Borland and Enthiosys to Demonstrate “Innovation Games” for BMS at Agile 2008 Conference
Agile Project Management Expert Brings Innovative Customer Collaboration Technology to Borland’s Newly Announced Software Delivery Management Platform
TORONTO, Agile 2008 Conference – August 5, 2008
Borland Software Corporation (NASDAQ: BORL, www.borland.com), the global leader in Open Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), and Enthiosys, the leader in Agile Product Management consulting, today announced a partnership that will integrate Enthiosys® Innovation Games® into the newly announced Borland® Management Solutions (BMS). Both companies will be demonstrating the integrated products at Agile 2008, in Toronto August 4-8, 2008. [visit Enthiosys at booth 858; visit Borland at booth 800]
To help software delivery teams more effectively collaborate with business stakeholders in identifying, clarifying and prioritizing demands and requirements, Borland customers will be able to leverage Enthiosys’ Buy a Feature Online, an interactive tool that helps Agile teams prioritize product features. Borland Management Solutions then provide an environment for the execution and management of these demands into software projects and deliverables, while offering analytics to track and measure the progress of the projects from demand through delivery.
“Our clients have had great success with Buy a Feature and other Innovation Games – now they want to be able to scale up to much larger customer groups and solicit worldwide participation,” said Luke Hohmann, Enthiosys CEO. “Since Borland is a leader in software delivery solutions, they are a perfect partner for reaching the Agile product managers and developers who need this collaborative customer capability. We are thrilled to have Borland be the first in this market to add Innovation Games to their Agile solutions.”
One of Enthiosys’ original Innovation Games, Buy a Feature brings together participants who are given limited amounts of ‘virtual’ currency, which they can then use to buy product features they deem most valuable. Bringing the game to an online forum and tying it to Borland’s Management Solutions lets product managers funnel thousands of customers into a single collaborative environment and encourages teamwork to determine what new products should be brought to market or what new features should be built into current offerings.
“We’re excited to make Enthiosys’ Buy a Feature Online part of Borland Management Solutions as we continue to drive towards our Open ALM vision through tangible and meaningful integrations,” said Matt Klassen, director of product marketing for Borland. “We have engaged with Enthiosys in our own planning efforts at Borland with excellent results, and Buy a Feature Online is a great way to get active, yet managed, participation from stakeholders to identify and prioritize backlogs and requests. Injecting the voice of the customer into release and sprint planning decisions will help teams build the right products faster.”
Announced in July 2008, Borland Management Solutions include three products and a set of service packages that enable customers to better track, measure, predict and improve the performance of their software delivery organizations. Leveraging the Borland Open ALM Framework, Borland Management Solutions plug into a customer’s existing ALM tooling infrastructure, providing an ALM management “cockpit” that gives unprecedented visibility and control over the entire application lifecycle. Borland Management Solutions are expected to be generally available in Fall 2008.
One of the original Innovation Games created and captured in Luke Hohmann’s book of the same name, Buy a Feature was conceived as a face-to-face interaction among small numbers of vendors and customers. Buy a Feature typically brings together groups of five to eight customers, moderated by professional researchers, and with vendor representatives present.
Buy a Feature Online scales this up dramatically, allowing thousands of participants to interact simultaneously, from around the world, without needing to travel to a single location. In addition, each group of participants could potentially select from a unique list of features. Tying this to the Borland Management Solutions lets product managers bring their end customers into a collaborative online interaction where users communicate with each other to determine the most valuable and interesting extensions to products.
Innovation Games are described in detail at www.InnovationGames.com and the Buy a Feature Online service runs at www.BuyAFeature.com.
About Enthiosys
Enthiosys is an Agile product management consulting firm that significantly improves the revenue and profitability of companies whose products are based on software. As the leading authority on Agile product management, we work collaboratively with our clients to gain crucial insights on customer needs, help translate them into superior products, and manage these products across their lifecycle. To learn more, visit www.Enthiosys.com.
About Borland
Founded in 1983, Borland (NASDAQ: BORL) is the leading vendor of Open Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) solutions – open to customers’ processes, tools and platforms – providing the flexibility to manage, measure and improve the software delivery process. To learn more about maximizing the business value of software, visit http://www.borland.com.
