Borland’s Erik Frieberg, VP of product solutions, told ComputerWire that the launch will be the company’s first step on the road to Service Delivery Optimization (SDO).
The change from our independent application lifecycle management [ALM] products is that we are moving from individual products to customized, role-based solutions, said Frieberg. So far [with Core SDP these products are] not entirely unified, but it has taken us much further down that road.
The Core SDP is described as providing an application lifecycle management (ALM) environment with integrated tools optimized for job function and cross-role interaction.
But Frieberg conceded that although beneath the covers Core SDP is role-based, there are roles missing. So far the company is announcing Analyst, Architect, Developer and Tester roles. Frieberg said that it is likely the company will add a Project Manager role, and also possibly a Security role to these, though he could not yet put dates on those.
Previously code-named Project Themis, Borland said Core SDP will deliver a collaborative architecture for more efficient and predictable software development, featuring a customized work environment for analysts, architects, developers and testers. While these are optimized for specific job functions, they are also claimed to be integrated across the other roles within the application lifecycle. This means that teams get enhanced workflow visibility across the company.
Borland said a key element of Core SDP is the fact it helps ease development pressures by implementing a role-based architecture as the foundation of the software delivery process. It provides each role within the application lifecycle with integrated tools designed to foster workflow across job functions, according to the company.
The reason that Core SDP is only a first step on the road to Borland’s SDO vision is partly because there are not enough roles supported, but also that the platform does not yet provide the levels of visibility into the software development lifecycle and process management that Borland is after. The roles, as well as increased visibility into the development workflows and processes, will be delivered in two more major releases code-named Hyperion and Prometheus.
While Frieberg would not put dates on the delivery of Hyperion and Prometheus, he said that the company usually makes a major platform upgrade once every 12 to 18 months. In the mean time, there will still be numerous enhancements to the company’s underlying tools, such as CaliberRM, Together, JBuilder, StarTeam, and Optimizeit.
