For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Lean Software Is Agile, Fit-To-Purpose, And Efficient

by John R. Rymer, Dave West, Mike Gilpin, December 12, 2008

Bloat kills. Whether it's excessive complexity in the application, its underlying platform or architecture, or the process used to deliver it, overloaded platform software and heavy processes impede delivery of the solutions the business demands. Yet . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Application Development Pros: Must-Read Research In Any Economic Downturn

by Mike Gilpin, October 28, 2008

Whether the economy slips into recession or not, many firms are starting to tighten their budgets. Although this means even more limited resources than usual, the business will continue to expect application development teams to deliver high-quality, . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Preparing For The Business Technology Analyst

by Mike Gilpin, August 20, 2008

As traditional notions of the business analyst evolve, application development and program management professionals must prepare for a new, emerging type of business analyst: the business technology analyst. Because these new business technology analysts . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Progress Software Snags IONA And Mindreef For SOA

How This New Combination Will Affect Application Development Professionals

by Mike Gilpin, Larry Fulton, August 1, 2008

Within one week, Progress Software announced its intention to acquire enterprise service bus (ESB) rival IONA Technologies and completed the acquisition of service-oriented architecture (SOA) testing startup Mindreef. The addition of Mindreef continues . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

ALM 2.0: Getting Closer, But Not There Yet

by Carey Schwaber, Mike Gilpin, June 19, 2008

The term ALM 2.0, which Forrester coined in 2006, refers to the next generation of tool support for application life-cycle management (ALM). In the past two years, vendors have made progress in moving from ALM 1.0 to ALM 2.0, but no vendor has yet developed . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Best Practices: A Pragmatic Approach To Software Reuse

Achieving Optimal Reuse Of A Broader Range Of Assets

by Mike Gualtieri, Mike Gilpin, June 18, 2008

Development leaders have looked for ways to increase reuse since the early days of software development in an effort to increase developer productivity. This drive for reuse has brought changes in languages, structure, programming models, processes, and . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Case Study: Financial Services Firm Designs For Reuse

by Mike Gualtieri, Mike Gilpin, June 18, 2008

Moving from legacy architecture to a second-generation architecture based on Java gave this large financial services firm the opportunity to design for reuse from the ground up. Standardization and automation were essential to embedding reusability into . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Air France Flies High With Model-Driven Development

by Diego Lo Giudice, Mike Gilpin, March 27, 2008

The experience of Air France shows that with a pragmatic approach, a company can introduce model-driven development (MDD) and achieve more rapid, predictable, and repeatable applications. The secret to success? Air France created a simplified version . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Service Bus, Q2 2006

Cape Clear Software And BEA Systems Are The Top Performers

by Ken Vollmer, Mike Gilpin, June 30, 2006

Forrester evaluated leading enterprise service bus (ESB) vendors across more than 100 criteria and found that Cape Clear Software and BEA Systems were the top two performers overall. Other vendors in the leader category (from the highest score down) are . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

IONA Provides ESB Features For The High End

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q2 2006

by Ken Vollmer, Mike Gilpin, June 30, 2006

IONA is the leader in multiprotocol support that is important at the high end of the ESB market. The vendor has also been a longtime leader in the object middleware business, and entered the enterprise service bus (ESB) market in late 2004 with the Artix . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

PolarLake Provides Strong, Targeted ESB Features

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q2 2006

by Ken Vollmer, Mike Gilpin, June 30, 2006

The PolarLake enterprise service bus (ESB) is easy to use, highly productive, and incorporates rich service-mediation features. PolarLake is a small supplier, but the vendor's customers include several large financial services, telecom, and government . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

BEA Provides A Strong ESB Solution Within The Solid Overall SOA Vision

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q2 2006

by Larry Fulton, Ken Vollmer, Mike Gilpin, June 30, 2006

BEA Systems' AquaLogic Service Bus (ALSB) provides a comprehensive set of well-integrated enterprise service bus (ESB) capabilities and also dovetails neatly into BEA's overall service-oriented architecture (SOA) infrastructure strategy. Customers looking . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Fiorano Provides An Easy-To-Use ESB

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q2 2006

by Ken Vollmer, Mike Gilpin, June 30, 2006

Fiorano Software built a business as a Java Message Service (JMS) vendor, grew its JMS products into an early enterprise service bus (ESB) by adding Web services infrastructure as a layer over JMS, and has since expanded the features on its ESB core. . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Software AG Makes A Strong Initial Showing In ESBs

The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q2 2006

by Ken Vollmer, Mike Gilpin, June 30, 2006

Software AG made a strong showing in its initial appearance in a Forrester enterprise service bus (ESB) Wave™, joining the ranks of the leaders. The vendor scored well in both the strategy and product offering and categories, providing exceptional . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Microsoft's Avalon To Bring Richer User Experience

But The Most Important Changes Will Be Invisible To Most

by Mike Gilpin, June 17, 2005

Avalon, which, together with Indigo and WinFS, is one of the three pillars of Longhorn, is poised to make a dramatic leap forward in the richness of the Windows user experience. WinFS will no longer be included in the initial version of Longhorn — the . . .

Automated Functional Testing Vendor Profile: Empirix's e-Tester

by Carey Schwaber, Mike Gilpin, February 3, 2005

Empirix's e-Tester, part of the e-TEST suite, is a specialized tool for testing Web apps and services — and only Web apps and services. Notable for how little programming knowledge it requires of users, e-Tester is an appropriate tool for teams without . . .

Automated Functional Testing Vendor Profile: Compuware TestPartner

by Carey Schwaber, Mike Gilpin, February 3, 2005

Compuware TestPartner, evaluated as part of the Compuware QACenter Enterprise Edition+ suite, is a versatile tool that is appropriate for centralized testing organizations. Why? It includes functionality for users with stronger and weaker technical skills . . .

Automated Functional Testing Vendor Profile: IBM's Rational Functional Tester

by Carey Schwaber, Mike Gilpin, February 3, 2005

IBM Rational Functional Tester, recently re-engineered and relaunched as part of the Atlantic release of the IBM Software Development Platform, represents a significant step forward for Rational's line of software quality tools. IBM now offers one of . . .

Automated Functional Testing Vendor Profile: Segue Software's SilkTest

by Carey Schwaber, Mike Gilpin, February 3, 2005

Segue Software, a midsize vendor of software quality optimization tools, is a long-time favorite of development shops in the know. SilkTest, Segue's automated functional testing tool, is intended for sophisticated dedicated QA groups that want a high-end . . .

Automated Functional Testing Vendor Profile: Seapine Software's QA Wizard

by Carey Schwaber, Mike Gilpin, February 3, 2005

Seapine Software, a small ISV founded in 1995, is best known for its issue tracking tool, TestTrack Pro. The success of TestTrack Pro has enabled Seapine to branch out into other areas of the application development life cycle, including testing. Seapine . . .

Automated Functional Testing Vendor Profile: Mercury Interactive's QuickTest Professional

by Carey Schwaber, Mike Gilpin, February 3, 2005

Mercury Interactive dominates the market for testing tools in general and for automated functional testing tools in particular. Forrester's Wave™ evaluation found Mercury's QuickTest Professional to be the most full-featured automated functional . . .

Automated Functional Testing Vendor Profile: RadView Software's WebFT

by Carey Schwaber, Mike Gilpin, February 3, 2005

The past few years have been rough for RadView Software, a small testing tools vendor. However, RadView's tools are capable: WebFT, which tests only Web applications, fared relatively well in Forrester's Wave™ evaluation of automated functional . . .

Evaluating Automated Functional Testing Tools

by Carey Schwaber, Mike Gilpin, February 3, 2005

This Forrester Wave includes a detailed, customizable data spreadsheet; presentation resources; and in-depth evaluations of the following vendors: Compuware, Empirix, IBM, Mercury, RadView, Seapine, and Segue

Forrester evaluated automated functional testing tools to tease out the differences between offerings in this relatively mature market. Our findings? Mercury Interactive's QuickTest Professional is the most capable tool on the market today, with IBM Rational . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

Seeking Simple Integration? Try A Lightweight Enterprise Service Bus

by Mike Gilpin, December 27, 2004

In response to the ever-increasing complexity of application integration and development, firms can either hide complexity with rich platforms and tool suites, or avoid it altogether by seeking simpler solutions wherever possible. One of the ways to reduce . . .

For Application Development & Program Management Professionals

What Is An Enterprise Service Bus?

by Mike Gilpin, August 13, 2004

An enterprise service bus (ESB) is software infrastructure that enables service-oriented architecture (SOA) by acting as an intermediary layer of middleware through which a set of reusable business services are made widely available. An ESB helps enterprises . . .