CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
1 August 2007
Product News
Serena Software Offers New Agile in the Enterprise Program to Enable Successful Agile Adoption
Serena Software, Inc. introduced a unique new program to help enterprise IT organizations adopt and integrate Agile software development practices. Agile in the Enterprise includes advisory services, training and coaching services as well as two new product offerings, Serena® Agile Accelerator for MarinerT and Serena Agile Accelerator for TeamTrack®.
Agile development practices encourage communication and collaboration within application development teams. With Agile, everyone involved in software development projects - from programmer to user to manager - is empowered to quickly respond to ever-changing software development requirements. As a result, Agile adoption rates are on the rise yet enterprises need help putting it to work in their organization, especially when teams are globally dispersed using a mix of tools and methodologies.
Agile in the Enterprise: Serena's Take
Serena provides a four-pillar approach to support Agile in the Enterprise:
• Advisory services to help organizations understand why they should consider adopting Agile practices, as well as the benefits and costs of Agile adoption;
• Strategic partnerships with leading Agile training and services vendors;
• Expert coaching to enable successful projects;
• Enterprise-class software that accelerates the adoption of Agile and encourages individual team flexibility and innovation.
As a proponent and practitioner of customer-centric Agile product development approaches, John Scumniotales, Serena's vice president of product management, has spent nearly 20 years at the forefront of the software and technology marketplace. In the early '90s while at Easel Corporation, Scumniotales pioneered several software development tools and processes. At Easel, he co-invented the Scrum Agile development methodology and was the first ScrumMaster. Scumniotales joined Serena via its acquisition of Pacific Edge Software.
"Over the past 12 months, Agile adoption has soared among large companies - including a significant number of our own customers," said John Scumniotales, vice president, product management, Serena Software. "However, adopting Agile involves more than tossing the latest buzz words around and adopting new tools. It's about making fundamental changes around how organizations conceive, construct, and test applications and products. To be successful and to minimize disruption to the business, they will require expert help with Agile adoption. There is no one in the ALM space better positioned than Serena to drive Agile adoption across the enterprise. Our complete solution focuses on customer success."
Serena Agile Accelerator for Mariner
Serena's Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) solution, Serena Mariner, allows companies to manage IT as an investment portfolio by defining objectives, controlling risk, and efficiently balancing resource demands. With enterprise-wide visibility, projects are prioritized and assigned based on fit with business strategy. With the Serena Agile Accelerator for Mariner, pre-configured Agile processes allow organizations to get up and running quickly. Enterprises can mix and match methodologies, rolling up project metrics to allow apples-to-apples comparisons and conduct consistent portfolio management across the enterprise. The Agile Accelerator for Mariner includes task, backlog, sprint, and user story investments as well as impediment management processes to keep projects on track.
Serena Agile Accelerator for TeamTrack
Serena's solutions for process management coordinate the work of multiple people and multiple systems in the enterprise workflow. These solutions focus on processes at the intersection of application development and IT operations. Serena's cornerstone process management product, Serena TeamTrack, supports these processes with features including role-based views, a graphical process designer, on-the-fly configuration, and access to real-time data anytime, anywhere from any Web browser. With just enough process, the Serena Agile Accelerator for TeamTrack enables product owners and ScrumMasters to manage backlog tasks, sprint planning, and task-related project status reports. Additionally, the accelerator empowers individual contributors to take responsibility for their own activities, allowing contributors to manage their own tasks, estimates, and work.
John Scumniotales stated, "Inside Serena we practice what we preach, with some teams using Agile and others using traditional methodologies. We don't dictate - we direct. Whether you're working with Agile, Waterfall, CMMI, bespoke - we're squarely focused on what's right for each organization. And these accelerators and services support an approach to multiple methodologies that we believe will help customers build on their development successes."
Learn More About Agile in the Enterprise
Interested parties should contact their Serena sales representatives or authorized resellers. For more information, please visit http://www.serena.com/US/solutions/compliance-solutions/agile-solutions.aspx
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