During 2004, IBM will make available products from its Rational business unit through the developerWorks Toolbox, a CD containing evaluation copies of IBM’s developer tools and software runtimes.
Inclusion of Rational’s tools will introduce the concept of application lifecycle management (ALM) to Toolbox, launched this year and aimed at early-stage developers.
IBM believes the addition of ALM will meet the needs of project managers, tester and application architects, moving beyond the toolbox’s more technology-focused developer subscribers.
Toolbox is available under IBM’s developerWorks program, which schools programmers in building applications using IBM code. The Toolbox provides copies of IBM’s WebSphere development tools, DB2 database and Lotus collaborative software.
CDs are customizable and save developers money, IBM claims. The company has said WebSphere Studio, through Toolbox, costs 50% less than the full price.
The Toolbox is an attempt to get programmers playing with IBM’s code at an early stage, building in loyalty and ensuring applications are built for the company’s platforms on a on-going basis.
Rational, with competitor Borland Software Corp [BORL], are now promoting such tools as a system to build and manage applications that last and scale, via ALM. The ALM strategy fits a web services world, where code is supposed to be distributed and easily re-usable.
Such ALM tools typically move beyond the grass-roots coders and builders that dominate application programming, and appeal to higher-level architects, testers and project managers.
IBM is likely to also expand its off-line developerWorks offerings, such as training and seminars, with special programs for this new set of developers.
This article was based on material originally published by ComputerWire.
