Borland Addresses the Leading Cause of Software Project Failure with New Requirements Definition and Management Solution; New Caliber® DefineIT™ Product Closes the Communications Gap Between IT and Business Stakeholders

Business Wire, April 17, 2006

CUPERTINO, Calif. -- Borland Software Corporation (NASDAQ:BORL) (www.borland.com), the global leader for Software Delivery Optimization (SDO), today announced a new solution to help organizations improve their processes for defining and managing software requirements. Borland's new Requirements Definition and Management solution packages customized process improvement and training services with innovative new products to facilitate the elicitation, analysis, specification, validation and management of requirements.

As part of this new solution, Borland also introduced Caliber(R) DefineIT(TM), a new requirements definition product that lets analysts visually specify functional requirements, execute graphical storyboards, model use cases and scenarios, and automatically generate the necessary test cases for validating quality within the software lifecycle. These capabilities help close the communications gap between business and IT, enabling customers to get requirements right from the very beginning.

"No single factor is responsible for more wasted effort, rework, or failed projects than inadequate requirements," stated Carl Zetie of Forrester Research in a January 2006 research report. "For many companies, improving the communication of requirements between IT and business managers -- both gathering the requirements from the business and confirming understanding to the business -- is the single improvement with the biggest measurable impact."(1)

The Impact of Poor Requirements

Analysts and users alike cite inaccurate, incomplete and mismanaged requirements as the number one reason for software project failure. The Standish Group's annual CHAOS report indicates three of the top five reasons for project failure are related to requirements. In addition, requirements errors are a primary factor behind most rework efforts, which according to industry statistics, can add up to 40 percent of the total development effort within a given project.

"Requirements set the stage and impact every phase within the software lifecycle," said Rick Jackson, chief marketing officer and senior vice president of products at Borland Software. "Yet, most requirements management products and processes focus only on tracking the status and evolution of requirements, not whether the requirements are defined correctly up front or validated among all the stakeholders. Bad requirements can cause a ripple effect that leads to significant rework, project delays, budget overruns, a poor user experience or even outright failure. We're working with our customers to solve this issue."

Getting Requirements Right the First Time, Every Time

Borland's Requirements Definition and Management solution includes Caliber Analyst, the first enterprise product to integrate a visual tool for requirements definition (Caliber DefineIT) with an enterprise-class requirements management system (CaliberRM(TM)). When combined with Borland's Accelerate process framework and customized training, Caliber Analyst not only facilitates more effective collaboration between business and IT stakeholders -- who often have differing frames of reference, communication styles and priorities -- but also provides the automation and traceability that analysts need to manage requirements from start to finish.

Caliber DefineIT helps teams capture end-user scenarios in a simple, visual form that both business and IT users readily understand. It then enables analysts to detail requirements with attributes, screenshots, prototypes, images, text-based documents and more to deliver clear and understandable requirements. Teams can then execute storyboards to aid the review process so stakeholders can effectively determine if the requirements are accurate and complete. Caliber DefineIT can also automatically generate lifecycle assets such as activity diagrams, use case diagrams, business process models and test scenarios to accelerate higher quality development.

The Borland Requirements Definition and Management solution currently integrates with Borland's Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) products, as well as Microsoft(R) Visual Studio Team System(R), Mercury Quality Center(TM) and Eclipse, to support and improve collaboration across heterogeneous development environments. Borland also expects integration with Segue SilkTest to be completed later this year.

The Borland Requirements Definition and Management solution also includes assessments, executive alignment sessions and personalized process improvement workshops led by Borland Solution Architects, as well as an array of training options to facilitate rapid adoption of the processes and Borland products.

"One of the biggest challenges our clients face is communication, as business and IT often speak different languages," said Mac Felsing, co-founder and principal mentor at Process-Exchange, Inc., a software and consulting company focused on helping enterprises define and refine their software development processes. "Caliber DefineIT helps analysts capture information in business terms, convert it automatically to a more formal representation, and provide immediate feedback on the validity of what has been captured. This really bridges the communications gap, ensuring that the information as expressed by the business is successfully translated into IT language without loss of meaning."