IBM today announced it is making its new collaborative software tools available free to help universities build software development skills. In addition, the new tools will be offered to developers who participate in IBM developerWorks.  

The proliferation of smart products and devices is driving new levels of software design complexity.  The demand for software development and engineering skills is expected to grow significantly.  In its 2010 Career Guide to Industries Report, The U.S. Department of Labor predicts that computer systems design and related professions will add about 656,400 jobs, and realize a 21% increase over the next decade, placing it among the top growth professions.

IBM is making new tools available to help diverse development teams, whether in a university environment or a traditional developer group, work more efficiently.  The new tools can facilitate innovation across dispersed teams as they build software design and development skills to meet industry challenges.
 
Announcing JazzHub
The new JazzHub allows university teams to develop directly on IBM’s Jazz.net website with no fee. Jazz is an open platform designed to support any participant who wants to improve the software development process . On JazzHub, registered university teams can begin development in under a minute. The new JazzHub, powered by IBM Rational Team Concert, a team based development solution for both traditional and agile planning, gives software and systems engineering students tools that make software development and deployment a truly social experience.

The following academic institutions are participating in the JazzHub Beta Program:
– North Carolina State University will use the JazzHub in future curriculum projects.  The institute previously used Jazz for research, analyzing information about artifacts, and in an online course in Agile software development.
– Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico) and the University of Macedonia (Greece) will participate in joint development work with the JazzHub to promote collaboration between students across international borders.
– University of Naples Federico ll (Italy) is undergoing a project with seven other local universities, entitled Enforcing Team Cooperation (ETC), which is using the disciplines of software engineering in a collaborative environment to create new applications.
 
“Software engineering courses are meant to prepare students for the practice of designing, developing, understanding and maintaining software in the real world and the effectiveness of these courses have a tremendous impact on the software industry. IBM’s continued commitment to provide students tools, at no charge, greatly improves the quality of their learning,” said Paolo Maresca, University of Naples Federico ll. “We’re planning on integrating the JazzHub into our course work immediately and students will become intimately familiar with a tool that that they’ll be using once they enter the work force. This will give them a leg-up compared to other students vying for the same jobs.”

IBM Rational community on developerWorks provides developers and students with a collaborative environment where they can engage in conversations about current product use and future technologies. Visitors can find the latest technical information such as articles and white papers, blog entries, discussion threads from around the community, product release information, documentation, and other information.  These communities will help all visitors engage with development teams and technical experts from a single web location.

Additionally, the new Knowledge Paths community, hosted by IBM developerWorks, allows visitors to build technical skills by stepping through professionally-developed roadmaps on various technical topics. The first two knowledge paths, focused on IBM Rational Jazz and Agile, are available online now at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/training/kp/.