The last few posts have been talking about the different product offerings in the IBM Rational portfolio. They help in automation of processes designed after years of extensive research based on interaction with customers and real world implementations. This helps in designing effective solutions for the real world problems faced by businesses today. All this information has been collated into two process frameworks catering specifically to agile software delivery teams. They are the Measured Capability Improvement Framework and Rational Practices.
Measured Capability Improvement Framework (MCIF)
The MCIF helps business owners and key stakeholders understand if the new approach adopted is delivering or not. This helps teams to continuously improve and innovate their software and systems delivery with the help of measurement and continuous improvement. MCIF also helps teams specialize and develop key competencies in agile development – practices which directly contribute towards business objectives.
Rational practices
The IBM Rational Method Composer helps agile teams with the right amount of leeway while dealing with processes, when they need it by providing Rational Practices. Irrespective of expertise level of the team, Rational Practices provides a customized approach to the various iterations of the Software Development Life Cycle and delivers more consistent results, quicker.
In our previous post, we spoke about the Jazz platform. There are other offerings from Rational which can positively impact the entire software development and delivery process. Various tools contribute towards different stages of the software development lifecycle. Capabilities like architecture management, change and release management, enterprise architecture management, requirements management, product, project and portfolio management, quality management and targeted solutions are all features of the various products in the Rational portfolio.
These capabilities can help you model and develop superior software and systems, enhance software delivery and lifecycle traceability throughout the entire SDLC and help you make the correct decisions to drive your business forward. Requirement management, alignment of business goals, adoption of best practices and assuring functionality, reliability, security and compliance are all possible with the Rational portfolio.
One of the main products in the Rational stable is Jazz – a technology platform for software delivery and collaboration. Built on the findings of extensive research, it is ideal for distributed teams working across a global network. It is pioneering the change in how people collaborate to build software while making them more productive, accountable and transparent.
Jazz helps teams collaborate, automate and report in a very efficient manner. Collaboration is achieved using social networks and virtualized team memory. This is very useful in overcoming spatial divide and differing time zones. Individual and team workflows are automated throughout the entire process – from requirements gathering to delivery and support. Jazz also enables implementation of processes – without any additional costs being incurred. Reporting is also enhanced using the Jazz platform. With an overview of the entire process and the ability to get real time information and insight into programs, utilization and projects, the team is better equipped to make more intelligent decisions. Information is available readily and contributes towards the continuous measurement of progress against the business objectives.
All of these also help in a cohesive integration of the different stages of the software delivery lifecycle.
Innovation is often the key differentiation for organizations in the marketplace. To gain majority marketshare, fatter profits and industry leader status, organizations must innovate constantly. In fact, innovation is so important that 94% of C – Level executives surveyed place innovation as one of the top priorities for their organization.
Despite the importance placed on innovation, often the results leave the business owners dissatisfied – Over 45% of the owners are unsure or unhappy with the results of their organizations’ collaboration and innovation drives.
Approaching innovation as a chaotic, amorphous cloud cannot yield appropriate results. Complete usage of available opportunities is only possible if the entire process of innovation is structured and managed. Each step of the process – ideation, evaluation, selection, prioritization and implementation, should be made measurable to boost and improve the quality of the results of the innovation exercise at the enterprise level.
Social innovation is a viable channel to benefit from the wisdom of the masses. Involving customers in the product development process results in the most successful products and integrate them into the core processes. Furthermore, as a tried and tested method, these organizations are also innovating the methods and channels adopted to engage and connect with the customers.
Not every idea is a great one. That is par for the course, considering innovation. To manage innovation effectively, each idea as an investment. Apart from collating the ideas, a structured process to differentiate the ideas is essential. Adoption of systemic processes and tools can greatly enhance the tangible results of various innovation innovatives.
Some of the benefits of managing innovation are:
Enhanced, targeted decision making
Aligning product offerings and business objectives
Businesses need to proactively manage change, instead of struggling to keep up. Our Enterprise Modernization story focuses on helping customers save
today and build a smarter foundation for future investments. We focus on 4 primary focus areas Applications, People, Teams and Infrastructure to achieve the optimal business value in today’s tough economic climate.
Applications are all about how you can be smart in maintaining and extending the applications that run your business
People focuses on the employees who build the applications. We have smart people. How can we help them deliver their best work?
Team is about smart ways for the people to work together to build high quality applications in a timely manner, especially in today’s geographically dispersed world.
Infrastructure is the other area that focuses on how customers can get the most out of the infrastructure they already have. Given today’s challenging economic times, customers are not interested in rip & replace, it is all about leveraging what they already have.
Let me know if any of these ring a bell and I could further substantiate these areas.
As the head of the IBM Rational India labs, I come across a lot of examples in my day to day work life on the software market and I get to see some best practices applied across Industry for software and systems delivery. I felt this is an ideal platform to share my views and interact with all of you interested in the same.
I strongly believe, that Software is the main component of Innovation and to be Innovative in this world, we seek knowledge and tools to support our cause and goals. From the Automobile major, thinking of the next big innovation to drive business growth, to the home maker trying to balance her responsibilities and keep her family happy, software is touching lives all over the world, in more ways than we can comprehend. A classic example is the Innovation by GM for its hybrid car, Volt which actually has many many more lines of software code than the first space shuttle launch. That’s the quantum leap in the use of software. The GM Volt case study is an excellent example and I urge all of you to take a look at it. Software is truly everywhere…
Having said this, as we get into an environment where software systems have to co-exist with widely disparate systems to achieve favorable business outcomes, there needs to be a slightly different approach to be successful:
An Incremental Approach to ensure all external/internal dependencies are being addressed effectively
Measured Capability Improvement around parameters that are essential for a successful outcome and if they are not on target measure & steer to achieve success
An Integrated Delivery Platform that can support an heterogeneous environment and provide real-time data for effective collaboration across multiple disciplines
These are my experiences and what keeps me up at night… I would love to hear your thoughts on this…
As we get into an environment where software systems have to co-exist with widely disparate systems to achieve favorable business outcomes, there needs to be a slightly different approach to be successful:
An Incremental Approach to ensure all external/internal dependencies are being addressed effectively
Measured Capability Improvement around parameters that are essential for a successful outcome and if they are not on target measure & steer to achieve success
An Integrated Delivery Platform that can support an heterogeneous environment and provide real-time data for effective collaboration across multiple disciplines
Breaking News!!! Pankaj Sinha, the Head of Rational India Lab will be connecting with you directly on the Rational India Blog through his very own section, Pankaj’s Corner.
Pankaj’s Corner is for you to get direct access to his insights on current trends around software engineering. This will also provide a perspective on what Rational is doing to address the current challenges around software, systems and enterprise modernization.. Connect with Pankaj and stay tuned for the latest updates!
Pankaj Sinha - Head of Rational India Lab
A Brief Bio of Pankaj
Pankaj has 24 years of industry experience and has been with IBM for the last 18 years. He has been with the IBM Software Lab, India since its inception and has played key product development leadership roles across both Software Group (SWG) and Systems & Technology Group (STG). He currently leads the Rational India Lab that focuses on Development & Support of Rational Products. He also has worldwide development responsibilities for a product & portfolio management product- Focal Point. Prior to his current role, he was instrumental in setting up the India SWG Lab Services team in 2005, that is mandated to work closely with customers and partners in making the adoption of IBM Software Group Products and Solutions successful. He has also been the Development Manager for several messaging & transaction middleware, products and has extensive experience working with global multi-site development & support teams. He has also worked for Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and Ramco Systems, where his experience spanned Development of Embedded and Real Time Digital Signal Processing Systems. Pankaj is an ’87 Engineering Graduate in Electronics & Communication from IIT- Roorkee.
Waters is a manufacturer of instrumentation used for chemical analysis that’s used in the food, pharmaceutical and a number of other industries. Waters was looking for better integration and connectivity with all of its systems- a common platform for all its systems.
“About 5 years ago Waters made a number of additional acquisitions overseas and essentially wound up with a situation where we had 4 separate software development groups. Basically, we wanted to have a common platform for all of our tools in our systems that we were developing. So, we needed to have a solution that allowed us to have collaboration across all sites, but added in a manner that [would work even if] everybody can’t be available at the same time” says Don Cunningham, a business analyst at Waters.
Rational provided them with tools which are inexpensive and enabled them to quickly and easily answer all financial questions. The solution that IBM offered to Waters is really a system of systems.
To understand and learn more about the IBM Rational toolset, visit our page.
Web site security and compliance is a top priority for organisations. It protects sensitive company, customer and employee data, helps meet regulatory and corporate compliance requirements and defends against the high cost of a data breach. Web sites and online applications are prime targets for hackers as they provide straight access to corporate and personal data.
IBM’s Rational AppScan and Rational Policy Tester are Web site security and compliance solutions which automate application and content analysis. Organisations can identify weaknesses, assess compliance requirements, and improve online systems’ accuracy and reliability. The software helps IT and security professionals protect against the threat of attacks and data breaches.
If Web applications collect or exchange sensitive or personal data, an organization’s security professional’s job is harder now than ever before. Implementing Quality Assurance and development policies in the security testing process produces secure applications of higher-quality applications at a reasonable cost.
Rational’s Web application security solutions – the IBM Rational AppScan product family is ideal for all stages of development and for all types of testers.
The products provide:
Automated Scanning and Testing for common vulnerabilities – such as SQL-Injection, Cross-Site Scripting, and Buffer Overflow
Broad application coverage
Advanced remediation capabilities
Over 40 standard security compliance reports
Web site compliance solutions automate content scanning and analysis to help ensure compliance with privacy, accessibility, and key industry regulations. Other solutions help organizations reduce their risk by identifying issues impacting compliance and site usability.
