© 2014 IBM Corporation

Panel: Best practices on implementing integrated tools1863

Integrations consume more of the IT budget: integrationfailures are the top 2 causesof software project delays*

Integrations consume more of the IT budget: integrationfailures are the top 2 causesof software project delays*

The Integration Problem

Point-to-point Integrationsdon’t scale

Monocultureslock you in

Maintenance, management,and change costs go up over time

Creating newintegrations isunpredictable

Ongoing and unexpectedcosts drain resources

Past choicesrestrict presentaction andfuture vision

* Commissioned study conducted byForrester Consulting on behalf of IBM.

Meet Your Panelists

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Dave WestChief Product OfficerTasktop Technologies

Steve SpeicherOSLC Lead ArchitectIBM Rational

Bill ChownProduct Marketing DirectorMentor Graphics

Axel ReichweinIndependent ConsultantKoneksys

• Experimented with RESTful point-to-point integrations

• Not only own product integration problems

• Jointly formed Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC) to address these problems

• Ton of experience with bus/replication-style integrations

• Personally joined effort in late 2008 as part of CQ and RTC development team

IBM: Context

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Steve SpeicherOSLC Lead ArchitectIBM Rational

• Skill gap can’t be underestimated

• SDK, test suites and reference implementations go a long way

• Develop and test with at least 2 implementations

• Start small, iterate, don’t push off hard stuff (OAuth, query)

• Support what you need (supporting the full spec should be the goal but may not be necessary)

IBM: Lessons learned

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Steve SpeicherOSLC Lead ArchitectIBM Rational

• UML-based and SysML-based integration solutions to bridge the gap between systems engineering and discipline-specific engineering

• Implementation of (open-source) OSLC-based solutions including OSLC adapters for MagicDraw SysML, Simulink, AMESim, and PTC Integrity

• Co-Chair of the OMG OSLC4MBSE Working Group to apply OSLC beyond software engineering

Koneksys: Context

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Axel ReichweinIndependent ConsultantKoneksys

• Integration of multi-disciplinary information in a common modeling language is difficult

• Interest to apply OSLC beyond software engineering is rising

• Potential to convert existing standards (SysML, STEP, FMI) into OSLC specifications

• Open-source OSLC solutions benefit everyone

• Eclipse Lyo very useful to get started with OSLC

Koneksys: Lessons learned

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Axel ReichweinIndependent ConsultantKoneksys

• Thanks for including my product name in everyone’s title!• OSLC point to point – good• OSLC point to focal point – better• Several years experience with numerous

tools and use cases across the designspace, and creation of new toolsets

• Context™ Server stores and manages the links– Organizes links, builds history, enables traceability and reporting– Original data remains with original tools and repositories

• Context™ SDM plugins augment design tools– Integration available for any Mentor tool– Also supports other vendors’ or internal design tools

• Web-based Product Manager accesses data and analytics

Mentor Graphics: Context

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Bill ChownProduct Marketing DirectorMentor Graphics

• It’s a people problem– Fear of change colors opinions– Tools are sacred to the current expert users

• Technically, most design tools can be connected– Most commercial tools support extensibility – in some form– A set of libraries and generated APIs enable integration– In-house solutions are sometimes more challenging– Some vendors seem reluctant to enable integrations

• Values observed are diverse, and span the use cases well

Mentor Graphics: Lessons learned

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Bill ChownProduct Marketing DirectorMentor Graphics

• Have been pushing the need for lifecycle tools for over 20 years

• But still VERY disappointed– Still the need for email and spreadsheets to run

projects

• Saw the need for integration between tools whilst a Forrester– Legacy tools hard to change– Tools strong affinity to disciplines and platforms– Developer driven innovation

• Driving product at Tasktop that provides an integration bus for lifecycle tools based on the success of Mylyn– Enables process flow between tools– Supports cross tool traceability and reporting– Encourages collaboration in context

• OEM’d by IBM at Rational Lifecycle Integration Adaptors – Tasktop Edition (catchy title hey )

Tasktop: Context

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Dave WestChief Product OfficerTasktop Technologies

• Integration is more complex than it looks– Process / Flow complexity– Structure complexity– Need for transformations / translations

• Vendor APIs change frequently and that is increasing– Robust solution requires significant testing

• Integration patterns raise the abstraction– Provide way to introduce standards and concepts

• Point to point integration solutions are brittle– Need for a bus model– Map to common abstraction (ALM data model)

• OSLC is a great starting point but incomplete– Need to support closed systems– Need to enable flow and collaboration

Tasktop: Lessons learned

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Dave WestChief Product OfficerTasktop Technologies

Thank You