If we look at any software development project we can see that a number of functionally, geographically and technologically distributed groups working with each of their favorite set of tools. The scenario is quite complex in the sense that each tool creates a complete information island as far as other tools are concerned.

1. Integration Platforms Ensure Effective Communication between Development Tools
If we look at any software development project we can see that a number of functionally, geographically
and technologically distributed groups working with each of their favorite set of tools. The scenario is
quite complex in the sense that each tool creates a complete information island as far as other tools are
concerned. Though all the stakeholders involved in the software development life cycle project and all
the development tools used such as requirements management tools, test management tools, issue
management tools and so on have the same objective that of developing high quality products, there is
lack of integration between the various development tools. These tools, though best of the breed
actually live in isolation and rely mostly on traditional broken manual procedures to synchronize data of
one tool with the other. As a result, they do not work well together. The tools being siloed point
function tools, there is no effective communication between the different development tools.
Instead of point-to-point integrations where integrating five different tools requires 10 total
integrations, the software development team needs ALM integration platforms that help to establish
synchronization between various tools. Here is a look at some of the features of a best of the breed
integration platform.
 Brings considerable savings in development and maintenance costs
 Web Services Standard or SOA architecture makes it open to any type of software from any
vendor including home grown tools or data bases for integrations
 Makes integrations with other tools relatively easy once the APIs for other tools are available
 Requires no hard coding of business rules for the integrations as the data layer is separated
from the business layer
 Allows project teams to work on issues from within their preferred tool environment
 Automates actions on issues resulting from other integrated tools
 Ensures cross-tool visibility, traceability matrix and process automation
For organizations having investments in multiple tools from companies such as IBM, HP, Atlassian and
Microsoft, the integration platform provides two benefits.
 Firstly, it provides the capabilities to integrate tools from any one of these or other vendors at a
relatively low cost
 Secondly, it fills certain gaps in point tools that may not exist at these companies
Take the case of QC, SharePoint, TFS and JIRA integration. When an integration platform is used,
synchronization happens both ways in real-time for Requirement, Test Case and Defects. Besides, any
integration scenario between TFS and JIRA can be easily implemented in minutes with drag-and-drop
configurations requiring zero coding.
Thus, with an integration platform, software development team can ensure effective communication
between tools used by geographically dispersed teams.
Related Links - Application lifecycle management