NEW PRODUCTS
MapuSoft Technologies said that its OS Changer tool suite includes a Windows Porting Kit to ease the migration of Windows and Windows CE applications to a wide variety of target operating systems, including Android, eCOS, Linux, LynxOS, Nucleus, Solaris, ThreadX, Unix and VxWorks. Meanwhile, the company’s OS Abstractor Development Kit provides interfaces for new code development; interface options include the newly available Win32 Interface. Code written with the abstractor kit runs on many operating systems so that the applications are protected from changes in the underlying operating system.
Rally Software is previewing Project Stratus, a new application that it said would elevate agile planning and tracking to road-map and portfolio levels. Project Stratus focuses at the project-management officer level on keeping development aligned with strategic business priorities; visualizing and managing projects and large features across the entire value stream; analyzing the road map to optimize delivery of value while minimizing risk; and strengthening feedback loops between the PMO and software development teams.
Tasktop Technologies is collaborating with Hewlett-Packard to develop the Tasktop HP Quality Center Mylyn Connector. The new connector will integrate Mylyn’s task-focused interface technology with HP Quality Center, resulting in improved developer productivity from requirements through defects by providing integrations with ALM platforms and the Eclipse IDE. The connector will support Tasktop’s task-focused interface, which automatically tracks and presents the context of source code, documents and Web pages that are most relevant for a given defect story or task.
Infragistics and StudioWorks Software have collaborated to create Designbox for NetAdvantage for Windows Forms. Designbox, a Visual Studio add-in, lets Infragistics developers rapidly create rich content designs for Windows Forms applications. Working Designs stored into shareable Design Palettes are dragged and dropped directly onto the design surface, where developers can easily modify and drag them back to their Designbox for reuse. It includes a free design library.
UPDATES
The Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University has released Capability Maturity Model Integration Version 1.3, which includes improvements to the entire product suite: CMMI for Development, CMMI for Acquisition and CMMI for Services. Changes to the product suite include clarifications of high-maturity areas, aligning the material in the 16 core process areas that are common to all three models; improvements to the SCAMPI appraisal method; and revisions to related training offered by the SEI. CMMI 1.3 covers the latest approaches to modern engineering along with agile method use, Lean Six Sigma, supplier agreement management and organization training.
DevExpress has released CodeRush 10.2, which helps Visual Studio developers write more code with fewer keystrokes. According to DevExpress, CodeRush now provides the fastest Rename experience, the fastest Find All References experience, and the fastest Test Runner available for .NET developers. It also has extensive MVC support, enhancements to its unit test runner, extended code analysis, structural highlighting for ASP.NET and XAML, and contract supports for .NET 4.0.
The third release of ComponentOne Studio Enterprise 2010, a suite of custom controls for Windows, Web and mobile application development, focuses heavily on reporting. Version 3 includes a report viewer to display HTML- and PDF-based reports from Active Reports, C1Reports, Crystal, SQL Server Reporting, or any other report provider capable of generating HTML or PDF output. Also, new scheduler controls for Silverlight and WPF let developers add groupings by resources, categories and contacts. The end result is a multi-column layout for scheduling appointments across multiple entities.
Platform Computing has updated Platform LSF, its workload-scheduling solution for high-performance computing. New features in Platform LSF 8 include the ability to delegate administrative rights to line-of-business managers; live, dynamic cluster reconfiguration; guaranteed resources to ensure that service-level agreements are met; flexible fair-share scheduling policies; and unparalleled scalability to support large clusters. The company says that Platform LSF can scale up to 100,000 cores and 1.5 million queued jobs.
The fall 2010 release of the VersionOne ALM suite offers a new team collaboration platform: Conversations. This feature provides teams with a clear understanding of the context surrounding their activities. Conversations are streams of posts and responses that can be used to discuss stories or other relevant topics.
Gurock Software is offering TestRail 2.1, its Web-based test management software. This release introduces major new features such as improved time tracking, scheduling and time forecasting, new progress reports, and integration with requirement management tools. The new release makes it easier to enter estimates, track actual test times and ensure that teams are on track with their release schedule. A new forecasting algorithm uses estimates, historical test times and averages to calculate projected completion dates for software tests, allowing project leads to make adjustments to plans early if it becomes necessary.
PEOPLE
Anthony Bettencourt is the new chairman and CEO of Coverity. The company’s previous CEO, cofounder Seth Hallem, remains on the board of directors and will serve as a technology advisor. Most recently, Bettencourt was CEO of Verity and of Autonomy, two enterprise search companies.
