In August we posted our first public Beta, and we followed that up in September with Beta 2 and our subsequent release candidates followed that. We are now excited to announce the availability of Rational Project Conductor 1.0.

As we have mentioned earlier, RPC is part of the next generation project and portfolio management solution from Rational and is the result of years of feedback, including feedback from our customers who participated in the Early Access Program.

What is Rational Project Conductor?

Rational Project Conductor is the project execution arm of the next generation project and portfolio management (PPM) solution from Rational. It’s a web-based project and resource management application built on the Jazz Foundation. It bridges the project management view and the development view without the need to “link” or synchronize data. The data becomes “real” and believable because stakeholders are working on the same artifacts regardless of their role –- the data comes from a single solution rather than being strewn across multiple tools. A perfect example is the seamless integration with Rational Team Concert. In Project Conductor, when you can create programs and projects, equivalent project areas are created in Team Concert. You can also create and modify work items in either product. And updates are real-time. When the developer updates their Work Items, the updates are seen instantly by the project manager. And when the project manager updates the work items, these updates are seen instantly by the developer.

There is a lot of cool functionality in RPC that will bring significant value to your organization. But I do want to mention that it is a “1.0” and it still has some growing to do. With every new release we will add additional capabilities to address more and more use cases, use cases we hope will be defined by you.

Look for future postings here on jazz.net about what use cases we do support. We are currently writing a blog entitled “Is RPC right for me?”. We hope this will help make it easier for you to decide whether RPC is a solution that you should consider.

We are fully open on jazz.net – you can download trial versions, you can post messages in the forums, and you can absolutely open work items for defects and enhancement requests.

I am excited about this release and look forward to future releases based on your feedback.

Thank you

Neil Leblanc
Product Manager – Rational PPM

In order for us to build and deliver the right product to make you successful, we need more input from you. That is why we are opening up Focal Point for Project Management on Jazz.net. Like we do with other products on Jazz.net, we want you to be able to access early releases, see our plans, and provide input about bugs and enhancements.

Here’s what we’ve done so far:

• Published our draft 1.0 release plan
• Created a Rational Focal Point for Project Management forum in the Jazz.net forums, where you can submit feedback and ask questions
• Started an rfp-pjm-dev mailing list for development team communication

What is Rational Focal Point for Project Management?

Rational Focal Point for Project Management is the project execution product of the next generation Project & Portfolio Management (PPM) solutions from Rational. It’s a Web-based project and resource management application built on the Jazz Foundation. Rational Focal Point for Project Management helps project managers gain control of their Software and Systems Delivery (SSD) projects by providing the visibility they need. It also provides the central repository for project and program data, and automates the capture of project data to minimize errors. Let’s not forget about resources. This product also helps in tracking and ensuring that the right resources are working on the right projects. “Resources” may not necessarily mean human resources but could be extended to include any type of resource that can be scheduled, for example, a server.

So far, your feedback is what has driven our capabilities for 1.0, which you can see and follow in our release plan.

I am excited about the communication vehicle that Jazz.net provides between us.

Looking forward to working with you all!

–
Neil Leblanc
Product Manager – Rational PPM