Well, I’m back and fully recovered from an exhausting but fun week at the Rational Software Conference 2009. By all accounts, the conference was another smashing success as thousands of Rational customers, business partners, employees, media, and analysts converged on the Swan and Dolphin resort in sunny and hot Orlando, Florida.

The Jazz team and Jazz-built products were again front and center, as excitement for Rational Team Concert 2.0 coming out at the end of this month was definitely in the air. I personally spent quite a bit of time demoing jazz.net and Rational Team Concert in the IBM Solution Center in the exhibit hall, and it was great to see that several of our new videos in our all-new library directly answer lots of questions we’re getting.

I also heard alot of buzz around the integration between Rational Quality Manager, Rational Requirements Composer, and Rational Team Concert. The addition of Rational Focal Point for Project Management as a new product in the Rational suite also got some good attention in the keynote addresses and regular sessions. The Rational Insight executive dashboard demo project video that is hosted on jazz.net also seemed to be quite well received.

Another highlight for me was interviewing several Jazz development leaders representing each of the projects hosted on jazz.net. Here they are for your viewing pleasure:

And here are few photo highlights pulled from the RSC 2009 Flickr photo pool, where you can see over 400 photos from the event:

The guys from Mythbusters entertained the crowd with stories about explosions and their scientific process:

Andre Weinand, Work Item component lead:

Me:

Steve Wasleski of the Jazz Jumpstart team:

Philippe Krief of the Jazz Jumpstart team:

Scott Rich, Jazz Foundation lead:

Mike O’Rourke, Carolyn Pampino, Erich Gamma and Martin Nally presenting the keynote, “Collaborative Application Lifecycle Management: The IBM® Jazz Product Roadmap”:

The IBM Solution Center area of the exhibit hall, where lots of great conversations took place:

Steve Mills, VP IBM Software Group:

The Jazz Cafe poster:

Grady Booch keynote:

Rational Labs on the exhibit hall floor:

See all photos on the Flickr group photo pool! And see you at next year’s conference!

What were your impressions from the conference? Leave your comment below!

—
Seth Packham
Jazz.net website team lead