IBM (News - Alert) provides collaborative lifecycle management which consists of the latest versions of rational requirements composer, rational team concert, and rational quality manager. By adding rational software architect with design manager, which is available in beta, this solution can be extended with design management.

Recently, the company announced some new applications which are expected to enhance the capabilities of the collaborative lifecycle management solution. With these upgrades, clients can come up with software applications faster and with higher quality in various development environments including cloud, mobile, and complex systems.

Along with enhanced design management capabilities, IBM has unveiled a new version of its integrated software collaborative lifecycle management (CLM) solution. CLM is created on IBM's open development platform, Jazz, and combines IBM rational requirements composer, IBM rational team concert, and IBM rational quality manager in one easy-to-install and easy-to-use solution. The new version allows software design to be combined with the rest of the software application development lifecycle, the company stated in a press release.

“Today's business dilemma is how to address both the need for rapid delivery and sufficient control in the software development process," said Dr. Kristof Kloeckner (News - Alert), general manager, IBM rational, in a company press release. "We must balance the need for speed and agility with better governance to manage cost and quality, achieve regulatory compliance, ensure security, and have some level of financial predictability.”

Recently, TMC (News - Alert) reported that IBM acquired Vivisimo, a provider of federated discovery and navigation software which assists companies in accessing and analyzing big data. The amount paid by IBM for this acquisition was not disclosed. IBM's acquisition of Vivisimo, which was recently named a finalist in the 7th Annual 2012 Hot Companies and Best Products Awards in the IT Products and Services for Enterprise and New Product categories.