Aussie company brings software engineering process to life with Microsoft

- Object Consulting joins Microsoft's Visual Studio Industry Partner program to support global expansion -

SYDNEY, 23 March 2006 – Object Consulting, a specialist Australian consultant, trainer and developer of enterprise software solutions, has joined Microsoft's Visual Studio Industry Partner (VSIP) program, announcing its plans to integrate its world-class proven Process MeNtOR® software engineering methodology with Visual Studio® Team System, Microsoft's integrated life-cycle tools for software development.

Dr Julian Edwards, Object Consulting's chief operating officer, said the global marketing alliance with Microsoft would support the company's push into international markets including the United States. The company is also a Microsoft Certified Partner and expects to become a Gold Partner soon.

“The new Visual Studio Team System gave us the technical platform to bring our software engineering process to life, and makes our goal of ‘enabling process' for developers a reality,” said Dr Edwards.

Process MeNtOR ® guides project teams through the discovery, design, construction and implementation process using pre-defined and tailorable roadmaps. Now organisations using Visual Studio Team System will be able to choose the type of project roadmap that best suits them from within their familiar development environment, reducing complexity and increasing productivity. Customers working in the Microsoft environment can also leverage the Microsoft Office system, including Project 2003 and SharePoint™ Portal Server 2003. Process MeNtOR ® automatically populates templates in Word that can be published to a project web site using SharePoint, giving the customer version control and reporting capabilities.

Microsoft Corp. group product manager for Visual Studio Team System, Prashant Sridharan, said Microsoft has designed the product so that it could be customised and extended, and as a result, it had fostered a vibrant ecosystem of partners like Object Consulting.

“This is exactly the type of integration that we envisaged when we started building Visual Studio Team System several years ago,” he said. “It is great to see Object Consulting using it as we intended.”

Launched in November 2005, Visual Studio Team System enables software development teams to reduce the complexity of development and improve communication and collaboration throughout the development process. The integration of Process MeNtOR ® with Visual Studio brings the process closer to the developer, increasing productivity and control for better risk management and governance.

Object Consulting principal consultant Peter Diggins, who presented a paper on process integration at Microsoft's Patterns and Practices Summit in Sydney last month, says Microsoft has provided the hooks for properly integrating process into the development environment.

“The easy integration of our process into Visual Studio Team System presented an enormous shortcut to us. Without it, we would have had to create something on our own,” said Mr Diggins. “We have built our UML based Process MeNtOR ® directly into Microsoft's development environment, combining the strength of Microsoft's .NET platform with the industry standard UML modelling language.”

Finula Crowe, Microsoft Australia's product marketing manager for developer tools and manager of the VSIP program in Australia, said the VSIP program had created a global community that opens up opportunities for its members.

“Some of the world's largest independent software developers and integrators such as Borland, Compuware and Mercury are part of the VSIP program, so we are thrilled to have a successful Australian company like Object Consulting on board.”

Organisations interested in a pilot trial of Process MeNtOR® with Visual Studio Team System should call Object Consulting on 02 9459 3300. A demonstration CD with sample Process MeNtOR ® roadmaps will be available in the first half of 2006.

From 4-7 April, Object Consulting, Microsoft and Borland are hosting breakfast seminars that will provide an opportunity for organisations to gain a greater understanding of how process, people and tools improve productivity, as well as seeing how Process MeNtOR® works with Visual Studio Team System.

To register interest in attending this seminar, customers can call 02 9459 3300 or visit http://www.objectconsulting.com.au/seminars.htm for more information.

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For additional media information, or to arrange a media interview please contact:
Susan Moore on behalf of Object Consulting on
Mobile: 0414 819 294 or via e-mail susan@howorth.com.au

For more information about Process MeNtOR®, visit http://www.processmentor.com