Rational Software and IBM have announced a collaboration on two initiatives that will accelerate the delivery of high-quality e-business applications. The first is an extended version of the Rational Unified Process (RUP), which includes specific guidelines for customising applications using IBM Application Framework for e-business and Rational Suite.
The companies have also joined forces on the development of a unified process model to help customers use the unified modelling language (UML) to visually define and maintain consistent development processes. The availability of an industry-standard process authoring language will accelerate the development of, and collaboration around, e-business software processes. In particular, it will allow users of the RUP to use an industry-standard visual approach to customise RUP to fit their specific needs.
Rational and IBM have joined forces with other industry leaders and submitted the Unified Process Model to the Object Management Group (OMG) for approval.
"Companies need a recipe or blueprint to build high quality e-business applications in Internet time," says Themi Themistocleous, director of local Rational distributor CCH Software Development.
Rational and IBM broaden RUP
The RUP provides a customisable roadmap for e-development projects. In the first of a series of enhancements to RUP, Rational and IBM have extended RUP by creating specific content for customers developing applications using the IBM Application Framework for e-business and Rational Suite.
By adding specific guidance for e-business application architectures, e-business security, and deployment of e-business applications, software teams can now build high-quality applications more rapidly. The content reflects the extensive experience of IBM Global Services in helping customers build and deploy e-business applications.
The Unified Process Model enables companies to use the UML to define and implement a custom development process that reflects their business objectives and development culture. The UML is an industry-standard language managed by OMG and developed by Rational Software, IBM and other industry leaders. The Unified Process Model enables the interchange of process knowhow between organisations, and the creation of tools for process authoring, process customisation and process improvement.
Rational and IBM have driven the development of the Unified Process Model and have co-submitted it to the OMG with Alcatel, Unisys, Nihon Unisys and Q-Labs. The proposed standard already enjoys wide acceptance, with support from Toshiba and Valtech.
Rational is also introducing the Rational Process Workbench, which is the first tool to support process authoring using the Unified Process Model. The Rational Process Workbench allows customers to produce customised versions of the Rational Unified Process through the power of visual modelling. Consistency across the process is ensured, and mundane tasks, such as version control and link maintenance, are automated with the Rational Process Workbench.
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