IBM Rational Tools To Support UML 2.0

IBM has revealed additions to its Rational software development tool lineup and said its architecting and modeling tools will support Unified Modeling Language 2.0 by the end of the year.

IBM is adding IBM Rational Portfolio Manager to its product line as a result of its acquisition of Systemcorp ALG Ltd. and its PMOffice Enterprise, a management tool for tracking, managing, and measuring the progress of multiple IT development projects. Systemcorp developed the management software jointly with IBM before the acquisition, which was announced Oct. 12.

Another addition is IBM Rational Software Architect, a design and development tool to help software architects and senior developers specify and maintain an application architecture. It will support UML 2.0, an object-oriented modeling language that incorporates design notation and practices established by object-oriented development experts Grady Booch, Jim Rumbaugh, and Ivar Jacobsen. An independent standards body, the Object Management Group, created the specification for UML 1.0 and 2.0. The new tool also has a pattern-development engine to capture the patterns of an application and compare them to best practices in Java, C, or C++ development.

A third new tool is IBM Rational Software Modeler, which uses UML 2.0 to generate models and designs of a prospective system. It's geared for use by software architects, systems analysts, and designers to accurately capture a set of specifications and communicate them to development teams.

Existing modeling tools in the Rational product line, including Rational Rose and Rational XDE, will continue and be supported, said Roger Oberg, VP of marketing for the Rational software unit of IBM.

The fourth new tool is IBM Rational Manual Tester, a manual testing tool for business analysts and testers who formulate tests of newly developed software to ensure that it meets business requirements. The tool is a slimmed-down version or subset of a predecessor tool, IBM Rational Functional Tester, a tool for more automated testing of newly developed software.

IBM also renamed two tools associated with its WebSphere middleware, adding them to the Rational lineup. WebSphere Studio Site Developer is now IBM Rational Web Developer for WebSphere software and WebSphere Studio Application Developer is now IBM Rational Application Developer for WebSphere Software, Oberg said in an interview.

The new tools, along with upgrades to some existing ones, will become generally available Dec. 3-31. IBM Rational Software Architect is priced at $5,500 per user; IBM Rational Software Modeler, $1,795 per user per year; IBM Rational Web Developer for WebSphere Software, $1,000 per user; IBM Rational Application Developer for WebSphere Software, $4,000 per user; and IBM Rational Manual Tester, $1,500 per user.