My colleagues and I recently received almost 1,000 responses for a benchmark study on Application Lifecycle Management practices that we’re conducting. We’re now analyzing the data, but one thing is clear – one of IT’s top issues is requirements. In fact, our preliminary numbers show that almost half of all survey respondents reinvent the wheel when it comes to defining business requirements!  

The good news is that people are getting better. In fact, the International Institute of Business Analysts (IIBA) is just one example of an organization promoting best practices for requirements management. And on February 16, Serena will be participating in an IIBA webcast on requirements traceability.

If you were at xChange 2011 you know what an incredible event it was. I can promise you that xChange 2012 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas, NV will be even better. 

Registration is now open and we have held the 2007 price for another year! Register by June 1^st and save $400! Get even more savings when you take your whole team. 

It’s about the

My latest whitepaper has just been published.  The topic is orchestrated IT operations.  It speaks to how IT ops are evolving in ways both obvious and surprising, and then goes on to suggest six responses that must be mastered. 

The six steps are to synchronize people with processes, to systematize demand management, to automate repetitive tasks, to

More and more IT Ops execs are expressing their dissatisfaction with their on-premise “ERP-like” service management software.  The gripe is that these systems are complex, costly and very difficult to extend and customize.  One IT exec I spoke with called their ERP-like service management solution their  “cul-de-sac” system…a dead end.  IT execs understand having to pay ERP-like prices to manage global-system-of-record processes (I didn’t say they liked it).  But last I checked, service management systems manage lightweight, business and internal IT services.  So the question is why spend $5M+ for an on-premise ERP-like service management system to solve a $500K problem? 

The traditional

Underscoring a very successful 2011, I’m proud to announce Serena’s inclusion on the prestigious Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal’s Top 25 Software Companies list. Serena’s $222 million in revenue places us 18th on a list that is topped by Oracle Corp. The rankings are based on revenues for the past four quarters. The full list can be found in the January 20^th edition of the weekly newspaper. 

Software is at the heart of high tech, while Silicon Valley is the most concentrated and vibrant tech region in the world. Thus Serena’s ranking as a Top 20 Silicon Valley software company speaks to Serena’s position as one of the most important tech companies in the world.

Our successful #PlusIs contest wrapped up last week and now it’s time for the winners to claim their prizes and select which charities they’d like for Serena to donate to. 

The Grand Prize winner received an iPad 2 and a $500 donation towards the charity of his

After an entertaining couple of months, we are pleased to announce the winners of Serena Software’s latest Twitter contest. The PlusIs contest generated hundreds of creative “Plusisms” from a variety of submitters. It was a difficult decision to narrow down to the category and Grand Prize winners.  However, it was an enjoyable exercise, especially because the Grand Prize winner receives an iPad 2 and a $500 donation towards the charity of his choice, while the category winners receive $50 gift cards and $250 donations to their favorite charities. 

Donating $1,000 to charity is always gratifying! 

The Twitter-based contest called for contestants to submit Plusisms for three categories:

Change is coming to both application development and IT operations. Organizations that recognize and embrace it early will stand to benefit most.  Based on Serena’s extensive interactions with leading IT executives and analysts, we are making five predictions for 2012. 

1. Agile grows up. 
   Agile development will no longer be defined by sprints alone. In 2012, Agile will move from
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I always love the start of a new year.  There’s so much promise and excitement to look forward to.  I, for one, am very interested in how the application development landscape will change with Agile and DevOps being such big influencers.  One thing hasn’t changed though – the #1 application development priority for 2012 is still delivering applications faster to the business.

At the Gartner AADI Summit in December 2011, we surveyed IT executives about their top application development and delivery priorities for the coming year and discovered some notable results.  68% of respondents confirmed that faster

How do you best implement Agile lifecycle practices to ensure end-to-end agility for IT application and service delivery?  

Creative Intellect Consulting (CIC), a prominent UK analyst firm, has written a “creative short” – a short paper filled with expert insights – on what leading IT organizations are doing to be truly agile across the entire enterprise. Learn how you can successfully extend agile from a core development focus to a standard that stakeholders across the entire application delivery lifecycle can embrace.  

Read the “12 Strategies for Delivering End-to-End