• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Rally Coordinates Companies' Software-Development Efforts

Posted on: Monday, 19 September 2005, 03:00 CDT

BOULDER - The world appears to be shrinking, allowing companies to expand their work forces, products and ideas to any country they choose. But one problem with expansion, whether it's across hemispheres or down the street, is the difficulty for management to communicate tasks clearly to all persons working on a project.

Rally Software Development Corp. has created a software program called Rally, an ondemand subscription Web service that provides tools for easy management of softwaredevelopment teams. The service, hosted on a password-accessible Web space, allows developers to test requirements and defects in various software programs anywhere the Internet is available.

"We create software that other teams use to manage their software," said Richard Leavitt, vice president of product marketing.

Rally was formed in January 2002. In its first round of venture capital funding in 2002, it raised $450,000. Ryan Martens, president of Rally, invested $150,000 of his personal funds into the business. In 2003 the Boulder-based company raised approximately $4 million, and it raised another $4 million in 2004.

Tim Miller, left, is chief executive of Boulder-based Rally Software Development Corp. The company has created a software program called Rally, an on-demand subscription Web service that provides tools for easy management of software-development teams. The service, hosted on a password-accessible Web space, allows developers to test requirements and defects in various software programs anywhere the Internet is available. At right is Ryan Martens, Rally's president.

Rally created a way to manage the software life cycle from the conception of an idea to the finished product. Rally software can track requirements, test cases and defects.

Leavitt explained that a high percentage of software failure occurs because of a lack of communication and coordination within information-technology teams. Rally software allows businesses with IT teams located around the world to release software at the same time with identical technology.

"Teams work months and months to create a finished software product, and the people who eventually use the software do not think it's a very valuable product," Leavitt said. "A lot of this stems from poor understanding and expectation of the final product."

Rally helps define how the software product should work and what the customer expects. The software details the phases of the software as it is being developed.

Rally also hosts tests that are run on the software. All team members, regardless of physical location, have equal access to the status of software. The most recent stage of the software is visible to all its developers, as are records showing what has failed or been successful, ensuring less duplication of effort due to lack of communication. Entire organizations have real-time visibility into the status of features, quality, priorities, roadblocks and risks in their software development.

Web root Software Inc., headquartered in Boulder, is an industry leader in antispyware software. The company uses Rally to help with its products' short development cycles.

"It is very important that each person knows what they are supposed to be doing, their personal tasks," said Tim Walker, Webroot development manager. "Defects are assigned to people in a specific order for completion. The dashboard and flowcharts allow management to see our progress in real time and communicate progress to our senior management."

Walker explained that during the company's previous process - involving spreadsheets and e-mailed tasks - things often would fall through cracks, causing the workflow to be interrupted.

"Rally's cost is moderately expensive, but it saves us money because we are more efficient, and we save on hours of programming time by being organized," he said.

Constantly upgrading

Since Rally's conception, it has released many upgrades to its software. It has incorporated a new method called agile development, a fast, iterative method of writing software over short periods of time. Rally coaches software developers in agile methods.

The older way of building software involved longer development times with meetings scheduled over weeks or months and little feedback. With agile development, programmers complete tasks quickly, within a week or two.

"Go a little ways in the process and see if you like what the software is doing and make sure it does not have defects," Leavitt said. "This way we stay on track to completing a well-developed product with tasks completed quickly."

Rally teaches clients that software development is a team effort and focuses on getting software out on a timely manner with continuous testing of code.

"Agile software development unites IT teams. We are dealing with a global economy and the fact that development teams are spread all over the place," Martens said. "Management needs to have a way to organize those teams with a command-and-control structure to know what tasks are required to complete the software."

Rally Software Development Corp.

1050 Walnut St., Suite 202

Boulder, CO 80302

(303) 565-2800

www.rallydev.com

M Rally's cost is moderately expensive, but it saves us money because we are more efficient, and we save on hours of programming time by being organized."

Richard Leavitt

VlCE PRESlDENT, RALLY SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT CORP.

BY JENNIFER QUINN

Business Report Correspondent

Copyright The Boulder County Business Report Aug 19-Sep 1, 2005

Source: Boulder County Business Report

More News in this Category