Agile Solution Provider Rolls Out Java SDK

• By John K. Waters
• 11/12/08

Agile project management tools provider VersionOne has updated its V1: Agile Enterprise product to include a Java software development kit (Java SDK). The 8.3 version, now available, comes with an extensible API, object model libraries, source code, documentation and sample applications for Java jocks.

Among the other notable features in this release is an improved in-line add and edit feature. The new capability saves developers time by allowing them to add and edit work items directly without opening a new window. This version also comes with V1: Agile Team, the Atlanta-based company's new application for small teams just getting started with agile development.

V1: Agile Enterprise can work with the Eclipse and Microsoft Visual Studio integrated development environments. Plug-ins for those IDEs have been available since version 8.0 of the product. VersionOne began providing a .NET SDK earlier this year. You can also work with third-party commercial and open source software development tools using version 8.3's integration connectors.

The SDKs and plug-ins operate under the company's Platform SDK, an open-source toolkit introduced in March. Platform SDK is designed to simplify and streamline the process of building applications that integrate with VersionOne's tools.

The company offers a series of open-source plug-and-play integration solutions that enable V1: Agile Enterprise to work with other popular tools, such as Microsoft Team Foundation Server, Cruise Control, JIRA, Subversion, Bugzilla, FitNesse and HP Mercury's Quicktest Pro. These integration solutions are reference implementations that development teams can extend to meet their requirements, according to VersionOne.

VersionOne has emerged among agile vendors as something of a leader, largely because of its project management tools. Butler Group analyst Michael Azoff ranks VersionOne among the vendors to watch in the evolving agile application lifecycle management (ALM) space.

"Since [last year], agile software development has entered the early mainstream and a number of vendors are making a mark with agile ALM," Azoff stated via e-mail.

The Butler Group also ranks Rally Software and ThoughtWorks in this category.

Agile software development methodologies have been moving steadily into the enterprise. Enterprise adoption took off after the 2001 publication of "The Agile Manifesto," written by a group of agile advocates that included Kent Beck, Ron Jeffries, Ward Cunningham, Martin Fowler, Jim Highsmith, Alistair Cockburn and others.

In response, vendors such as VersionOne have been producing project management tools to simplify and standardize the process of planning and tracking agile software projects.

Enterprise-level project management tools with an agile sensibility are also needed for service-oriented architectures (SOAs), according to Agile modeling guru Scott Ambler.

"Chances are, the reason you're organization is doing an SOA is to achieve higher levels of code reuse," Ambler said. To provide that, he added, companies have to look at the bigger picture.

"You have to get a handle on what the various systems are, what they're potential needs are, and which services will provide for those needs," he said. "These are often cross-project issues that the agile methods don't talk about very much."