The product turns disparate data into actionable intelligence, HP said. Combined with the platform, HP Application Lifecycle Intelligence offers a real-time view into changes made to source code while enabling developers to work with their tools of choice. The tool can integrate "to any environment, any source control management tool bringing in changes and [creates] that traceability and links between source control changes to requirements to tests or any entity across the application lifecycle," said HP's Raffi Margaliot, senior director of products, at an HP software launch event in Silicon Valley.

Developers, he said, can track changes associated with activity related to new functionality or to fixing problems. The tool is geared to the concept of agile development, in which developers build applications in short iterations and focus on collaboration. A free add-on to HP's ALM platform, the product supports the Subversion, CVS and Team Foundation Server ALM tools.

HP's ALM platform is providing the kind of governance necessary to make large agile projects successful, said Mik Kersten, CEO of Tasktop Technologies and developer of the Mylyn task-focused interface for the Eclipse platform. "I think we're going to see more public failures [of agile development] soon," he said at HP's event.

"Fundamentally, [agile development] embraces the way developers like to work and collaborate. It just has to have that level of governance if you've got more than 500 of those developers," he said. Developers in agile projects must adhere to practices like providing "user stories" pertaining to their projects, Kersten said. A version of Tasktop's Mylyn product, Tasktop Enterprise 2.1, due in August will integrate with HP Application Lifecycle Intelligence. "This new version leverages everything HP's done."