This is the sixth in our Software Delivery InFocus series of podcast episodes, starring Bola Rotibi - the Principal Analyst of MWD's Software Delivery competency area. In this episode, she explores the issue of software security - and how security can be "baked in" to applications during the development process - with guests John Colley (EMEA Managing Director for (ISC)²) and Alessandro Moretti (Executive Director of IT Security Risk at UBS Investment Bank).

In today's environment, security is a precious commodity that influences at multiple levels – from organisational to national and international concerns. We are now in an age where communications, online connections and software technology have broadened the reach of our social and business interactions, and have enabled new types of software applications to emerge. With the rise of Internet usage, workforce mobility, use of mobile devices and the pervasiveness of software applications in all aspects of our modern life, software security becomes a top line consideration that impacts both the safety of software and the ability to prevent cybercrime. Ultimately, delivery of secure software code should be as much a software quality focus as is the delivery of core functionality.

This is the fifth in our Software Delivery InFocus series of podcast episodes, starring Bola Rotibi - the Principal Analyst of MWD's Software Delivery competency area. In this episode, she explores the emerging topic of Software Product Lines with guests James Cezo of Lockheed Martin and Dale Churchett of HomeAway (a leading vacation rentals company).

The concept of Software Product Lines (SPL) is designed to help organisations identify and manage variation and commonality in software deliverry - so that it's possible to efficiently deliver multiple variations of a software product or service, each of which shares common elements.

Here, Bola talks to her guests about the concept of SPL; what each company is doing with SPL and how they're making SPL work for them; and what the main challenges that they've each experienced in implementing SPL.

This is the fourth in our Software Delivery InFocus series of podcast episodes, starring Bola Rotibi - the Principal Analyst of MWD's Software Delivery competency area. In this episode, she discusses the thorny issue of software quality. This is something the IT industry has talked about for decades - so why is it still so patchy? Bola's guests are Madelyn Bryant McIntire, Principal Group Manager, PQO Product Quality Management, Microsoft; and Justin Spencer, Development Manager at Lend Lease (a large publicly listed international property group). Producing quality software code is undoubtedly a desired goal of any software delivery team - irrespective of whether the delivered application is for commercial sale or internal business use. Software quality is regularly placed in the top five demand requirements of the software delivery team, yet the quality of software is regularly highlighted as a major failure point and the basis for much end user dissatisfaction. Here, Bola talks to her guests about the main points of failure in software delivery processes; the actions that Microsoft and Lend Lease take to improve the quality of delivered software in a business-driven environment; where the next challenges will come from; and what tools suppliers could do better.

This is the third in our Software Delivery InFocus series of podcast episodes, starring Bola Rotibi - the Principal Analyst of MWD's Software Delivery competency area. In this episode, she discusses the opportunities and challenges associated with using cloud-based software development services. Bola's guest is Debbie Ashton, Product Director for CODA - a provider of both on-premise and SaaS-hosted financial management applications.

Although there is a lot of hype surrounding the concept of "cloud computing", there also appears to be real value to be gained in some usage scenarios. The obvious financial benefit of renting software service (being able to remove up-front capital expenditure and instead account for software as an operating expense) is coupled with the scalability that's possible (you can pay as you go, and pay as you grow) and together it looks like cloud-based offerings will be especially attractive in the tougher economic climate that nearly all of us look likely to be experiencing for quite a while. Many organisations today are tempted to think only of the quick advantages of Cloud – partly as a result of the hype coming from the vendor community. However, whilst the potential and advantages are well documented and clear for people to see, the disadvantages or the challenges of use are not. In this podcast we look specifically at the challenges of developing applications for delivery from cloud-based software platforms. What practices if any should organisations take on board in developing applications and solutions using cloud-based development services? What processes and methods should organisations be putting into practice to get the most out of cloud development services?

As with all the episodes in this podcast series, we've also published a companion report which summarises the discussion and "key takeaways". You can find it here, and it's free to download for all MWD's Guest Pass research subscribers (joining is free).

Following the first Software Delivery InFocus podcast which we published in September, October sees Bola Rotibi's second podcast episode, in which she discusses a series of questions focused on the topic of Application Lifecycle Management (ALM). Her guests are John Leegte (ICT Architect at the Dutch Tax and Customs department, Belastingdienst) and Steve Jones (Head of SOA and SaaS for Capgemini’s global outsourcing business).

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) is a topical subject that has garnered significant column inches in recent months, as many of the leading players in the market have launched new versions of their ALM solutions, and make strategic announcements concerning future directions and customer services and support. Over the last few months we have either heard about or seen previews of products from the likes of Borland, Compuware, HP, IBM, Microsoft, MKS, Polarion and Serena, to name but a few. Software is seen by many organisations as a key enabler of business value - whether that be through improving operational efficiency, competitive differentiation or business/ product innovation. With this in mind, an ad hoc approach to software application lifecycle management cannot provide the predictability, visibility and traceability that organisations require of a process that has such a significant impact on the balance sheet. So - how relevant and applicable is ALM now and in the future, particularly in light of the above challenges?

The episode is slightly longer than normal (clocking in at 41'55"). There was so much good material in the conversation, we didn't want to cut anything!

As with all the episodes in this podcast series, we've also published a companion report which summarises the discussion and "key takeaways". You can find it here, and it's free to download for all MWD's Guest Pass research subscribers (joining is free).

After an extended hiatus, we're relaunching our podcasting efforts with a planned series of discussions focusing on the challenges and issues associated with software delivery processes and competence in enterprises. We've called this podcast series "Software Delivery InFocus", and it's hosted by Bola Rotibi, MWD's Principal Analyst for Software Delivery. Each podcast in the series will feature Bola and one or two guest commentators.

In this 33'06" podcast episode Bola discusses a series of questions focused on the issue of making the right technology choices. Her guests are Alan Zeichick (Editorial Director at SD Times) and Clive Howard (Founding Partner of Howard/Baines, a web development consultancy).

In an environment where software is everywhere and increasingly business critical, but where new technologies and approaches appear on the horizon at an alarming rate - when organisations look to carry out projects, are the right technology choices being made, and if not, why not? And who's to blame? What can organisations do to help them make better technology choices?

As with all the episodes in this podcast series, we've also published a companion report which summarises the discussion and "key takeaways". You can find it here, and it's free to download for all MWD's Guest Pass research subscribers (joining is free).

We're nearing the end (for now - we have more planned, but not for a little while) of a series of SOA vendor interviews with this one, which we conducted recently with Rob Myer of TIBCO. Rob works in Product Management at TIBCO with responsibility for SOA.

We ask the usual four questions, and along the way swing by some interesting conversation points:

• What you need from infrastructure in order to move towards enterprise-wide SOA, and what TIBCO learned from telecoms companies' service platform requirements
• The challenges associated with the WS-Policy, WS-Management and WSDM standards
• The application of CEP (complex event processing) technology to managed service delivery in the context of SLAs.

This podcast episode is 34'28" long.

Here's another in our series of interviews with vendors offering SOA "solutions". This time we spoke to Miko Matsumura, head of product marketing for SOA at webMethods.
In this 25'34" conversation we ask the usual four questions - and also chat about the importance of webMethods' SOA Link program, the role of the Infravio Governance Rules Engine, and SOA as an enabler of federated/cross enterprise business processes.

Here's the fourth in our series of interviews with vendors offering SOA related products and services. This time it's the turn of Kris Horrocks, who's a Technical Product Manager in the Connected Systems Division of Microsoft. (The Connected Systems Division was formed in 2005 as part of the Server and Tools business, and it brings together work on .NET, BizTalk, CardSpace and other related things).

As usual we talk through our standard four questions. In the resulting conversation we explore:

• how Microsoft deals with customers' questions about scalability and interoperability
• the importance of "high fidelity handoffs" between IT practices in quality service delivery
• how the SOA offering fits with Microsoft's Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI) and support for "design for operations", and what this means for managing service lifecycles.

The podcast episode lasts 34'41".

Here's the third in our series of interviews with SOA vendors. This week it's the turn of Roman Stanek - one of the founders of Systinet, which was bought by Mercury (which was then in turn bought by HP a few months back).

The 31'17" interview has some great stuff in it. As we ask our usual four questions about HP and Systinet SOA offerings, we swing past:

• scenarios where the standardisation and interoperability that SOA introduces are particularly important
• how SOA is about outcomes, not protocols (with reference to the SOAP vs REST debate)
• how SOA wil disappear from the IT industry's lexicon in the coming years, because it will become a standard feature of the IT landscape
• the effect that SOA has on the software development lifecycle, and how the loose coupling that it introduces into development organisations and processes brings requirements for strong management of service lifecycles and service quality.