The paper describes the need for and goals of tool-integration within software development processes. In particular we focus on agile software development but are not limited to. The integration of tools and data between the different domains of the process is essential for an efficient, effective and customized software development. We describe what the next steps in the pursuit of integration are and how major goals can be achieved. Beyond theoretical and architectural considerations we describe the prototypical implementation of an open platform approach. The paper introduces platform apps and a functionality store as general concepts to make apps and their functionalities available to the community. We describe the implementation of the approach and how it can be practically utilized. The description is based on one major use case and further steps are motivated by various other examples.
Abstract The need for integrating business and technical information systems, allowing partners to collaborate effectively in creating innovative products, has motivated the design and deployment of a novel integration framework for product lifecycle management. The time is ripe for such an integration framework because of the convergence of three important developments, almost in a perfect storm: (1) maturity of standardized product data and meta-data models, and standardized engineering and business processes; (2) emergence of service-oriented architecture for information sharing; and (3) availability of robust middleware to implement them. These developments allow engineering and business objects and processes to be built or composed as modular pieces of software in the form of services that can communicate with each other and be used across different parts of a business. These modular software pieces can be reused and reconfigured in new ways as business conditions change, thereby saving time and money for companies. This paper describes the business and technical aspects of an integration framework for product lifecycle management using open standards and service-oriented architecture.