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Borland Software Corp. Monday announced a new software delivery platform that provides role-based software delivery and improved collaboration and process control, and moves the company into more direct competition with Microsoft Corp. and IBM to capture the attention of team developers.
Scotts Valley, Calif.-based Borland announced the release of its new Core SDP, an integrated role-based software delivery platform. Formerly known by the code name Project Themis internally, Borland Core SDP will be the foundation of Borlands Software Delivery Optimization strategy, which is the companys effort to deliver tools to meet the ALM (application lifecycle management) needs of enterprises, company officials said.
Borland Core SDP delivers a collaborative environment for analysts, architects, developers and testers, and integrates each role with that of others involved in the application lifecycle, according to the company. This strategy jibes with that of IBM with its IBM Software Development Platform, code-named Atlantic, and Microsoft with its upcoming Visual Studio Team System, code-named Burton, which the Redmond, Wash., software giant will be touting at the VSLive! conference in San Francisco this week. The initial version of Borlands Core SDP supports Java, through both the Eclipse open-source development platform and Borlands own Java technology, company officials said.
Borland Core SDP will be available later this quarter with support for Java. The company will offer support for Microsofts .Net in a later release, Borland officials said. Company officials said this release might be Borlands most important of the year.
The new Borland offering features tool suites called CoreAnalyst, for enabling business analysts to translate business objectives into software requirements; CoreArchitect, for synchronizing specifications, models and code during the application lifecycle; CoreDeveloper, for combining tools with test cases and other key development components; and CoreTester, for integrating testing teams with defect tracking and requirements management, company officials said.
Borland Core SDP integrates several products from Borlands application lifecycle management lineup, including CaliberRM, for requirements management; Together; JBuilder; StartTeam; and Optimizeit.
Meanwhile, Borland officials said the Borland Core SDP technology enables teams to create customizable workflow processes.
Last month, Borland acquired TeraQuest Metrics Inc., an Austin, Texas, process optimization consultancy, and named TeraQuest co-founder Bill Curtis, co-author of the software CMM (Capability Maturity Model), as Borlands first chief process officer.
Chris Barbin, Borlands senior vice president of worldwide services, said the process component TeraQuest brought to Borlands SDO focus will help customers better align teams, processes and technology in the software lifecycle.
Barbin said the acquisition “rounds out the capabilities of our SDO vision and evolves the ALM story to drive the software delivery process. To achieve that we had to have process capability.”
Barbin said Curtis role within the company is “to work directly with our product groups and continue to drive our product strategy with process-centric thinking.”
Curtis said, “Ill be helping customers see how we can bring the process component to the technology. Borland wants to be a process company, not just a solutions company.”
Borland also has formed a new global process practice under its service organization. Mike Epner, TeraQuests former president, will become vice president of Borlands Process Optimization Practice.
Other TeraQuest executives also will play into the Borland process work.
Joyce Statz, TeraQuest co-founder and Borlands new vice president of knowledge management, will lead the roll-out of Borland University and Borland Accelerate, key education and implementation resources for customers and partners looking to maximize the value of their software investments, Barbin said. And another TeraQuest co-founder, Don Oxley, has become Borlands vice president of process management, working closely with Borlands services and product R&D groups, Barbin said.