Ready for IBM Rational software Comes to You is a webinar series designed to expose you to a cross section of value-added IBM Ready for IBM Rational software (RfRS*) solutions available from Rational Business Partners to extend your Rational software implementations. This webinar series is rich with live demos so you can see first hand how these offerings integrate and enhance the features and functions of the Software Delivery Platform increasing the ROI of your Rational software investment.

Upcoming Webinars:

October 17th at 11am: From Chaos to Continuous Improvement: Leveraging RUP Software Delivery Best Practices for CMMI® - Sponsored by Wipro and featuring Carey Schwaber, Senior Analyst from Forrester Research
Leveraging CMMI for business advantage is a key goal for many organizations. Becoming more process mature can reduce costs, redundancy, implementation risks and improve quality throughout the software delivery lifecycle.

November 7th at 12pm: Project Planning with QSM SLIM Estimate and IBM Rational Portfolio Manager - Sponsored by QSM
This webinar will describe a proven estimation methodology and automation to link estimates with project plans. We will demonstrate how project managers can be empowered to generate a realistic and defendable project plan from basic inputs on project size and productivity with the proven QSM SLIM estimation process as implemented in the RUP with Estimation, Measurement, and Control by QSM plug-in to IBM Rational Method Composer, along with the QSM SLIM-Estimate software estimation tool, now integrated with IBM Rational Portfolio Manager(RPM).

November 14th at 12pm: Metrics for Management - with SourceIQ Source Code Portfolio Manager and IBM Rational ClearCase - Sponsored by SourceIQ
SourceIQ provides visibility into the current state and predictability of software projects for development managers, project managers, and QA managers. By automatically analyzing the source code in your ClearCase software configuration management (SCM) system, SourceIQ produces a repository of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in four critical areas: code quality, code volume and volatility, team contribution, and governance. This Development Intelligence gives you the fact-based metrics you need to manage your project without surprises, whether you are starting a new project, acquiring a code base, or managing offshore, outsourced, or distributed teams. Only SourceIQ provides immediate value with your current tools and teams, allows you to view information at any level of summary or detail, and scales from one project to many projects across an enterprise.

IBM Expands Software Line for Small and Mid-Sized Businesses
IBM today announced new software and resources to help mid-sized customers more effectively manage the quality of their software and network infrastructures, just like their counterparts in large enterprises.

IBM Helps Customers Improve Software Quality Across Complex Application Environments
IBM today announced new features and enhancements to its software portfolio to help customers deliver higher quality, more secure applications to the market and to help customers manage requirements and change associated with application deployments.

Report: IBM Named Market Leader in Software Configuration Managementfor Sixth Consecutive Year
IBM today announced that analyst firm IDC has ranked IBM as the worldwide market share leader in software configuration management tools, based on 2006 total software revenue.

Webcast Archives Updated
The archives of the recent webcasts hosted by the GRC are now available at: http://www.rational-ug.org/webcast.php

Your Article Here!
We are looking for a few brave souls that are willing to share their expertise in an article that we will publish in this space. Your article will be viewed by over 8,000 Rational users. Email us at info@rational-ug.org to get started.

Banca March gains flexibility, boosts system performance and prepares to expand its business with IBM software.
"IBM products and services are the key to our business success and enable us to compete head-to-head with companies much larger than our own." - Juan Mairata, IT Operations Manager, Banca March - - Juan Mairata, IT Operations Manager, Banca March

RSDC 2008 - Call for Papers
Save the Date! The IBM Rational Software Development Conference will take place in Orlando, Florida, June 1-5, 2008. The Call for Papers for the 2008 event is now open! Speaker applications will be accepted until December 10, 2007.

Optimizing your IT infrastructure with IBM Middleware and System p Servers Roadshow
The upcoming Optimizing IT roadshows including both SWG and System p content will launch in September. The full day agenda will explain why IBM middleware and IBM System p hardware are the ideal platforms to optimize the cost and delivery of IT services by lowering complexity and improving operating efficiency through better management, improved asset utilization, and by creating a dynamic and responsive IT environment.

This briefing is unique in that the content is delivered via presentation and live demonstrations. Both the inherent capabilities of the system p hardware and IBM middleware (Domino, DB2, WebSphere and Tivoli) will be discussed. If you work or have experience with IBM Software or System p servers, this will be an excellent opportunity to help you in your job. Please invite your user group membership to attend this exciting event free of charge. The roadshow will be stopping in Fairfax (Washington DC area) 9/25, Seattle 9/27, Detroit (10/11), Dallas (10/18), and Markham ON CN (11/1).

STAR WEST-Software Testing Analysis & Review
Anaheim, CA
StarWest delivers the latest trends technologies and strategies in the testing industry providing networking opportunities access to solutions providers and industry experts. Find answers to questions about outsourcing security and automation.
Technical
10/22/2007-10/26/2007

Agility at Scale: Applying Agile Software Development Techniques on Real-World Projects
Agile software development techniques are being adopted within the majority of organizations around the world and are now being applied "at scale" in very complex situations. This presentation overviews agile software development, shares data from a recent industry survey as to the adoption rate of agile techniques, and explores scaling issues such as distributed development teams, regulatory compliance, governance, large teams, complex environments, and leveraging legacy assets. Agile approaches enable you to achieve greater quality, improved return on investment (ROI), reduced time to market, and significantly easier governance although require greater collaboration, teamwork, and discipline on the part of IT professionals and business stakeholders.
Technical
Vancouver, Canada
10/17/2007

Toronto, Canada
10/21/2007

IBM SOA Executive Summit
"We have an important event to promote to our User Group community-the IBM SOA Executive Summit is an opportunity arranged exclusively for CIOs and high level executives.

A flexible IT infrastructure means a flexible business. One that can respond effectively to rapid change. Boost your ability to compete. And foster innovations that can change the game to your advantage. IBM SOA Executive Summits are a prime opportunity to make SOA a successful key to your strategy.

The event features a lineup of executive speakers from IBM, reference customers, and analysts so whether you are just beginning your SOA journey or are already a seasoned traveler, this event packs more knowledge, collaboration and empowerment than any other you are likely to experience. Speakers and networking opportunities will demonstrate the value of SOA and how IBM can help you build a better, more flexible business model with strong ROI returns on their investment.

Register for an event near you today.

IBM SOA Architect Summit
We have an important event to promote to our User Group community-the IBM SOA Architect Summit is an opportunity arranged exclusively for Enterprise and IT architects.

Businesses are depending on Enterprise and IT Architects to make Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) work. The right implementation will add immediate value and business flexibility. IBM SOA Architect Summits can help you develop a winning strategy and set you and your team on the path to success.

The event features a formidable lineup of senior IBM subject matter experts so whether you are just beginning your SOA journey or are already a seasoned traveler, this event packs more deep technical knowledge, collaboration and empowerment than any other you are likely to experience. Speakers and networking opportunities will demonstrate the value of SOA and how IBM can help you build a better, more flexible business model with strong ROI return on your investment.

Register for an event near you today.

RUG Call for Content!
Share your own tips and tricks, great ideas, or articles with the global community! We are dedicating this section of our newsletter to include content authored by YOU! Please contact us at info@rational-ug.org to share your content.

Tremendous Growth in August and September
The Global Rational Community UG membership has expanded by over 30% since July. We have also seen great participation in the community organized webcasts that we have hosted this Fa and we hope to see more of you in the upcoming events.

Rational User Group Community Statistics:

RUG Community Membership: 12,600
RUG Active User Group: 86
RUG Newsletter Subscribers: 8,400

Updated Content on the Global Rational Community Web Site
We have recently updated a number of pages on the Global Rational Community Web Site.

New to Rational
Developer Technology Adoption
Downloads

UG News

Research Triangle Park RUG Welcomes New Members!
The RTP group has added 39 new members in September due to the hard work by Janet Pigeon. The group is hosting a meeting on Oct. 17th. If you are in the area, please try to attend.

New UGs

IBM Press -- Be Sure You're Taking Advantage of Special 40% User Group Discount!
IBM Press represents the best books, written by the best researchers, engineers, and developers. Simply Link to "Member Benefits" as a registered site user, and follow the instructions to obtain your discount. The IBM Press library has the breadth and depth of coverage to support you throughout your career.

New Title: "Outside-In Software Development: A Practical Approach to Building Successful Stakeholder-based Products", authored by Carl Kessler and John Sweitzer. Consider this book as your guide to building software that delivers maximum business value to every key stakeholder.

Rational Edge
The Rational Edge is IBM's monthly, online magazine for the software development community. Focused on all aspects of the software development lifecycle, The Rational Edge delivers practical insight and commentary from IBM Rational thought leaders.

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

Webcasts

Live Webcast: Distributed? Mainframe? Connecting it all with IBM Rational change and release management software
Distributed assets? Legacy Mainframe applications? Disparate? Disconnected? Not anymore! Discover how the IBM Rational software change and release management products can connect and manage all of your development assets no matter where they reside. See how IBM Rational ClearCase, IBM Rational ClearQuest and IBM Rational Build Forge work together to unify and accelerate software delivery on the mainframe and distributed servers.

On-Demand Webcast: Web application security - don't be another headline!
IBM's AppScan is a leading Web application security testing solution trusted by more users to help automate security scanning, testing and reporting. During this Software Delivery Platform webcast, learn: Why application security is so important; Why you should be looking to integrated security testing alongside current functional and performance activities; and how AppScan can help automate current manual

Rational Build Forge in Action
IBM Rational Build Forge makes it easy to automate your software development processes, as well as manage audit and compliance mandates. Development teams can easily document what was created, how it was developed, and where the application was deployed - leveraging the very tools and customized scripts you have in place today; ClearMake, Ant, NAnt, Make, GNUMake, NMake, Opensource, VB Scripts, Cruise Control, and more.

Mark Your Calendar Today and Join Us for an IBM Rational Build Forge Technical Demonstration!

October 11th, 2007 9:00 a.m PST
October 25th, 2007 9:00 a.m. PST
November 8th, 2007 9:00 a.m. PST
November 20th, 2007 9:00 a.m. PST
December 6th, 2007 9:00 a.m. PST
December 20th, 2007 9:00 a.m. PST

· Dial-in Number: 800.528.2856
· Audio Conference ID: 9832560

Trial Downloads

Increase your SOA skills with the IBM SOA Sandbox
Visit IBM developerWorks to try the IBM SOA Sandbox. The IBM SOA Sandbox is an online learning environment designed to help enterprise architects, integration developers and web developers increase SOA skills through practical, hands-on experience. The IBM SOA Sandbox includes five SOA entry points: people, process, information, reuse, and connectivity. Each entry point provides a predefined SOA solution that you can quickly implement based on real-world customer experience and IBM best practices.

Demos

Extending RequisitePro's Requirements Management Capabilities with Rational Portfolio Manager
This presentation and demonstration provides an overview on leveraging the integration capabilities between RequisitePro and Rational Portfolio Manager to allow project managers to effectively prioritize requirements, and drive top-down project planning that focuses teams on critical requirements while ensuring that activities do not impact the project scope and delivery schedule.

Extending ClearQuest's Activity Management Capabilities with Rational Portfolio Manager
This presentation and demonstration provides an overview on leveraging the integration capabilities between ClearQuest and Rational Portfolio Manager to provide project managers with the communications and controls needed to ensure teams are optimized and activity costs are aligned with the overall project plan, helping to avoid cost and resource issues.

Incorporating Best Practices Processes into Software and Systems Delivery with Rational Method Composer and Rational Portfolio Manager
This presentation and demonstration provides an overview on how to leverage best practice processes across your IT Portfolio using Rational Method Composer and Rational Portfolio Manager. Learn how to extend control and empower teams by managing, authoring and deploying the appropriate methodologies and tools directly to project teams.

White Papers/Articles

Analyst Paper: "Security and the Application Development Process"
Discover why incorporating application security protections into the software development life cycle early is essential for today's application deployment scenarios.

eKits

IBM Software Quality for Packaged Applications eKit
Better testing starts with having the latest and smartest tools in the palm of your hand. Which is why we put together an eKit full of information specifically for Siebel and SAP applications testing. With demos, Webcasts, articles and more, the eKit shows how to simplify and streamline test creation through automation, as well as how to help maximize system performance, scalability and functionality.

Special Offers

ClearQuest Buy two get one free Promotion
Customers who purchase two (2) Rational ClearQuest Authorized Licenses (D53NSLL) OR two (2) Rational ClearQuest Floating Licenses (D531LLL) are eligible to receive one (1) additional Rational ClearQuest License at no additional charge. Limit three (3) additional no-charge license per customer (PA or PAX site number).

Get your Free Rational Unified Process Poster
Request a complimentary RUP poster with an IBM Rational software brand value CD while supplies last. IBM Rational Unified Process®, RUP®, provides proven best practices for software and systems delivery, implementation and effective project management.