Rational Talks to You

Collaborative Software Development: Seamless Work Processes Across Global Teams (SG)
Christine Skinner of IBM discusses the collaborative process that Rational tools enable. Different teams are able to work on the same project, with one picking up where the other left off, and knowing the project status in real time.

Cloud Computing: Expedites Software Delivery (SG)
Kristof Kloeckner of Enterprise Initiatives talks about cloud computing as a means for delivering and consuming IT based services. Development teams are feeling pressure to deliver smarter software, faster, and can be possible if software development infrastructure is placed in a cloud. The cloud can provide a highly automated, virtualized, and flexible service environment.

Collaborative Software Development: Creating An Integrated Workflow Process (SG)
Randy Wyatt of the US Navy discusses how Rational Team Concert has fostered collaboration among his team. With Rational and other tools, the teams are involved in a more collaborative development process, rather than one group handing off to another in a siloed workflow system.

Collaborative Software Development: Working With Partners Around The World (SG)
Martin Nally of IBM speaks about the changing business models around software creation. There are more outsourcing and co-sourcing arrangements, as well as more development teams that collaborate from different countries. These partnerships create challenges including how to manage communication between teams that are distributed around the world, and how to manage deliverables and contracts across the different partners. Rational products offers tools like source code management systems and requirements management tools to help maintian the integrity of these collaborations.

Consolidating Processes for Productivity, Efficiency, and Scalability (SG)
Charles Krueger of BigLever Software speaks about how his company integrates IBM Rational tools into its framework. It uses Rational tools to consolidate processes into a single set of activities, reducing the duplication of efforts. For example, the company is able to help a client build a single product and to customize duplicates as necessary, producing one system that can be configured easily in different ways for different systems. The streamlined process has yielded very high levels of productivity, efficiency, scalability, and time to market improvements.

Requirements Management: Staying Compliant With Federal Regulations (SG)
Andy Acton of Bay State speaks about requirements management and how it helps federal agencies stay compliant with federal regulations. Regulations and policies can be consolidated into a database like Telelogic Doors, so it can be used as a central repository for standardization during the software development lifecycle.

Software Change Management: Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (SG)
Mik Kersten of Tasktop Technologies speaks about the Open Service for Lifecycle Collaboration initiative. The initiative provides open source and enables integration between different applications, offering tools for seamless change management.

Software Development Platform: Enabling Multiple Developers to Code Simultaneously (SG)
Jim Ring, a tools and methods practitioner principal for Blue Cross Blue Shield, discusses how ClearCase allows teams to be working on multiple branches, or versions of the codes; as well as make production fixes. He proceeds to talk about the Rational tools and how they help developers from requirements all the way through testing.

Software Development Tools: Automating Processes To Reduce Time And Cost (SG)
Jim Ring, a tools and methods practitioner principal for Blue Cross Blue Shield, discusses how ClearCase allows teams to be working on multiple branches, or versions of the codes; as well as make production fixes. He proceeds to talk about the Rational tools and how they help developers from requirements all the way through testing.

Software Development Tools: Managing Shorter Development Times (SG)
Eugene Sherman of Elbit Systems speaks about working with increasingly shorter development times, with the software development process expected to come in at just a few months. The company uses IBM products for its development, and by working with IBM Business Partners, its development team is able to find solutions to manage the development process and meet these deadlines.

Software Development Tools: Managing The Life Cycle Of Complex Software Products (SG)
Ken King of IBM discusses the challenges posed by product manufacturers and developers. As software becomes a more significant portion of these products, and more complex, there is an increasing amount of interaction and interconnectivty between products and systems. The IBM Rational software platform for systems is an integrated, end-to-end platform that manages the life cycle of software development and delivery.

IBM Rational Helps Waters Corporation Streamline Compliance Processes (SG)
Waters Corporation is a manufacturer of chemical analysis instrumentation used in the pharmaceutical industry and other industries. Don Cunningham, a business analyst at Waters, organized an audit in order to understand how effective the Rational tools were for demonstrating regulatory compliance. Don explains how the capabilities in the Rational toolset enabled him to quickly and easily answer all of the auditor's questions. "With the Rational tools, I just sit there at my desktop and I can just point to it, bring up the documents and it's all right there."

Software Testing: Implementing Automated Testing (SG)
Nijs Blokland of Sogeti speaks about the current challenges of software testing. In an economic downtown clients want to spend less money on testing without compromising on quality. His company has faced this challenge by implementing automated testing, using Rational to build the models on which their testing scripts are based.