Serena expands ALM focus with change governance

12.09.2006
Serena Software is expanding its focus in the application lifecycle management space with a release of a platform tailored to change governance.

The company on Tuesday is launching Dimensions 10, which unifies ALM components for requirements management, change management, build management, and deployment into a single, integrated platform. A management console also is included. Dimensions 10 is geared to large IT departments performing custom application development in markets such as banking, manufacturing, and telecommunications.

"It's change governance for the application lifecycle," said Matt DiMaria, vice president of worldwide marketing at Serena. Change governance extends software change management, he said. "What [Dimension 10] does is extend it out across the lifecycle. You have the ability to do full impact analysis for any change, regardless of where it originates," DiMaria said. Impacts on source code can be traced, he added.

With change governance, companies can visualize the impact of proposed changes, orchestrate processes and polices, and enforce adoption of best practices throughout an enterprise, according to Serena.

Dimensions 10 differs from its predecessor, Dimensions 9, in that the earlier release honed in on software change and configuration management, whereas Version 10 adds in management of requirements, builds, and releases. The product rests on a common database shared by the various modules.

"These are not five separate products. It is a single CD that installs to a single database," DiMaria said. Although the primary intention is to sell the entire suite as a single package, some unbundling of functionality will be permitted, he said.