VersionOne enhances agile development

InfoWorld - VersionOne LLC is upgrading its system for agile software development on Tuesday, adding improvements for managing defects and projects.

The spring 2006 edition of the Alpharetta, Ga.-based company's V1: Agile Enterprise product provides an integrated planning and management platform for agile software development. The Web-based product is offered in either hosted or locally installed fashions and features a repository for storing and managing software development assets.

Agile processes feature short, iterative software-development cycles as opposed to traditional, long processes.

"We help companies with managing their features, defects, issues, tasks and tests as they flow through an agile life cycle," said Robert Holler, VersionOne CEO and president.

The spring 2006 edition includes the following new features :

• Executive-level, cross-project and program dashboards for selecting from several projects
• Tracking and scheduling for software defects and defining of acceptance tests for features and defects
• Prioritizing of customer and marketing requests
• The ability to manage development issues and impediments

A user of V1 lauded its .Net support and customization improvements.

"The views are easily customizable," said Michael Zwicker, agile project architect at Lockheed Martin Corp. "We can drop and drag information from one folder to another" much more easily than was previously possible with the product, Zwicker said.

Lockheed Martin uses the hosted release of V1 but also has used the local version. The hosted product boosts collaboration, Zwicker said. "Everybody can see exactly what all the other teams are working on [and] what challenges they face, and it brings us all together as a cohesive team," he said.

Agile programming offers the flexibility to react to customers, to understand emerging requirements and to build the right product within budget constraints, Zwicker said. Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin employs four-week development iterations with its agile processes, he said.

VersionOne competes with Rally Software Development Corp. in the market for agile software development services, but VersionOne believes it has an advantage in cost of ownership, Holler said. VersionOne also believes it has an edge in that it has been in the marketplace for four years and has hundreds of customers and thousands of users, he said.

A perpetual license for V1: Agile Enterprise is $500 per user plus 20% of that figure for support and maintenance. Users also can subscribe for $30 per month, featuring support.

Boulder, Colo.-based Rall charges $65 per user per month for Rally Agile Pro, its hosted service for multiple teams using agile processes. The hosted service has been available since 2003, and Rally says it has more than 2,500 subscribers.