IBM has proposed a large contribution of “software process” tools to the Eclipse Foundation. The contribution comprises a subset of its Rational Unified Process (RUP) tools, which it says can help the software industry create, share, and reuse software development best practices.

The Eclipse project itself originally grew out of a 2001 software donation from IBM to the open source community valued at $40M.

IBM's RUP tools comprise Web-enabled software project planning and management tools based on UML (unified modeling language). RUP currently supports Windows PCs, and sells online for about $400.

IBM describes RUP as “a vast collection of methods and best practices for promoting quality and efficiency throughout software development projects.” It says that if widely adopted, the tools could improve software development practices within organizations and throughout the industry.

IBM says that about half of all corporate software development teams have begun process-related initiatives to improve the governance and predictability of software projects, and that RUP technology could seed and foster an ecosystem of collaboration among “software practitioners.”

Daniel Sabbah, GM of IBM's Rational Software division, said, “IBM is doing for the software development process what Eclipse has done for the integration of software tools. Software practitioners at large companies, independent software vendors, systems integrators, and in government and academia will be able to collaborate more easily and drive better-managed and higher quality software projects.”

 
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