WebSphere Revolution

As the marketing team continued to roll out the SOA message, the WebSphere development team was continuing its work transforming the WebSphere suite of products into the foundation for SOA. Some of the existing WebSphere products such as WebSphere Application Server were being reworked and optimized for SOA. But there were also new WebSphere products under development to meet new requirements emerging from SOA. For example, early in the SOA rollout it was becoming increasingly clear that customers adopting SOA were going to need a registry and repository tool. Such a tool would enable businesses to publish, find, enrich, manage, and govern services and policies that are the cornerstone of an SOA environment. It was a fundamental need in SOA environments and IBM needed to respond very quickly. So Tom Rosamilia, heading up WebSphere research and development, was charged with the task. Since IBM had to get the product out quickly, Tom decided to use a new method of software development now known as “agile development.” With this method, the idea is to get code out there quickly and then follow up with multiple releases very quickly to hone in on the actual customer need. It was revolutionary for IBM at the time. Tom challenged a 32-man team in the IBM Hursley lab led by John Mclean who instructed them to, “Get code in the hands of customers for use by January and of course they thought I was nuts and of course they did it. They got iteration one into the hands of customers by January 2006.” This was extraordinary because a typical IBM software development cycle at the time was about two years. As John explains, “This would include six to eight months doing design. You’ll then code for eight to twelve months. And then you will do four to six months of testing.” Only late in the test cycle would you begin to share early versions of the software with customers. Things move fast in the age of the Internet so the classic software development model doesn’t work. As John puts it, “What makes me think I can predict where the market is going to be in two and a half years?” So instead, John’s team used an agile methodology which means you work very early on with some key customers sharing code updates with them every month. This code was not generally available, but was in use by selected customers. In fact, some of the IBM software developers on the team were actually developing and testing code at customer sites such as Toyota they had their desks there. This way Toyota could be involved early in the project providing their requirements during the project definition phase. Everything they did was in direct response to real customer needs. Soon the code had been validated by 90 customers from many industries all around the world in this way. It was time to make it generally available and IBM made final preparations to announce it under the name WebSphere Service Registry and Repository (WSRR) in September 2006—less than a year from commencement of the project but the story doesn’t end there. After WSRR was released, Tom went More on the Web • Video: WebSphere Service Registry and Repository “We fundamentally built SOA capability into WebSphere to the point where WebSphere is the brand for SOA.” —Robert LeBlanc, IBM General Manager of Global Consulting Services and SOA 2007 IBM’s Smart SOA approach is unveiled. 2007 A new species of Leopard is found in Borneo. 2008 The second IMPACT conference is held in Las Vegas. Hursley House—an 18th century mansion in Hursley England now used as an IBM software development lab. 47

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of WebSphere Revolution

WebSphere Revolution Table of Contents The Rise of Internet Business WebSphere Takes the Stage WebSphere Application Server Evolves Beyond the Application Server WebSphere and On Demand Business New Flexibility through SOA An Eye Toward the Future

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