Choice Homes has been using a beta version of Microsoft's Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server and some third-party tools to manage projects, but so far, "nothing fits really well," he said.

"Eclipse is something we will probably have to look at before we make a decision on the Microsoft platform," Farmer added.

Meanwhile, Compuware Corp. will be announcing a new Eclipse project called the Eclipse Tools Service Framework, also known as Corona, which aims to support collaboration among tools using the Eclipse ALM. Compuware is developing the code for the Eclipse Foundation project.

The Corona project includes a server-side framework built on Eclipse that supports tools from multiple vendors and collects metrics about events like the number of bugs or exceptions that have been reported.

The system collates the metrics into a central location where IT managers can view the overall development process, said Mike Burba, marketing director for Eclipse project and strategy at Detroit-based Compuware.