It's also critical that development teams be empowered to establish and manage chains of responsibility, authority and communication -- what we refer to as development governance. The software development function has evolved from a behind-the-scenes lab role to one of corporate and organizational responsibility and accountability, and development governance is one of the keys to success for our global communities. I've been a developer in practice and at heart for almost 30 years, and know how crucial it is to keep pace with our ever-changing software industry, especially as we move toward new initiatives like Web 2.0, agile development, and software as a service.

The evolving industry and open source communities have also revealed a need for tools that facilitate collaborative development across locations. IBM Rational Software is taking this to the next level by working closely with IBM Research to create technology that will improve collaboration across the development lifecycle. Called the Jazz project, this technology will work in conjunction with our products to help developers integrate tasks across the lifecycle and build software even more effectively. While the Jazz project is just in its early stages of development, it will be a key joint-technology project over the next few years.

For those of you not at RSDC, you can view and listen to the keynote presentations, some of which reference our future plans and strategy, and see the accompanying slide presentations at this link: http://www.ibm.com/software/ration al/events/rsdc2006/keynote.html. Thanks for all your efforts as we work together to advance the software development industry.

Sincerely,

Danny Sabbah
General Manager
Rational Software

IBM Unveils New Software to Accelerate Global Software Delivery
IBM today announced new software to help organizations deliver new products to the marketplace more quickly and efficiently by automating software development and delivery processes that cross geographic and organizational silos.

eWeek: IBM Readies Rational revamp
It's been a little more than three years since IBM acquired Rational Software, and now Big Blue is planning a major upgrade to keep its foothold in application development tools.

Case study: Radio Caracas Television Accelerates Development, Lowers Costs, and Ensures Regulatory Compliance with IBM Rational Software Development Platform
Faced with the need to replace a labor-intensive, manual process, RCTV used IBM Rational solutions to build a high-quality, automated system and then rapidly update it in response to changing regulatory requirements.

Are you interested in doing a case study with IBM Rational Software?

If so, please contact:

Wendy Batten
wjbatten@us.ibm .com

More information can be found at www.ibm.com/developerworks/ration al/rationaledge/.

Global Resource Management Using IBM Rational Portfolio Manager
19 Jul 2006
Technical - Webcast

BDD Webcast: Enterprise Test Management
26 Jul 2006
Technical - Webcast

Event: Business transformation and enterprise modernization made easy!
1-2 Aug 2006
Rational Enterprise Generation Language user conference

Software Development Best Practices, 2006
11-14 Sep 2006
Tradeshow

Gartner Application Development Summit
25-27 Sep 2006
Tradeshow

New! Technical Briefing: Effective software testing: Tools and strategies for project success
Visit developerWorks to learn more and register for the briefing in a city near you!

Rational User Group Community Website
We need your feedback on our website.  What can we do to improve it? What other capabilities would you like to see?  What suggestions do you have to make the site better?  Please send your feedback to info@rational- ug.org.

Rational User Group Community Statistics

WW Community Membership: 8373

WW Active User Groups: 85

WW Newsletter Subscribers: 5281

We want to hear from our WW Community!
Tell us about your last meeting, share with us any updates on your user group! Did you recently present at a technical conference? We are looking for feedback on how our community is doing. We want to hear success stories about how your groups and members are being successful. Share ideas of how you get attendance to your meetings, how you locate speakers. We are part of a very dynamic community and this is great forum for us to share our ideas. Please send your information to info@rational-ug.

Brand New ! Vendor News on the RUG Homepage
You can now find the "Hottest "up to date news and information on Rational Software vendors by visiting the brand new "Vendor News" section on the RUG community hompage.

Rational Software Development Conference
Podcasts and corresponding transcripts of select keynotes and interviews from the last Rational Software Development Conference are available on the IBM developerWorks site. Click here to access podcasts of such things as:

• Danny Sabbah's opening keynote from last Monday, during which he discusses how governing development is the next step in development organization transformation. During the presentation, Danny is joined by executives from customers BearingPoint, Cisco, and Visa.
• The keynote address from last Tuesday, featuring IBM Distinguished Engineers John Wiegand and Erich Gamma speaking on the realities of open source technology. Lee Nackman, VP of Product Development and Customer Support, and Martin Nally, Chief Technical Officer address the latest capabilities of the IBM Rational Software Development Platform, as well as provide insight into the Jazz platform. This keynote concludes with a Q&A session in which Lee, Martin, John and Erich are joined by Bill Philbin, VP of Engineering, and Beth Friday, VP of Customer Support.
• A one-on-one interview in which Danny Sabbah elaborates on his keynote themes of governance, compliance automation, and the challenges of IT lifecycle management in a globally distributed development environment
• An in-depth discussion with Lee Nackman and Murray Cantor, IBM Distinguished Engineer and member of the Rational CTO Council, on the topic of governance and Rational's approach to this issue.