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Methods & Tools - News, Facts & Comments Edition - April 2006

*** News ***************************************************************

* A New Nordic Dragon?

Telelogic AB announced the acquisition of the privately held I-Logix, a provider of modelling tools for the embedded market for $80 million paid in cash. I-Logix's revenues 2005 were $26.8 million with 11% in operating margin. I-Logix currently employs 133 people.

The Nordic countries have provided the software engineering world with many references like Simula (considered the first object oriented language), Ivar Jacobson or companies like Mimer, Metacase or Trolltech, but there has not been a software tool company reaching out to conquer the world in the same way than Nokia or Ericsson did it in the mobile phone business.

So Telelogic is therefore unique, as it did already some acquisitions in the past before buying I-Logix. It raised $36 million on the stock market at the beginning of 2005 to support growth. With this money, it bought Popkin Software and Focal to diversify from its original customer base centred on the telecommunication market. With 2005 revenues around $160 million, the company is half the size of Borland. The comparison is not innocent as Telelogic could be considered as a serious competitor in the field of application lifecycle management (ALM), the new target of Borland's strategy. As Borland plans to sell its integrated development environment (IDE) business, the company could be on the same level than Telelogic as far as revenues are concerned.

In a recent press release, Borland cited an IDC forecast that the ALM market will have a 9.2% annual growth rate until 2009. Many companies like MKS, McCabe or Serena are also targeting this market, looking to provide solutions that will manage all items produced in software development from requirements to code, tests and deployment. Each player is starting from a strong position in a part of the lifecycle management (mainly requirements or software configuration management) and tries to expand its lifecycle coverage. Some companies will build additional functions to their tools, but we can also expect new acquisitions, as it could be quicker to buy existing technology, credibility and customer base. The challenge will be thereafter to integrate different products in a coherent solution.

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* JBoss is Red Hot!

In our February issue, we mentioned that a number of open source companies - SleepyCat Software, JBoss and Zend - could be up for sale and that maybe Oracle could buy them all. The same month Oracle acquired SleepyCat, the company managing the Berkeley DB products, but JBoss was finally bought by Red Hat. April 10, Red Hat announced that it would acquire JBoss for approximately $350 million, 40% in cash and 60% in stock. Depending on certain future performance of JBoss, Red Hat could pay $70 million more for JBoss.

The price could seem relatively high for a company that had only estimated 2005 revenues of $30 million and earnings of $3 million (as a private company, JBoss did not release public figures), but Red Hat may think that it could boost JBoss revenues with added credibility, enlarged product offering and access to its existing customers base of companies used to work with open source products.

For JBoss it seems that Red Hat is a good solution for many reasons. The price paid is at the level of what JBoss was looking for. It will also preserve a lot of autonomy operating as a new division of Red Hat. This is an important point for JBoss CEO Marc Fleury and things could have been different if they had been bought by Oracle.

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* www.softdevnews.com

Get continuous software development news from the Web on our new RSS-based portal where you can choose between different channels: general news, databases, programming languages (C, .NET, Java, PHP), etc. Go to http://www.softdevnews.com

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* M&T Press Releases Forums

You can view the last product and company press releases from software development tools vendors on our forum

*** Numbers ************************************************************

* Is Software Configuration Managed?

Our last poll examined how software configuration management (change management / version control) is performed by organisations. Is it an informal activity or performed with formal procedures that are validated by an automated tool?

Question: How is software configuration management (change management / version control) performed at your location?

No formal procedure and no tool 15%
A formal procedure but no tool. 10%
A tool but no formal procedure 26%
A formal procedure and a tool 49%

Participants: 346

As you can see a large majority of participants is using a tool, but the "managed" part of software configuration is less obvious if you consider the procedural part. Around 40% of participants have no formal procedure for software configuration. The need for a procedure depends on the size of the team and the impact of the developed system. You don't have the same requirements for medical device software than for a web site.

There are some participants that have neither tools nor formal procedures, but this number should be considered with care as smaller software development structure have different needs as far as code sharing or versioning is concerned. According to our last demographic data, 35% of our readers are working with 10 or less developers at their location.

For those interested in defining a procedure, you can look at the article "Use Cases and Implementing Application Lifecycle Management Systems" by Paul Bowden published in our Spring 2006 issue.

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* Quality of Open Source Software Development Tools

More and more developers, especially for web applications, are using development tools produced by the open source community like MySQL, Eclipse, PHP or JBoss. Our new poll examines how the quality of open source tools is perceived against their commercial competitors. We run a similar poll 2 years ago and it will be interesting to compare the results.

Go to [Poll] to participate and to see intermediate results. The final results will be published in our August issue.

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* Archived Polls from Methods & Tools

We have created a poll archive where you can now view the results of all our previous polls: http://www.methodsandtools.com/dynpoll/oldpoll.php

*** Read for You *******************************************************

* Insourcing for Cost Control

In cleaning up the computer mess, Dimon displayed another tenet of his philosophy: Keep a firm grip on IT. Last year he cancelled IBM's seven-year contract to manage J.P. Morgan's computer systems. IT isn't a sideline, he believes, but rather an essential skill the firm should totally control. "When you're outsourcing it's almost impossible to do the integration, because people don't care that much" he says. "We want patriots, not mercenaries". And of course, he also hates paying the markup for having outsiders do the work.

Source: Shaw Tully, "The Contender", Fortune European Edition, April 3 2006.

Many large companies, and many banks, have announced recently large outsourcing deals. According to the consulting company Technology Partners International, the total value of contracts worth more than $50 million signed in the first quarter of 2006 increased 173% year-over-year to 22.7 billion. A record number of 83 new deals where signed in the last quarter.

It is therefore interesting to see a contrarian opinion expressed by the CEO of J.P. Morgan. I think that outsourcing deals for large companies are simply the acknowledgement that high management cannot manage the IT function. Where the job has to be done is another debate, but a successful IT results have more chances to happen where the interest of the IT function is aligned with those of the company and where IT people are considered as long term partners and not external costs.

*** Books **************************************************************

If you liked the article of Alan S. Koch and Jared Richardson in our Spring 2006 issue, find more about their knowledge in the following books:

* Agile Software Development: Evaluating The Methods For Your Organization

This book reviews the Agile Manifesto and the 12 Agile principles, and discusses in detail each practice of the six most widely recognized Agile methods. Software developers get clear insight into adoption implications, and the benefits that may accrue.

To get more details on this book or buy it on amazon.com click here

To get more details on this book or buy it on amazon.co.uk click here

* Ship it! A Practical Guide to Successful Software Projects

This book is a collection of tips that show the tools and techniques a successful project team has to use, and how to use them well. It provides quick, easy-to-follow advice on modern practices: which to use, and when they should be applied. Readers will find page after page of solid advice, all tried and tested in the real world.

To get more details on this book or buy it on amazon.com click here

To get more details on this book or buy it on amazon.co.uk click here

*** Conferences ********************************************************

Better Software Conference & EXPO, June 26-29, 2006, Las Vegas

Attend the Better Software Conference & EXPO 2006

Beat the Odds on Your Next Software Development Project

June 26-29, 2006 * Las Vegas, NV

--- EXPLORING DEVELOPMENT LIFECYCLE PRACTICES ---

Managing Projects & Teams * Plan-Driven Development

Agile Development * Process Improvement & Measurement

Testing & Quality Assurance * Security & Special Topics

Register Now and Save $200!

http://www.sqe.com/bsce6mt

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* PSQT West Conference, May 1-5, Las Vegas, NV

48 Track presentations - 21 full-day tutorials.

PSQT teaches methodologies and approaches needed to:

- Improve quality

- Increase team confidence and morale

- Lower support costs

- Improve consistency

- Lower customer returns

- Gain greater political acceptance

- Increase customer satisfaction

- Speed up time to production

- Improve productivity

- Increase customer loyalty

www.psqtconference.com/2006west

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ALM EXPO 2006 - May 23-25, On-Line

Attend the industry's premiere online conference and exposition, ALM EXPO 2006 - May 23-25. With educational conference sessions and keynotes as well as a completely virtual expo center there is something for everyone. PLUS, this year we added a 3rd full day of Pre-Conference Training. Register

online and win an Apple iPod

http://www.almexpo.com/

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* European SEPG 2006, June 12-15, Amsterdam

European practitioners of CMMI-based process improvement gather to learn and discuss best practice with inspirational speakers from Europe and around the world. This vibrant and informative event is a must for those who wish to make significant improvements in quality, cost and delivery precision with software and systems. A joint initiative with the Software Engineering Institute, Pittsburgh.

www.espi.org/sepg

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* NYPHPCon 2006 June 14-16, 2006m, New York

New York PHP, the leader in uniting business and community for open source, announces that it will host the New York PHP Conference & Expo, June 14 – 16, 2006. The conference, titled "The PHP Business Community," will be held at The New Yorker Hotel in New York City. NYPHPCon 2006 will emphasize both business and technical sessions, giving the audience a chance to learn how to better implement PHP within their enterprise and current infrastructures.

http://www.nyphpcon.com/

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* TheServerSide Java Symposium-Europe, 21-23 June 2006, Barcelona

Focused on bleeding-edge technologies & platform-spanning development practices, TSSJS-Europe covers the industry’s most relevant topics: AJAX, Spring, SOA, AOP & more. Join Simon Phipps, John Davies, Gregor Hohpe, Rod Johnson & many more. Register by May 12 for $100 off!

http://javasymposium-europe.techtarget.com/?Offer=JSEmat419

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* WCBF’s Global Six Sigma Summit & Awards, June 27-30, 2006, Las Vegas

Find out how to achieve the same breakthroughs in process improvement as those realized by Manufacturing and Service companies at this cutting-edge event which features a special Software and IT track.

20% discount for readers: use code 5061MandT20.

http://www.gsssa.com/?source=methodsandtools

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* XML Summer School 2006 July 23 - 28 2006, Oxford, England

The XML Summer School is relevant for everyone involved in using, designing or implementing XML-based and related technology solutions. The innovative curriculum is designed by our world renowned chairs. Using their passion for technology to inspire and expand your thinking to enable application for the real world.

http://www.xmlsummerschool.com

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* EuroOSCON September 18-21, 2006, Brussels, Belgium

The O'Reilly European Open Source Convention is where coders, sys admins, entrepreneurs, and business people working in free and open source software gather to share ideas, discover code, and find solutions. EuroOSCON 2006 will feature the projects, technologies, and skills that you need to write and deploy killer modern apps

http://conferences.oreilly.com/eurooscon/

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* VERIFY 2006 Conference October 10-11, Washington DC

VERIFY 2006 addresses technical software testing solutions, i.e. security-, database-, automated-, agile-testing, test modeling, etc. Effective Software Testing requires technical skills, and the conference provides a strong technical program presented by industry leaders and published authors experienced with actual software implementations. Keynote, feature and track presentations plus half-day tutorials. Early-Bird discount for those who register prior to 31 May.

http://www.effectivesoftwaretesting.com/conference_verify.aspx

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* CFP - ICSEA’06 October 29-November 1, 2006, Tahiti, French Polynesia

The International Conference on Software Engineering Advances initiates a series of events covering a broad spectrum of software-related topics. The conference covers fundamentals on designing, implementing, testing, validating and maintaining various kinds of software. Several tracks are proposed to treat the topics from theory to practice, in terms of methodologies, design, implementation, testing, use cases, tools, and lessons learnt. The conference topics cover classical and advanced methodologies, open source, agile software, as well as software deployment and software economics and education.

http://www.iaria.org/conferences/CfPICSEA06.html

*** M&T News ***********************************************************

* Future Issues of Methods & Tools

In future issues, you will find articles on:

* Preventing Project Failure

* Agile Adoption at British Telecom

* Managing an Open Source Project

* Framework-based Web Development with Ruby on Rails

* Software Product Lines

* Creating Domain-specific Modelling Language

* Feature Modelling

* Database Testing

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* Professional Recruitment with Methods & Tools

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The content of this publication cannot be reproduced without prior written consent of the publisher - Copyright (C) 2006, Martinig & Associates

 
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