Gartner Positions IBM in Leader's Quadrant of 2009 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Architecture Tools

Just published -- IBM is positioned in the Leaders Quadrant of Gartner Inc.'s 2009 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Architecture Tools.

To be positioned in the Leaders Quadrant for enterprise architecture (EA) tools, vendors must demonstrate both 'completeness of vision' and an 'ability to execute.'  According to Gartner, leaders have 'a broad range of capabilities to support EA, combined with the ability to deliver this to a diverse group of stakeholders.'  Leaders, like IBM, provide 'good capabilities to assist EA's mission to translate business vision and strategy into effective enterprise change.  In addition, they have a clear vision of where EA is going and maturing.'

Please use the link provided to download a complimentary copy of the 2009 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Architecture Tools.                                                                                                                        
http://imagesrv.gartner.com/media-products/pdf/reprints/ibm/external/volume4/article28.pdf

IBM is dedicated to providing you with the best-in-class solutions you need to improve your business.  We are committed to continuous improvement of our enterprise architecture solution by listening to you and executing on a vision that delivers real business value.

I look forward to discussing further with you our enterprise architecture solutions.

Best regards,
Bill Duncan

* Gartner, Inc., Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Architecture Tools, Gartner RAS Core Research Note G00172491, Robert A. Handler, Chris Wilson, 12 November 2009, The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted November 2009 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Integration between Rational Focal Point and Rational Project Conductor

This video demonstrates the integration between portfolio and project management. See how a project proposal created in Focal Point becomes a project in Project Conductor and how the two applications share data.

Demonstrates a project's round trip journey between Focal Point and Project Conductor. Projects are prioritized and approved in Focal Point, sent to Project Conductor for execution, and finally reviewed back in Focal Point.

Rational Project Conductor is built on the Jazz Foundation and is available for download from jazz.net.

Cyber War: Sabotaging the System - A CBS 60 Minutes Special Report

Cyber War: Sabotaging the System
60 Minutes: Former Chief of National Intelligence Says U.S. Unprepared for Cyber Attacks
Air Date November 8, 2009

Watch CBS News Videos Online

IBM Rational Executive Dashboard Based on Rational Insight for Performance Management

IBM executives use Rational software to run their own business. Check out the Executive Dashboard that allows IBM executives to manage product development and delivery.  Based on Rational Insight, the Executive Dashboard is designed around business and operational objectives. It pulls live data from a variety of sources from Jazz-based products, such as Rational Team Concert and Rational Quality Manager.

IBM® Rational® Insight, a performance measurement and management solution, helps you improve project and process performance.  IBM Rational Insight delivers measurement best practices to help organizations reduce time to delivery, improve quality, and take greater control of software and systems development and delivery. It provides objective dashboards and measures for transparency and control into risks, status, and trends.

• Provides transparent visibility and control into risks, status, and trends, allowing for corrective actions when necessary to ensure the right course to succeed
• Automates collection, measurement, and analysis of real-time data for reduced errors and complete information for informed decision-making
• Offers measures and metrics tailored and optimized by specific role providing relevant, timely, and actionable information
• Provides visibility into your data across projects, products, and geographical boundaries to monitor status and progress in a single view
• Assesses, measures, and improves results with continual process improvement with the adoption of best practice frameworks

Rational Project Conductor

Collaborative project and resource management streamlined to improve project delivery
IBM Rational Project Conductor, formerly known as Rational Focal Point for Project Management is a project and resource management system optimized for software and systems delivery. Rational Project Conductor enables project and program managers to plan, schedule, and staff projects, with the right resources working on the right tasks. It provides management control and visibility over project status and progress, and serves as the central repository for project and program data.

Comprehensive project lifecyle management

• Plan and define work to the required level of granularity: create programs, projects, sub-projects, iterations, summary tasks, and tasks. Add change requests, issues, and defects during execution.
• Manage resources based on competency, cost, skills, and availability. Search and assign resources to tasks to ensure the best fit between the work and the resource
• Schedule work while accounting for resource availability. Use dependencies, and constraints to build a realistic schedule that meets your delivery commitments.
• Update projects through a direct feed from application lifecycle solutions, without requiring time and status reporting
• Leverage the Jazz platform to coordinate and communicate project, task, and resource information.
• Use reports to gain greater insight into different facets of projects and programs.

Review of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee - Final Report

Review of U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee - Final Report -

DRAFT Smart Grid Cyber Security Strategy and Requirements

NIST announces that draft NIST IR 7628, Smart Grid Cyber Security Strategy and Requirements, is now available for public comment. The first draft of the document contains the overall security strategy for the Smart Grid and the products developed from this strategy, for example, development of vulnerability classes, identification of well-understood security problems that need to be addressed, selection and development of security-relevant use cases, identification and analysis of interfaces identified in the six functional priority areas and selection of a suite of security documents that will be used as the base for the selection and tailoring of security requirements. This is the first draft of the NISTIR; the next draft is scheduled to be posted for comment in December 2009.
Draft Smart Grid Cyber Security Strategy and Requirements