well-equipped ALM studio specializing in Application Lifecycle Management solutions. They cater multiple aspects ranging from requirements management to the final product release stage. Furthermore, there are other members, for instance customers, analysts, software architects, designers that share deliverables and assignment goals amongst them. This is then collaborated worldwide. Other features are:-

* 100 percent web based solutions - Users are able to access a web architected grounds-up framework through popular browsers such as, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome and many others

* There are Multiple input procedures that helps users to have any requirements through the following methods – Sending them by Email, Import them from Microsoft Word Document,

* Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, or a CSV file with a configurable format, Submitting inputs from a corporate portal or website or from any third party tools in real-time

* Entity Relations – The common feature in a Requirements Management tool is traceability and advanced ALM solution have expanded this Traceability Relations making it a central feature for its built-in applications

* IT Process Automation – ALM solutions assists in total IT process automation of the in-built application However, the three essential aspects of Application Lifecycle Management comprise governance, development and operations. Furthermore, the modern day ALM tools include the following:-

* Multi-vendor Best of Breed Integrated ALM Tools

* Point-to-point Integrated Multi Vendor Tools

* Single Vendor Integrated ALMTools

ALM solutions are also capable of creating multiple kinds of reports and using multiple reporting tools such as:-

* HTML, allowing direct printing from the application

* Export any lists to Excel for additional formatting and manipulation

* In-built Crystal Reports that provide simple means to perform custom formatting

* Word Reporting leads to fully personalized formatting with multi-level data elements

* Dashboard Report with updates information from the system for reporting any aspect of the project that comprises the overall Project Health or Process Indices Report with Graphical,

* Tabular and Chart formats

Thus we see that innovative ALM solutions help the users to fit in the software delivery process as per their needs.

Other Links

Enterprise service bus

Gain Greater Insight into Application Development with ALM

The lifecycle of any application comprises of different phases such as idea, design, development, testing, deployment and management. Usually, application development organizations spend a fortune in buying expensive function tools to manage requirement management, architecture, coding, build, testing, tracking, release management and more. In addition, these organizations spend a great amount of their time in training their employees in using these tools. However, even after that, they fail to get full value out of these investments. This is because even though the organizations are equipped with best of breed tools for different phases of the application lifecycle and well-trained employees there is no effective collaboration and synchronization between the different tools to ensure consistent quality.

In a typical application development environment, the different stakeholders such as business analysts, architects, developers, testers and managers have no idea regarding the overall application development activities and status. They work in isolation using siloed point function tools that include Requirements Management tool, Test Management tool, Issues Management tool, Risk Management tool, Release Management tool, Project Management tool, Document Management tool, Test Automation tool, and Debugger/Profiler. Since all are working towards developing a high quality software application, lack of collaboration and integration between the various stakeholders hurt the quality of the software application developed badly. Last minute surprises prove costly and affect the overall software application development process causing irreparable damage. Such a situation can be overcome using Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) solution.

Application Lifecycle Management or rather ALM according to Forrester is “the coordination of development life-cycle activities, including requirements, modeling, development, build,and testing, through:

·         enforcement of processes that span these activities;

·         management of relationships between development artifacts used or produced by these activities; and

·         reporting on progress of the development effort as a whole. “

ALM helps application development companies to produce software applications of high quality at a faster rate. ALM manages the life of an application or applications throughproper and continuous monitoring, development and maintenance. It does not manageany single activity of a lifecycle management process; instead, it synchronizes various development activities to develop high quality software applications in a timely manner and for a reasonable cost.

Thus, ALM integration helps the various stakeholders gain greater visibility into the progress and quality of development projects by providing them up-to-date real-time information also integrates disparate tools together.  

Irrespective of whether the project is developed in the office next door, or by a facility 10,000 miles and 10 time zones away, ALM helps organizations to develop applications that match not only with business requirements but also with all internal and external requirements.

Hence, instead of investing in siloed tools, companies must invest in ALM software to fast track their business success.

Other Links

tfs integration

ALM Integration