Roundtable Includes Global Services Magazine Editor-in-Chief, CEO of Delphi Group, Harvard Business School Professor and 6th Sense Analytics CEO
MORRISVILLE, NC � November 1, 2006 — Offshore development has been embraced by the vast majority of commercial software vendors and enterprise application development groups, supported by the belief that a world flattened by globalization makes it possible to improve competition by taking advantage of low-cost, high-quality technical skills. Unfortunately, despite the cost advantages, the practice of sending development offshore introduces a whole new series of risks and unknowns. 6th Sense Analytics, a pioneer in improving software development metrics, will host a free webcast roundtable discussion on globally distributed software development. The event will feature industry leaders including Rusty Weston, editor-in-chief of Global Services magazine; Thomas Koulopolous, founder of Delphi Group, managing director of Perot Systems Innovation Labs, and author of Smartsouring; Robert Austin, Harvard Business School professor and Cutter Consortium Fellow; and Greg Burnell, CEO of 6th Sense Analytics.
The free webcast, "Software Development in a Flat World," will be broadcast on November 16, 2006 at 2:30 p.m. ET. "As a practical rule, organizations need to be ready to address an explosion of challenges when software development efforts are sent offshore," said Greg Burnell, CEO of 6th Sense Analytics. “Without accurate visibility into software development processes, the decision to send projects offshore can quickly introduce new business risks."
During the free 60-minute webcast, attendees will gain insight into the specifics of what it takes to make offshore or distributed development successful. Articulate, expert practitioners and visionaries will lead a series of thoughtful presentations and a moderated roundtable discussion that will enable businesses to ask the right question when it comes to creating a global development environment. Ten attendees will receive a complementary copy of Smartsourcing, a new book by roundtable participant Thomas Koulopolous, exploring the radical social, organizational and economic impact of globalization and innovation.
"Many IT organizations lack a true understanding of their internal costs and service levels, and just put money into IT because that was the cost of doing business," said Thomas Koulopoulos, author of Smartsourcing, founder of Delphi Group and managing director of Perot Systems Innovation Labs. "Unfortunately, the costs are often buried and there are no benchmarks, so those businesses must know the right questions to ask."
The host of the roundtable, 6th Sense Analytics, offers a powerful and unique solution that arms development organizations with accurate and up-to-date visibility into development processes. With easy-to-use and highly configurable reporting capabilities, teams can quickly aggregate the collected data, clearly understanding development trends, relationships, opportunities and risks across distributed development teams. All of this allows software development teams to improve their ability to deliver successful project outcomes, critical to the overall success of a globally distributed software development effort.
Registration Information
Register for the free 60-minute webcast online at (http://www.6sa.com/webcast/). The event will be held on November 16, 2006 at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time.
North Carolina's Research Triangle area is afforded many unique advantages that make it an exceptional place to start and grow a company. Carolina Blue skies, an enviable quality of life and access to first-class talent are just the beginning of what makes this place unique. There's also true breakthrough innovation happening in RTP today.
This was strikingly evident at this week's Tech 2006 conference, sponsored by The Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED), the largest entrepreneurial support organization in the nation. CED handpicked 27 local vendors to show off their wares at this year's event--and 6th Sense brought home the hardware, taking 2nd Place in the People's Choice Award for best product demo. The drumbeat continues for 6th Sense!
In addition to the breadth of commercial innovation on display, there was also lots of interesting discussion and debate on the main stage. David Bonderman of the venerable private equity firm Texas Pacific Group discussed trends in the private equity and venture capital markets. iRobot CEO Colin Angle lent perspective on the remarkable success and the more-than-meets-the-eye vision of his company. Salesforce.com president, Jim Steele, spoke convincingly on the wisdom of software as a service (we couldn't agree more), and the radical transformation we're seeing in how software is built, sold and experienced.
All in all, an exceptional day for 6th Sense and the RTP market--further proof that 6th Sense is onto something very big and RTP is more than blue skies and good barbeque.
Related Links:
http://carolinanewswire.com
Provides Accurate, Automated Visibility into Software Projects; New Functionality Supports Maintenance Efforts
MORRISVILLE, NC -- September 25, 2006 -- 6th Sense Analytics, a pioneer in improving software development metrics, today announced a new version of its leading-edge technology for automatically collecting software development data and aggregating metrics. 6th Sense provides the basis for keeping software projects on time, on budget and on target with business goals, and includes new levels of automation that directly support maintenance needs -- data that offers a clear answer to exactly how much time is spent on maintenance activities like defect tracking and change requests, and exactly how those actions impact cost and successful product completion.
Traditional application development tools have not met the challenge of delivering accurate visibility into development processes. As a result, software development projects have been left to chance, which has led to a stunningly high rate of failure. 6th Sense Analytics is in a unique position to change the face of software development by delivering accurate and up-to-date software metrics that empower organizations to better manage projects, while keeping them on track with business goals.
"Today's software development projects are highly distributed and complex, which makes the need for accurate metrics more critical than ever," said Dana Gardner, principal analyst for Interarbor Solutions. "The challenge is gaining accurate and transparent visibility into the actual work patterns of developers, and, more importantly, amassing the metadata of development productivity analytics. Organizations without visibility into development processes are putting business goals at risk."
The key to 6th Sense's solution is its ability to automatically gather data without requiring developers to change their working processes or their tool selection. All the data captured through 6th Sense sensors is unobtrusive to the user and is presented via a variety of visualization and analysis tools for developers, project managers and IT executives.
6th Sense arms development organizations with information about the development process and resource utilization via an independent, open, web-services architecture to collect and analyze software development metrics. The metrics delivered by 6th Sense can be viewed in a wide variety of ways, including by team, activity, time, tools used and even file extension. With easy to use and highly configurable reporting capabilities built on SVG technology, teams can quickly aggregate data, clearly understanding what developers are doing, what tools and technologies they are using, and how much time they've spent on development activities such as editing, viewing, debugging and testing. All of this allows software development teams to improve their ability to deliver successful project outcomes.
6th Sense Analytics 2.0
The first release of the 6th Sense solution focused on harvesting accurate, fact-based metrics about developers' work in real time, particularly measuring Active Time (time spent in development activities, including editing, viewing, debugging and testing) and Flow Time (Active Time a developer spends on a specific task without interruptions for 20 minutes or more).
"The new functionality in the 6th Sense solution goes beyond just providing insight; it extends the way we look at development efforts, allowing teams to gain transparency into maintenance efforts and their impact on the software development process," said Todd Olson, CTO and co-founder of 6th Sense Analytics. "With this ability, managers have a way to increase their success in on-time delivery."
Version 2.0 extends its automated capabilities from capturing data on development team actions, to providing data that specifically focuses on maintenance efforts; from defect tracking and bug fixes to change requests. Managers and team members can easily see how much Active Time was spent on maintenance activities, which team members were involved in addressing them and the results of the time spent. With this improved visibility, the financial impact of maintenance efforts can identified and managed.
By broadening the set of tools data is gathered from to include leading source control management and change request management systems, software development teams can combine use 6th Sense's new analytics with data they already have to better understand the immediate effect on delivery and overall project costs. Tools supported by 6th Sense include Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, Eclipse and Emacs, among others. For a complete list, visit the 6th Sense website at www.6thsenseanalytics.com.
Pricing and Availability
Version 2.0 of the 6th Sense solution will be available mid-October 2006. 6th Sense is a Software as a Service (SaaS) hosted solution available from the 6th Sense website. The 6th Sense solution is available in two editions; Personal Edition is available free of charge; and Team Edition which aggregates project metrics, is available for $960 per user per year.
About 6th Sense Analytics
6th Sense Analytics, a pioneer in improving software development metrics, gives developers and managers deep insight into their software development process by delivering accurate metrics without interrupting the software development lifecycle or changing the tools used. The company uses an open and independent architecture that provides visibility into the status of distributed software projects. Founded in 2004 by a team of experienced executives in the software development market, representing companies including Rational (now IBM), TogetherSoft and Borland, 6th Sense Analytics is a privately held company based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
Company Will Demonstrate its Software Development Analytics Solution at Tech 2006 in October
August 28, 2006, MORRISVILLE, NC -- 6th Sense Analytics, a pioneer in improving software development metrics, today announced it has been selected by The Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED) to demonstrate its technology innovations at Tech 2006. The conference will be held on Oct. 10 and 11 at North Carolina State University's McKimmon Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. 6th Sense will demonstrate its leading-edge technology for automatically collecting software development data and aggregating metrics, providing a basis for keeping software projects on time, on budget and on target with business goals. Data is gathered from the leading development tools and presented within a rich, web-based user interface, providing a variety of visualization and analysis tools for developers, project managers and IT executives. The product is offered as a software service delivered online via a web browser.
Read More
6th Sense Analytics is proud to be a Silver Sponsor of the 2006 Gartner Application Development Summit in Phoenix, Arizona, September 25-27.
From the Gartner site:
"The Gartner Application Development Summit will spell out the steps you need to take to steer your organization in the right direction. You'll learn to sharpen your focus on SOA even more as we dive deep into discussions of agility and speed -- and the new requirements demanded of your management, architecture, infrastructure and people. The Summit will cover the most pressing issues surrounding BPM and how to solve new challenges presented by packaged applications, Web services and much more."
More information about the summit here: http://www.gartner.com/2_events/conferences/ad8.jsp
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC, DATE, 2006 � 6th Sense Analytics, delivering real time insight into the life of software projects, has been named a “Cool Vendor” in the March 20, 2006, “Cool Vendors in Application Development, 2006″ report published by Jim Duggan, et al of Gartner, Inc.
The vendors highlighted in this year�s report are striving to make software development more measurable, repeatable and easily managed. They are part of a transformation in approach within IT. Managed processes are being created that can be re-used in successive projects. Persistent processes make instrumentation both desirable and necessary.
“6th Sense Analytics helps steer distributed software development projects towards success,” said 6th Sense chief executive officer Greg Burnell. “Business and development teams have traditionally relied on bulky reporting tools or gut feeling to plan and deliver software projects. 6th Sense provides up-to-the minute, fact-based insight empowering teams to take the necessary steps to keep software projects on track and establish repeatable processes.”
6th Sense Analytics uses an independent, open, web-services architecture to collect and analyze project metrics. A suite of community-supported software sensors integrates with leading tools, delivering a complete picture of the development lifecycle - not just from a single vendors’ perspective. 6th Sense Analytics’ AJAX-based reporting system presents metrics using online charts that can be customized to meet individual business and IT users’ needs.
About Gartner’s Cool Vendors Selection Process
Gartner’s listing does not constitute an exhaustive list of vendors in any given technology area, but rather is designed to highlight interesting, new and innovative vendors, products and services. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness of a particular purpose.
Gartner defines a cool vendor as a company that offers technologies or solutions that are: Innovative, enable users to do things they couldn’t do before; Impactful, have, or will have, business impact (not just technology for the sake of technology); Intriguing, have caught Gartner’s interest or curiosity in approximately the past six months.
About 6th Sense Analytics
6th Sense Analytics is for everyone with a stake in software development. Founded in 2004 by a team of experienced developers, 6th Sense Analytics uses an open and independent architecture that provides visibility into the status of distributed software projects. We integrate with the leading IDE and editors such as Visual Studio and Emacs; source control management systems including ClearCase and Subversion; and change request management systems such as ClearQuest and Bugzilla. 6th Sense Analytics, based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, is already helping major systems integrators, independent software vendors and Fortune 500 companies steer distributed software projects towards success.
