Frankfurt-based IT automation experts arago are now making the project management tool they have developed, Rike, available to the general public for free as open source software. arago has been using the tool in its internal product development since December 2010 – including in the development of arago AutoPilot for IT operations, for example. Rike’s special characteristics: the project management tool is based on the kanban principle and also embraces elements of other agile methods such as extreme programming and scrum. In kanban, employees select their own tasks according to a so-called “pull principle”. All employees are equally challenged as a consequence and can optimally contribute their individual strengths. By minimising the tasks to be completed simultaneously, Rike reduces the throughput times for individual tasks.

ATLANTA – August 15, 2012 – VersionOne, recognized by agile practitioners as the leader in agile project management tools, today announced the availability of its Summer 2012 Release. The new release introduces customizable, printable story cards and several enhancements focused on improving the team experience, strategic planning and performance.

Mountain View, CA – August 13, 2012. The Innovation Games® Company, the leading provider of serious games for business, today announced that it has released ScrumKnowsy®, the latest game built on the Knowsy® platfom.
ScrumKnowsy, produced in partnership with ScrumTide, is a browser-based serious game that allows an individuals and organization improve their Scrum practice. Players can “challenge” Scrum Oracles like Scrum Creator Jeff Sutherland, or leading Scrum trainers like Jim “Cope” Coplien or Jens Ostergaard to discover how their Scrum practice compares, or play multiplayer games to track alignment on Scrum practices, roles and responsibilities.

The tinyPM Agile collaboration tool just got new powers! We are happy to announce that a new 3.0 version is now available as free BETA.

Tasktop Technologies, creator of Eclipse Mylyn and the leader for Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) integration, today announced Tasktop Sync 2.4, the latest version of its integration platform for connecting cross-functional enterprise teams and tools. The new Tasktop Sync enables cross-tool traceability and collaboration by connecting requirements tools, and the business analysts that use them, with existing Agile project management, development and test functions. Together with new analytics and web interface capabilities, Tasktop Sync provides organizations with a holistic view of the entire software development lifecycle, across a diverse set of enterprise, Agile and open-source ALM tools.

CollabNet® today announced ScrumWorks Pro 6.0, a new version of its Agile project management tool. New capabilities are significant, with complete support for managing “Kanban,” a continuous process method rooted in Lean software development, and the ability to manage both Scrum and Kanban teams from a single tool to increase productivity, reduce costs and improve visibility.

NCover, the leading maker of code coverage tools for the .NET platform, announced the release of version 4 of it's namesake quality platform. NCover enables software development teams to measure the effectiveness of their testing processes, by highlighting portions of the code that were insufficiently tested. Code coverage is one of the few methods to measure the effectiveness of testing, and is highly regarded as a best practice when delivering high quality software.

Rally®, a leader in the management of Agile software development, has acquired Agile Advantage, a product and services company that helps organizations maximize the financial return of Agile software development projects. The acquisition adds integrated schedule and cost measurement to Rally Portfolio Manager, enabling accurate and objective evaluation of portfolio performance so companies can determine where they should steer their technology investments for higher returns.

LeanKit, recognized as the leader in electronic Lean/Kanban software, announced the launch of groundbreaking new features that will allow even the largest enterprise portfolio and projects to be managed using multiple levels of drill-down Kanban boards, detailed taskboards, and roll-up Lean metrics - as well as a complete overhaul of their user interface that makes LeanKit more attractive, more intuitive, and easier to manage.

JetBrains®, the creators of IntelliJ IDEA, ReSharper, TeamCity and other intelligent, productivity-enhancing tools for software developers, today announced the availability of a new major release of YouTrack, their innovative issue tracking and agile project management system. YouTrack has gained widespread popularity thanks to its keyboard-oriented approach, powerful search queries and command syntax, and fully customizable workflows and issue attributes.