IBM and SAIC Help Clients Meet Compliance Mandates

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Science Applications International (SAIC), working on behalf of the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), has improved DISA’s ability to meet compliance and IT governance mandates. By using IBM software, DISA’s developer productivity has gone up 15 percent, and their improved communication and collaboration on projects has resulted higher quality applications.

SAIC is the second largest employee-owned research and engineering firm in the United States working with a variety of government agencies to help them solve technical challenges in areas such as national security, energy consumption, telecommunications and healthcare.

On behalf of DISA, SAIC used the IBM Rational Software Delivery Platform to streamline DISA’s software development practice and identify weak spots in their help-desk procedures. In an industry where defense and national security concerns are ever present, building applications that stand up to stringent regulatory compliance mandates and deliver measurable return on investment presents constant challenges.

Partnering with the IBM Rational Services group, SAIC upgraded DISA’s IBM Rational ClearCase, IBM Rational ClearQuest, IBM Rational RequisitePro and IBM Rational TestManager offerings -- resulting in developer productivity gains of 15 percent and streamlining DISA’s software development processes.

Software quality management throughout the lifecycle is essential and can reduce costs and improve credibility of applications. The IBM Rational TestManager supports everything from pure manual test approaches to various automated paradigms including unit testing and performance testing. The IBM Rational TestManager has given SAIC real-time metrics on its development practices through a series of reports capturing the crucial aspects of application quality and test completeness.

IBM’s partnership with SAIC commenced in December 2005. SAIC’s current project with DISA focuses on Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrations (ACTDs) through which developers augment and combine off-the-shelf technologies to improve safety, security and communications for America’s war fighters. The ACTDs project began in March 2006 and is anticipated to end in September 2007.