Lyondell Wins Reorganization Plan Approval, Seeks April 30 Exit
April 24 (Bloomberg) — LyondellBasell Industries AF and units including Lyondell Chemical Co. won permission to reorganize and exit bankruptcy with $7.2 billion in debt and about $10 billion in equity value, after a judge overruled objections to an environmental settlement.
Monthly Archives: December 2007
Waste Management Policies In India
Osha Waste Management Regulations
Choosing a disinfectant for hospital environments
IAQ in Healthcare Environments – Transition Healthcare Challenges (Choosing a disinfectant for hospital environments)
As the economy heads further down the slippery slope of what promises to be a deep recession, and our healthcare infrastructure continues to grow and age, it is a natural progression to see more and more IAQ professionals turn to what some believe is a recession resistant market. From ambulatory facilities to long term care, the buildings that make up our healthcare infrastructure are constantly in need of renovations and repair. This new and promising opportunity for IAQ pros offers many long term rewards but is not without new and complex challenges that must be addressed.
Every IEP realizes the importance of appropriate use of antimicrobials, containment barriers and personal protection. Though often times IEPs find the regulations and guidelines they encounter in healthcare facilities to be daunting to say the least. In traditional remediation environments the focus is to ultimately provide an environment free of dangerous pathogens or contaminants. While attention is give to the methodology, often times the end results dwarf the means of acquiring those results. With a host of accepted methods to address indoor air quality in businesses, homes and public spaces the contractor finds themselves able to select from a variety of methods to deal with each issue. In the end it is the air clearance that counts, not so much which method was used to obtain it.
While the end results are just as, if not more important in healthcare environments; far more attention must be paid to the processes used. As many occupants of a healthcare facility cannot be moved and are highly susceptible to infection, there are very specific guidelines in place that govern all maintenance, repair and renovation work in a healthcare facility. Organizations like CDC, APIC and JCAHO have placed standards that apply to all activities that may have an impact on a healthcare environment. This is done with good reason considering the number HAIs (Hospital Acquired Infections) reported annually due to airborne pathogens like Aspergillus, which is disturbed during common daily maintenance. Nosocomial infections caused from routine maintenance reach into the hundreds of thousands each year. These guidelines and regulations are enforced in a facility by ICPs or infection control professionals.
Hospitals continually adapt to new, more stringent CMS guidelines limiting what medical treatments are reimbursable through Medicare or Medicaid, this has caused hospital administration to look more closely at every aspect of infection control in their facility. Beginning in October of 2008, Medicare and Medicaid began limiting payments made to facilities for the treatment of preventable nosocomial infections or conditions. These new CMS guidelines are driven by Section 5001(c) of the Deficit Reduction Act, which could mean that as deficits climb the list of non-reimbursable conditions are likely to grow. Infections like Aspergillosis, which is caused by airborne A.Fumigatus, are common in healthcare facilities. Aspergillus is one airborne pathogen that is commonly disturbed and distributed throughout a facility after maintenance work or renovations. The argument could be made that Aspergillosis is a preventable condition by ensuring appropriate containment and disinfection of disturbed areas.
Infection control professionals in healthcare environments have become increasingly diligent in monitoring the actions of contractors that work in their facilities. It is ICP’s responsibility to ensure all components of the infection control risk assessment are adhered to. While these key people can complicate the lives of the contractors working in healthcare facilities they are also actively saving lives by doing so. ICP’s will monitor and log details about each project to ensure that all compliance issues are being addressed. Two primary issues that impact infection control and prevention in healthcare settings are disinfection of contaminated surfaces with broad spectrum EPA registered disinfectants and appropriate containment of airborne particulate and pathogens.
Choosing the best disinfectant is one way to ensure the best possible level of microbial control during any abatement project in a facility. Healthcare facilities present the IEP with a unique set of challenges in regards to pathogens beyond the standard fungal and bacterial flora. Many of these pathogens can be highly infectious as well as drug resistant making them far more dangerous to the many immunocompromised patients housed in a healthcare facility. When selecting a hospital grade disinfecting it is imperative to keep several things in mind.
Does your disinfectant have sufficient kill claims to address the microbes you might encounter?
While no disinfectant can list every possible organism, it is important to find a disinfectant with the most possible EPA registered kill claims. Look for efficacy data. Disinfectants that do not show efficacy & testing data often have few or irrelevant kill claims and are not sufficient for the challenges found in healthcare facilities. It is also a positive if your disinfectant has EPA approved efficacy in the presence of 98% soil load as opposed to 5% which is required by the EPA. This higher soil load represents real world conditions. Beyond fungicidal kill claims, other claims that you might require involve infectious pathogens like MRSA, E-coli, HIV, Salmonella and Avian Influenza. You may also want to look for a product that can be used on both porous and non-porous surfaces and has disinfectant and sanitizing claims.
Understand what the active ingredients are in your disinfectant
It is essential to know what type of disinfectant is appropriate. Most common disinfectants are formulated using Alcohol, Phenol, Chlorine or a Quaternary Amine Base. There are arguments for each type of disinfectant and it is important to know the facts about the products you are working with. Each has advantages, but some have dramatic disadvantages that might make you think twice about using them.
Quaternary Ammonium Chloride (Quats) –
Examples Shockwave Disinfectant/Sanitizer, IAQ 2000/2500
Quats are often considered easier to use and safer than other disinfectant bases because they are less corrosive, non-carcinogenic and maintain efficacy for extended periods of time. Not all quat based disinfectants are equal though. There are a variety of products with EPA registered kill claims ranging from just a few all the way to over 130. In a healthcare environment it is important to seek out the latter, as the spectrum of microbes likely encountered in a hospital will be much broader than in common remediation situations. Unlike many other disinfectants quats based disinfectants are excellent cleaners making them ideal for surfaces with a large amount of biomaterial like fungi, blood or human waste. As many MDROs like C-DIFF, MRSA and VRE are transmitted by contaminated bodily fluids and waste this is an important factor in the equation to finding the ideal disinfectant for healthcare environments. Quats are highly stable and maintain efficacy even in the presences of high soil load. This makes them ideal for mold remediation as well as blood or bodily fluid spills.
Many IEPs as well as ICPs prefer the use of a quats because they not only offer a broad spectrum of kill claims, but are easy to work with and more cost effective than other options. In addition most quats do not have the drawbacks associated with chlorine, alcohol or phenol based products on the market.
Alcohol
While not as user friendly as quats, alcohol based disinfectants are considered by many to be easier to use than chlorine or phenol based products. High concentration alcohol based disinfectants can however be dangerous in a healthcare environment because of its tendency to open pores and dry skin. This can create openings for microbes to enter the body if not properly protected.
Though high concentration alcohol based disinfectants are generally highly effective against lipophilic viruses they are less active against non-lipid viruses and ineffective against bacterial spores. Generally alcohol disinfectants are not used for equipment immersion due to diminishing efficacy as the alcohol volatilizes. Alcohol disinfectants cannot be used as cleaners thus making them less effective for practical use on many surfaces. Even though some Alcohol based disinfectants can offer a broad spectrum of kill claims, it can be difficult to maintain appropriate wet contact time due to the rapid evaporation rate.
Chlorine
These corrosive oxidizers are known for cidal action against a wide variety of gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria as well as many viruses. Difficult to work with, these disinfectants are rapidly neutralized in the presence of organic matter making them less than ideal for healthcare and remediation environments.
While chlorine disinfectants are currently used in many facilities, future use of halogens is expected to decline as options like quats and alcohols become more abundant with appropriate kill claims. Sodium hypochlorite is known for causing significant corrosion to metals and other common materials. Chlorine disinfectants are considered toxic, and in 1994 the Clinton Administration called for the ban of all chlorine and chlorine based products.
Phenol
Phenol is one of the oldest known disinfectants still in use today and is both commercially manufactured and naturally occurring. Phenols are often effective for use on vegetative bacterial, lipid containing viruses and Mycobacterium tuberculosis but have limited or no efficacy for use against spores or non-lipid viruses. While these disinfectants are effective over a relatively large PH range, their limited solubility makes product residue difficult to clean. These disinfectants cannot be used on food contact surfaces and often require additional PPE like goggles, face shields gloves and protective clothing for application. Phenols cannot be used in many parts of a healthcare facility like neonatal, pediatric ICU or any infant contact surface due to toxic residue. Reports of eye irritation, contact dermatitis/utricaria, and depigmentation of the skin have been tied to phenol and phenol residue contact.
Phenols are commonly found in a host of consumer products and are not dangerous in very low concentrations. Disinfectant strength phenols however are considered a health risk by EPA and NIOSH. OSHA recommendations state that employee exposure to phenol in the work place should be controlled to less than 20 mg/cu m in air determined as a time-weighted average (TWA) concentration for up to a 10 hour work day or 40 hour work week. The NIOSH guidelines also limit exposure to phenols to 60 mg phenol/cu m of air as a ceiling concentration for any 15 minute period. Phenols generally enter the blood stream via ingestion, respiration or skin contact. NIOSH recommendations are just one indicator of the need for PPE when using Phenolic disinfectants. Disinfectants with a concentration of 1% phenol or greater are considered an extreme skin and inhalation hazard and are moderately combustible.
Containment plays a key roll in infection prevention.
While disinfection of surfaces, equipment and touch points plays one of the most critical roles for infection control in a health care facility; another primary responsibility of the IEP working in a healthcare facility is containment. The containment of harmful pathogens and particulate during work in a healthcare facility is essential, especially when working in areas near immunocompromised patients.
Regulations set by CDC & Joint Commission are clear in dictating specific criteria for the elimination of airborne Aspergillus, asbestos and dust. A term that IEPs will hear all to frequently as they make their transition into a healthcare environment is ICRA or infection control risk assessment. These operating guidelines are critical to any maintenance work done in a healthcare facility. APIC has developed guidelines assisting healthcare facilities in developing their ICRA to specifically mandate that dust and airborne particulate must be contained under negative pressure in Kontrol Kube like containment or by using other solid barrier methods.
For many years hospitals were forced to either temporarily close an entire wing or build temporary solid barriers during mold remediation or asbestos abatement jobs to prevent airborne particulate from escaping the work area. In recent years a new method of mobile containment has been made available making daily remediation, repair and renovation faster and far more cost effective. Kontrol Kube type containment essentially revolutionized the way hospital maintenance was being done by allowing an IEP to quickly roll tools, ladders, chemicals and other equipment into a location and then isolate that area for the duration of the work.
Infection control professionals prefer contractors to use methods like portable containment when possible for several reasons. Mobile containment units are easy to set up and inspect, this not only makes use of the unit easier for the IEP but also makes the inspection process much faster and efficient for the ICP. Knowing that all materials are fire rated and meet NFPA 701 is also important with any sort of temporary barrier material you use. Fire codes and standards are extremely critical in healthcare situations and are a focal point during Joint Commission inspections.
When selecting a mobile containment unit be sure to consider if the unit is made of durable components that will hold up under rigorous daily use. It is also important to know that the unit is easily cleaned and is capable of providing all the functionality needed. Will the unit accommodate an eight foot ladder effectively? Does the unit have a solid yet mobile working platform? Is it highly adjustable, durable and lightweight?
Disinfectants and Kontrol Kube type containment are used in almost every type of daily work an IEP might encounter in a healthcare facility; both are key components to any comprehensive infection control plan. For the individual contractor working in a healthcare facility, understanding what is expected of you could make all the difference between winning a bid and being passed over. The knowledge and expertise shown while in the facility can also ensure future jobs in that facility.
As IEPs progress into the healthcare arena to reap the benefits of this relatively protected market they are not only assuming the role of IAQ professional; they are also assuming the role of infection control professional helping to maintain safe, clean and infection free environments. While the challenges they face are unique and in some cases daunting, the benefits exceed a simple increase in business. When we stop to consider the impact of the work they do in the facilities that care for our sick, our elderly and our very young we can see how each of us does our part to win the battle against infection and disease. With proper education and training, IEPs can make the leap from the private or public sector into the highly lucrative and relatively stable market of healthcare remediation, abatement and repair with ease. Knowing the facts about not only the rules and regulations in healthcare facilities, but also the tools available can help ensure a successful transition into IAQ in healthcare environments.
John Pierson is Manager of Infection Control Products for Fiberlock Technologies, manufacturer of Shockwave EPA registered Disinfectant/Sanitizer and Kontrol Kube Mobile Containment Solutions, based in Andover, MA. He can be reached by email at jpierson@fiberlock.com or phone at 800-342-3755 x236.
This article was published in Indoor Environment Connections Volume 10, Issue 6 – April 2009 Also available on http://www.fiberlock.com
Waste Management Yard Waste Collection
Perkasie takes composting bids
As the next step in implementing proposed changes to its trash and recycling collection system, Perkasie Borough has received bids for a dumpster where residents can drop off yard waste for composting.
My Waste Management Benefits
What is the real economic benefit of doing your Masters?
I have years of marketing management experience, and people keep telling me that spending $12,000 to obtain my Msc would be a waste of money as the experience counts more at this point. I want those little letters though!
What do you think? Especially those who have been there…
depends on the quality of the masters but it can gain you more experience and connections within your industry
Future Waste Management Solutions
Application Development And Lifecycle Management: The Impact Of Agile Practices On People, Processes, And Tools-Aarkstore Enterprise
The most recent trend of cloud computing is also opening new possibilities that are lowering the cost barrier, increasing access to high performance computing, and also lowering the skill barrier for non-programmer information workers, whether in SMEs or departments in large organisations, to build business applications.
KEY FINDINGS
- ALM systems have improved considerably from the first generation of products; the new generation is Web-based and strong on collaboration.
- Agile methodology adoption has entered mainstream development and is making developers and managers rethink how they carry out application development.
- Agile practices are having a major influence on the ALM solutions market; supporting Agile processes is a hot area.
- ALM system architecture identifies core lifecycle functions, including process support with workflow, integrated data repository, and reporting.
- Business Intelligence (BI) for application development has now become an ALM system fixture, offering advanced analytics applied to project statistics.
- Software estimation remains a niche activity but should, be a core lifecycle activity in ALM.
- Defect and Issue Management is another core activity that cross-cuts the application lifecycle and is supported well by leading ALM systems.
- ALM system users should have read-and-write features for process guides, allowing users to modify content, supporting collaboration and knowledge exchange.
- ALM systems that alter the functionality exposed depending on the process selected represent an advanced, state-of-the-art technology, not yet seen in the market.
- The rise in Software Systems Engineering reflects the increasing use of software
CATALYST
Application development continues to evolve with processes and methodologies receiving significant
attention through Agile practices, while on the tooling side a new generation of Application Lifecycle
Management (ALM) products are appearing with process and workflow support figuring largely.
June 2009
ANALYSIS
Introduction
Software application development is one of those subjects that never disappears but is always evolving. Since the last general survey Report on this subject – Application Lifecycle
Management (ALM), published in September 2005 – there has been a lot of activity in the ALM field. With our colleagues in Datamonitor we published an ALM Decision Matrix in 2007 that looked at the vendor ALM suite market, and we now repeat that exercise in this Report with all the leading vendors participating. (The Datamonitor Decision Matrix also replaces what used to be the Market Lifecycle Ratings in Technology Evaluation and Comparison Reports).
The areas that are currently receiving the greatest activity in application development are:
- Agile development and Agile project management.
- ALM.
- Testing and test management.
- Enterprise Web 2.0.
The application development subjects that are on the horizon, are:
- Development in the Cloud.
- Parallel programming (especially General Purpose computing on Graphics Processing Units – or
GPGPU).
- Extension of ALM to overlap IT governance.
- RESTful Service Oriented Architecture. (REST is Representational State Transfer).
While what and how applications are being developed evolves, developers are still needed to programme the machines and create these applications. It had been considered that advanced modelling such as Model Driven Development (MDD) in the guise of software factories would at some point deliver on the next leap forward, a technological breakthrough such as a higher abstraction compiler that takes models rather than a high-level programming language to churn out the machine code. The Object Management Group’s Model Driven Architecture (MDA) appeared to be moving in that direction. This did not transpire, and is not likely to in the immediate future. These themes are expanded upon below.
Business Issues
Ultimately, software applications are built to satisfy the needs of the business, and the subject of the clash of two different cultures – the IT department and the rest of the business – has been discussed often, possibly to exhaustion. Some intractable problems become ‘solved’ through irrelevance because the ground has moved, and it can be said that whereas in the early days of computing the computer department in a business was a quite distinct function, a place where data was sent to be processed and returned with some useful statistics or reports, today there are businesses whose sole basis for existence relies on the IT function. Examples vary from obvious ones such as online banks and Web 2.0 companies, to less obvious virtual companies that operate solely due to the existence of the Internet and products with embedded software where the software component has grown exponentially. The net result of this shift towards greater reliance on IT is that the business has to take a greater interest in its IT function to succeed in the market, especially if the IT people are not delivering.
A real-world example illustrates how businesses are tackling this problem (names are omitted for confidentiality reasons): an IT company arose from being a small operation to having a billion dollar turnover in a short period. This company used to release its key platform application on an annual basis, but as a result of this rapid growth its current releases were taking 18 months and longer. The CEO gave the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) the highest priority directive to solve the problem. The CTO decided that all the company’s developers would switch to Scrum, the most popular Agile methodology, in big-bang fashion. The switchover was a success and delivery was back to a 12-month cycle. BT is another example where in this instance the CEO directed the company to adopt Agile, and an incremental adoption plan is in progress. Alternately, the concept of reducing waste is a message that many businesses understand and this is central to Lean Development, which takes many ideas from the lean movement and Total Quality Management, and combines them into an Agile methodology. Lean Development is found to be more comprehensible to businesses than some of the more developer-oriented Agile practices.
Businesses also want greater real-time insight into software project progress, and the new generation of BI solutions integrated into ALM suites provide this capability. Rather than reacting post-event, senior managers can act to avert problems escalating into software crisis dimensions. In particular, visibility
into quality control and test performance of the work in progress is necessary. When schedules become pressured, testing is the area that is traditionally cut by Project Managers. Therefore senior business managers must keep track of testing and quality – getting this wrong incurs long-term damage to the organisation in the marketplace. Agile methodologies are liked by business executives because they make
testing an integral part of the development lifecycle, not the last activity before
shipping.
Enterprise Web 2.0 represents a puzzle to many company executives: they see staggeringly successful businesses emerge, based on the Internet and the set of concepts and technologies behind Web 2.0, but do not see how this is relevant for them, or how they can emulate that success. This is likely to change as Web 2.0 culture permeates the workforce, that were raised in the Internet age, and use of the Web grows. Cloud Computing will accelerate that process, as various entrants trial new business models for earning revenue by offering utility-like computing services. Addressing security concerns is paramount though and will act as the brake whenever any mission-critical applications are considered. Expendable, low-risk business activity will find its way to the Cloud today. It will probably take the Internet mark 2 (there are various initiatives for upgrading the Internet, increasing bandwidth and improving security at nodes being prime motivations), for Cloud Computing to become truly ubiquitous.
Technology Issues
The ALM suite represents the best investment to support developers and management. However, its takeup
has tended to be at the large enterprise level, with many smaller organisations relying on point solutions. This has changed in the last few years with the increasing adoption of Agile methodologies and the need to support the greater discipline and process required in these practices. The waterfall process is relatively straightforward, with simple stage-gates and linear workflow, whereas an Agile methodology like Scrum has iterations (daily Scrums) within iterations (Sprints, Spikes, and Retrospectives) within iterations (the release plan). In order to support complex projects and distributed team members there is a need for tooling that allows Agile work items, called ‘stories’ or ‘features’, to be easily moved around the workflow. Developer testing is a core activity in Agile, so rigging-up automated, continuous testing is necessary. Real-time reports with charts for velocity and burndown need to be easily accessed and displayed to all team members. The project managers need the electronic equivalent of a white board to easily manage an Agile project and perform the various activities in the process. For example, at the iteration end a retrospective is held that requires all
stakeholders to attend and the product owner to re-prioritise stories. This needs to be easily performed and tracked. A new generation of ALM solutions have appeared on the market to support these activities –
discussed in Section 2.3 of this Report. ALM architecture, our state-of-the-art view of ALM given in Section 3.1, makes a number of distinctions: it separates out core ALM activity, cross-cutting the lifecycle segments, from plug-in ALM tools via a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) integration layer, and from external development tools like Integrated Development Environments, test tools, and third-party ALM tools via an interoperability layer. The core layer comprises: a workflow engine and common repository as essential; Software Change and Configuration Management (SCCM); reporting (and ideally BI analytics capability); process and methodology support through Web-based guides and wikis (authoring and publishing tools, two-way access for users to read and change content), and all accessible from the ALM tools at any point in the workflow; collaboration support; software estimation (which is underrepresented in ALM but should be integral); and issue and defect management (commonly found in operations but good practice for use in development).
It also believes that support for modelling (MDD or MDA) should be an integral part of core ALM. In reality, as mentioned in the introduction to this Section, there have been setbacks in the vendor modelling community. Certainly the developer community appears divided between those that support modelling and those that do not, with many in the Agile community shunning the activity. The fact remains that for complex projects modelling is a necessity – the telecom, automotive, and aerospace industries are examples where modelling is successfully used. The limited take-up of MDA by customers has more to do with the lack of a reference system and the slow evolution of an action/behaviour language: this is a programming language that is used to describe the business or application logic. The most successful modelling tools on the market combine visual models with an action language for the detailed work. A big mistake in the early days of MDA was to assume that everything should be done with the Unified Modeling Language – the truth is that it is not flexible enough and it is also a boring activity. Programming is successful because it is versatile and also fun. The trick is to combine visual models with an action language.
Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) continue to feed into modern, Web-based applications, and are now a standard fixture. The name will probably fade away as the technology continues to become the default – the application development tools will make non-rich Web components and widgets obsolete. The shift is towards what is being built and this is where business-oriented Web 2.0, or Enterprise Web 2.0 (the terminology preferred in this Report), takes centre stage.
Market Issues
Integration is one of the thorniest questions in ALM today. The first initiative to create an open ALM
framework based on the Eclipse platform failed due to lack of widespread vendor support (known as
Application Lifecycle Framework, the project’s lead vendor, Serena Software, shut it down in 2008).
Meanwhile IBM, the originator of Eclipse, created a new server-side ALM platform named Jazz.net. Jazz is designed to be open and a number of application development tool providers are building plug-ins for it, but the platform is being used for integrating a host of IBM Rational products, legacy and new generation, and in perfect timing, ALM products from the Telelogic acquisition that concluded in 2008.
The other ALM leaders alongside IBM – Borland and Microsoft – are also making integration a key forward strategy. Borland is building an integration layer (Borland Open ALM Framework or BOAF) and is planning on providing connectors for two third-party leading products in each ALM segment (requirements, change and configuration, etc.). It is also moving its legacy solution to this integration layer, with the new-generation Borland Management Solution already built on BOAF.Microsoft also has an ALM platform in Visual Studio Team System (VSTS), with an ecosystem of vendors providing products that plug-into the platform. However, the upcoming release – VSTS 2010 – will take Microsoft to the ranks of end-to-end ALM vendors, competing directly with IBM and Borland at the top. VSTS is a natural candidate for Microsoft developers building .NET solutions, its support for other languages and operating systems is limited though.
The ALM system architecture (see Section 3.1) has SCCM as a core ALM tool, but a number of ALM suite vendors have opted out from competing in a segment of the market they view as mature and saturated. Vendors like Compuware, HP, and Rally Software will need to provide deep and orchestrated native integration to a range of SCCM products in order to achieve what Butler Group considers to be essential ALM functionality. They all support the popular open source Subversion SCCM product. Compuware and HP are long-time ALM providers, spanning mainframe and distributed systems, and also offer strong Application Performance Management solutions. HP Software also incorporates what was the Mercury product line and has deep capability in testing tools. Rally Software is one of a new breed of ALM solution providers with an Agile development focus and a hosted solution business model (although Rally Software will consider on-premises provision). The appearance of these new ALM vendors, Polarion Software and TechExcel are further examples that appear for the first time in this Report, indicates that there is a great opportunity in the market to address customer needs. In its early years ALM had a mainly large enterprise appeal, so the market is wide open for expansion. Finally, MKS and Serena Software continue to mature and build on their ALM solutions, are a short distance from the leading group, and can offer their unique takes on the ALM market. For MKS it is all about organic growth and tight integration, each time Butler Group visits MKS it has added another segment to its native ALM capability. Serena Software has also made progress with support for business mashups and Agile development as core
activities. Butler Group views the ALM solution market as being in a revitalised state, with Agile and Software-as-a-Service creating new opportunities that should see ALM adoption reach further into the developer community. Despite the world economic recession at the time of writing this Report, investment in an ALM approach is a sound course of action to take that will lower development costs in the long run, and also help deliver better software products.
Late Breaking News
As this Report went to publication the news broke that Micro Focus International (a UK company) is to
acquire Borland in a cash deal described as a definitive agreement. Furthermore it was also announced that Micro Focus is to acquire assets from Compuware’s Quality Solutions portfolio, covering Application Testing and Automated Software Quality products. The move, if concluded successfully, will catapult Micro Focus into the front rank of the ALM market. This acquisition follows the recent acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle, with particular interest to developers concerned with the future of Java.
This Report reveals:
- The impact of Agile methodologies in application development.
- How a new generation of Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) systems support team collaboration.
- A side-by-side feature comparison of ALM products.
- What Business Intelligence for application development canoffer.
- How new process and methodology support in ALM solutionsimproves development.
- The latest advances in Agile Project Management and Test Management.
- Market analysis of the leading ALM vendors.
Table of Contents :
Section 1: Management Summary 9
1.1 Management Summary 11
Section 2: Application Development and Lifecycle Management Today 17
2.1 Report Introduction and Objectives 19
2.2 Application Development Trends 21
2.3 Advances in Processes and Methodologies 26
2.4 The People Aspects of ALM 30
2.5 Application Development in Emerging Environments 34
Section 3: The Butler Group ALM Evaluation Model 39
3.1 The Butler Group Application Lifecycle Management System Architecture 41
3.2 The ALM Solution Features Matrix 46
Section 4: Agile Development and Project Management 57
4.1 Understanding Agile Development 59
4.2 Agile Software Change and Configuration Management 63
4.3 Advances in Project Management 66
Section 5: Testing and Test Management 73
5.1 New Tools in the Market 75
5.2 Test Driven Development 78
5.3 Advances in Test Management 81
Section 6: Market Analysis 85
6.1 Butler Group Application Development and Lifecycle Management Features Matrix 87
6.2 The Application Development and Lifecycle Management Decision Matrix 113
6.3 Vendor Analysis 119
Section 7: Technology Audits 145
Aldon – Aldon ALM Solution 147
Borland – Borland ALM Portfolio 157
Compuware Corporation – Compuware ALM Suite 167
HP – HP ALM Solution Set 177
IBM Rational – IBM Rational Software Delivery Platform 187
Microsoft – Microsoft Visual Studio Team System 2010 197
MKS – MKS Integrity 2009 205
Polarion Software – Polarion ALM Enterprise 3.2 215
Rally Software – Rally Enterprise ALM Platform 225
Serena Software – Serena ALM Suite 235
TechExcel – TechExcel DevSuite 245
Section 8: Vendor Profiles 255
AccuRev 257
Adobe 258
Atlassian 259
CA 260
CollabNet 262
Coverity 264
edge IPK 265
Electric Cloud 266
Exoftware 267
Kovair 268
Oracle 269
OutSystems 271
Perforce Software 271
Section 8: Vendor Profiles (Continued)
RADTAC 272
Salesforce.com 273
Sapient 275
ThoughtWorks 276
TotalView 278
UPCO 279
VersionOne 280
Zend 281
Section 9: Glossary 283
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