Continuus Software's Task-Based CM Improves Software Development Process Without the Pain; Continuus/CM 4.2 Goes Beyond Traditional SCM Tools in Ease of Use and Power.

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 7, 1996--Continuus Software Corporation today shipped Version 4.2 of the Continuus Change Management Suite.

Continuus/CM 4.2 eases the effort required to achieve state-of-the-art software change management (SCM) and the improved productivity and software quality that go with it by enlarging the scope of SCM beyond individual files to encompass the entire set of files involved in a given programming task.

The task of adding a software enhancement or fixing a bug usually involves creating or changing several source files, adding test cases, and modifying documentation files. Traditional SCM systems capture only the individual file modifications and have no knowledge of the relationships and dependencies between them. As a result, development team members are forced to track the logical relationships themselves, which often leads to communication, build, and software quality problems.

Continuus' new Task-Based CM capability assumes the burden of tracking and operating on related sets of changes, which means it: -0-

-- eliminates the need for developers to maintain lists of which files they've edited to complete each enhancement and bug fix; -- frees the developer from checking in files one at a time and eliminates the failed compilations common in file-based CM systems when programmers forget to check in all of the files edited to complete a task; -- allows changes related to an enhancement or bug fix to be backed out of a software release with a mouse click, useful when incomplete tasks are holding up software delivery; -- enhances software quality through detection of incomplete or inconsistent sets of changed files. This "safe and smart" SCM eliminates problems such as recurrence of bugs fixed in a previous release. -0-

In addition, Continuus Task-Based CM is easily modified to match the workflow of any desired software development process. Creating a new stage of workflow -- say, a new controlled testing stage -- requires only the creation of task folders and a few additional mouse clicks.

"Keeping track of changes at the file level is a nightmare today given multiple developers or even multiple development teams working in parallel off a shared code base of files," said John Wark, president and CEO of Continuus Software. "Moving CM operations to the higher level of tasks lets the system hide the underlying complexity and automatically present each team member just the set of file versions germane to the task at hand."

"Tandem has used Continuus/CM for years, and we encouraged Continuus to take this task-based approach," said Ron Suliteanu, Software Designer for Tandem Computer Inc. "Task-Based CM, sometimes referred to as change sets, clearly makes CM easier yet at the same time more powerful."

The foundation for Task-Based CM has been part of the Continuus architecture since Release 4.0. Release 4.2 users who choose to move from Continuus/CM's existing file-based methodology to a task-based approach therefore give up none of the previous versions' power to eliminate such problems as duplicated code bases, inefficient manual code merges, the need for code freezes when doing builds and releases, the inability to let two developers work in parallel, overwritten and lost changes, and non-reproducible builds.

The Continuus Change Management Suite

The Continuus solution for managing change in software development is offered as individual products or as a the Continuus Change Management Suite, which consists of:

-- Continuus/CM. Continuus/CM provides a choice of either file- or task-based approaches to configuration management for development teams large and small. Its flexible, data-driven process, three-tier client/server architecture and object repository improve developer productivity by eliminating time-consuming housekeeping tasks and protecting build managers, test teams and software developers from unwanted changes.

-- Continuus/OM. ObjectMake, Continuus object-oriented Make facility, provides high-performance and full-function control of the build process and is compatible with common MakeFile formats. Benefits include automatic calculation of dependencies as well as distributed builds and load balancing to improve performance; remote target builds to support other platforms; variant MakeFiles to ease support of multiple platforms with a common code base; and a complete Bill-of-Materials for resolving build problems.

-- Continuus/PT. From the first release to multiple variations of later releases, Continuus/PT offers complete linkage between change requests, assigned tasks and the resulting sets of changes. Through a graphical user interface, project managers and development team leaders can unobtrusively monitor changes by developer, date, project or file. Interactive dialogues provide flexible, online querying and report writing for powerful quality metrics and statistics.

Unlike control-driven approaches to change management, which often use rigid procedures that developers find invasive, the Continuus change management solution is flexible and allows developers to continue to work as they always have. The workflow coordination is automatic, greatly reducing the need for status and coordination meetings and tedious report writing.

In order to seamlessly facilitate the way a development team works, the suite integrates seven distinct but interrelated aspects of application development:

-- Version Control/Object Management to manage versions of objects including directories, source files, libraries, executables, designs, documents, schedules, test cases, test results, make files, and other components of software development projects.

-- Parallel Development Support to allow multiple teams to work off the same code base while simultaneously producing patches, maintenance releases, new generation releases and multiple variants of the code for different hardware and software platforms.

-- Remote and Disconnected Development Management to support distributed software development teams through dial-up connections and the Internet. Developers can also work without a network connection (even on files that have not been checked out) and get back in synch via a reconcile operation run upon reconnection to the network.

-- Work Area Management to insulate developers from changes by another team member that could corrupt their workspace. Yet the system does not isolate developers -- it notifies them of all changes made by other team members that impact their work in progress.

-- Workflow Management to automatically coordinate the efficient performance of interrelated chains of tasks by people in a range of roles including developer, build manager, test/QA, and project manager.

-- Build Management to reproduce executable products from previous configurations, distribute builds across several machines on a network to speed compiling, and produce Bill of Materials for problem resolution.

-- Integrated Change Request and Problem Tracking to record and track defect reports and enhancement requests, to manage the assignment of tasks to complete those requests, to track the associated changes to designs, code and documents, and to provide quality metrics useful for continuous improvement.

Pricing

The price of the server license for the Continuus Change Management Suite is $9,995. Client pricing for the full suite (Continuus/CM, /OM, and /PT) is $2495 per seat, quantity one, for any UNIX or Windows platform. Individual per seat client licenses (quantity one) are also available for CM at $1995, /OM at $595, and /PT at $995.

Availability

Continuus/CM, /OM and /PT Version 4.2 shipped at the end of September, 1996. Supported platforms: -0-

UNIX (both Server and Client)

     HP HPUX
     Sun SunOS and Solaris
     IBM AIX
     SGI IRIX
     DEC Digital UNIX

Windows (Client only, Windows NT server available December 1996)
     Windows NT
     Windows 95
     Windows 3.1 and 3.11 for Workgroups

-0- About Continuus Software

Based in Irvine, California, Continuus Software is the fastest-growing provider of change management solutions for software development. The company develops and markets Continuus/CM, /OM and /PT, a suite of change management technologies that manage the entire process of software development and on-going maintenance. The products feature a predefined, customizable workflow-management model for rapid implementation. Additionally, the company offers extensive consulting, training and integration services.

With these products and services, Continuus leads the industry in providing the ease-of-use, flexibility and scalability needed to help software developers increase team productivity, improve product quality and speed software creation, upgrades and new releases.

Continuus is a privately-owned, venture-backed corporation. Products are sold direct in North America, France, Germany and the UK as well as through distributors in other countries. Customers include: BMW, Bell Atlantic, British Telecom, Chemical Bank, Lehman Brothers, Lockheed, Motorola, Novell, Rockwell, ScotiaMcLeod, Texas Instruments and Tandem Computers.

Continuus Software Corp. is located at 108 Pacifica, Irvine, Calif. 92718-3332. Phone: [phone], fax: [phone]. Web site at www.continuus.com -0-

Note to Editors: Continuus/CM, Continuus/OM and Continuus/PT are registered trademarks of Continuus Software Corporation.

CONTACT: Continuus Software

Kevin Strehlo, 800/820-1995

[e-mail]

or

Lindsay PR

Mary Lindsay, 408/984-7242