Company Overview
News & EventsRally Continues to Drive Agile Development Market with Launch of Rally Release 5
New software lifecycle management features scale Agile development practices to distributed, multi-team projects
BOULDER, Colo., July 18, 2005 - Rally Software Development Corp., the leader in knowledge, coaching and on-demand tooling for scaling Agile software development, continues to drive the adoption of Agile software development practices in larger or distributed organizations with Rally Release 5, the fifth major release of its on-demand software lifecycle management solution for Agile development teams. Release 5 features expanded support for the entire software development lifecycle, including:
- A new Web Services API that integrates Rally with leading customer management systems (see today's salesforce.com news release) and automated test tools;
- New expanded planning and tracking features for large, multi-team projects; and,
- New enhanced communication features for improving collaboration between/among distributed and offshore teams.
Increasing Momentum
With Release 5, Rally continues to support the mainstream adoption of Agile practices through unprecedented team coordination, enterprise-wide project visibility and the unique ability to manage the entire Agile lifecycle. In less than one year, Rally has helped formalize and expand Agile software development practices for a growing roster of small and large clients that include software vendors, Internet companies and corporate IT teams. Rally's Web-based software service is ideal for organizations implementing and expanding their Agile programs, regardless of team location, size or number of concurrent subsystems being developed. By switching from long development phases to rapid, fully-tested iterations, Rally customers improve their competitiveness by shortening the time required to provide high-value software to their users.
Software as a Service (SaaS) Offering For Low Cost of Ownership & Rapid Innovation
Rally is the only on-demand software lifecycle management solution that enables software organizations to reliably deliver valuable software in rapid iterations by marrying Agile project management with Agile requirements practices, early testing and defect tracking. Rally Release 5 includes the following new features:
- Expanded support for the full software development lifecycle - New Web Services API connects Rally and the development organization to the company's key customer- and quality-management systems. Through Rally, development requirements and defects can now link with customer-reported requests and problems managed in CRM systems, like salesforce.com. Plus, new integration and interoperability with commercial and open source software test tools - including Mercury's Test Director (test cases), Fit/Fitness and Ant (automated test and build) - enable everyone on the team to see which failures are blocking acceptance of a new feature.
- Scale Agile Project Management (APM) to large, complex projects - New Program Roadmaps and Feature Complete reports allow customers to effectively plan and manage large-scale Agile development projects involving hundreds of team members distributed across multiple, concurrent projects.
- Improve communication among distributed teams - MyNotifications tab, email notifications and RealSimpleSyndication (RSS) capabilities help teams track, coordinate and signal project changes with automated date and time stamps synchronized to each geographic location.
"One of the greatest challenges in implementing Agile practices is scaling the methodologies across the enterprise to larger or globally distributed teams," said Tim Miller, CEO of Rally. "With Release 5 we focused on helping these customers gain better visibility and coordination of the entire Agile development lifecycle through new integration with CRM and test systems, as well as expanded planning, reporting and improved collaboration."
Rally and Agile Address Emerging Technology Trends
Rally enables software organizations to address two of the most pressing trends facing the development industry: 1) The need to dramatically shorten the time-to-value when implementing Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs) that enable the real-time enterprise, and 2) The need to effectively manage large, distributed or offshore teams.
According to a recently published survey of enterprise technology buyers by the Yankee Group, 75 percent of respondents plan to invest resources to enable SOAs during 2005. MW2 Consulting, a leading systems integrator that recently launched its SOA Blueprint to accelerate SOA implementations, has incorporated Agile methodologies into its service delivery process and selected Rally as its Agile project management platform.
"To implement successful SOAs across the enterprise, customers want to move incrementally, and see proof-of-concept as progress is made," said Peter Sharer, MW2's technical project manager. "We see Agile methodologies and SOA deployments as a perfect match in terms of short release cycles and the need to quickly respond to change. Rally provides the real-time visibility into requirements and feature status that strengthen both our SOA Blueprint offering and our commitment to Agile methodologies."
On the outsourcing front, where India alone exports more than $17 billion annually in software and IT services, new and emerging challenges have crimped the promise of improved production and lower costs. According to a recent study by Deloitte Consulting LLP, 70 percent of senior executives at 25 large companies had negative experiences with outsourcing projects - and almost 50 percent failed to realize cost savings they thought they would gain.
For companies incorporating offshore teams into their development process, Rally's Web-based delivery model addresses the growing need to coordinate teams across geographic and international time zones. "With remote development teams, you always run the risk of them providing the perfect solution to the wrong problem," said Guy Shaviv, vice president of engineering at Virtio, a leader in developing simulations for wireless applications that has a remote team in Russia. "The key is fast and accurate feedback and a sharpened focus. A planning and tracking environment that enhances project visibility and communications is critical. Rally's unified views, which shows the state of each change request and new feature, really simplify the challenge of collaborating across various time zones and language barriers."
Pricing and Availability
Rally Release 5 is available July 23, 2005. Per-user pricing starts at $65-per-month. Rally offers a 5-user annual subscription package that includes tailored training for $3,500 to jump start new project teams.
About Rally
Based in Boulder, Colo., Rally Software Development was founded in 2002 with a mission to improve the profit and ROI of software-driven companies through the adoption of a new class of Agile software development management solutions. Rally enhances development productivity and agility with an on-demand, hosted subscription service that provides unmatched coordination and management of the entire Agile software development lifecycle. Rally is backed by Mobius Venture Capital and Boulder Ventures, with a technical advisory board comprised of luminaries in the Agile community and software development industry. For more information about Rally, visit the company's Web site at www.rallydev.com
Press Contact: Anne Greenhaw
303-565-2832
anne@rallydev.com