Appendix B. Ready for Rational Software

IBM Rational Software Development Platforms (SDP) is IBM's open, comprehensive, multi-language development environment for WebSphere. Three main products are in the Rational Software family: Web Developer, Application Developer, and Software Architect. There are also many toolkits that add tools for particular components of WebSphere and other IBM middleware (e.g., Voice Toolkit for WebSphere Studio). Customers use a mix of the core products and toolkits depending on the components of the WebSphere platform and other middleware used in their applications. The products and toolkits are generally supported on both Microsoft Windows and Linux systems.

Rational SDP is built on the open source Eclipse tools platform, which provides a complete extensibility architecture. Eclipse plug-in tools products from IBM Business Partners can thus integrate tightly to the SDP and extend the SDP with the Business Partner tool's unique capabilities.

However, for customers to obtain value from a Business Partner plug-in, the plug-in must install safely into Rational Software and interoperate well with the Eclipse platform and other plug-ins. The plug-in must also support the common Eclipse/Rational Software UI and common Eclipse/Rational behaviors.

The RFRS software validation program defines integration criteria for plug-ins integrating to the SDP via the Eclipse platform and components. Compliance with these criteria can help assure your customers that your plug-in product meets SDP standards for installation, interoperation, and UI.

The RFRS software validation program is part of IBM's family of "Ready for" technical validation programs (www.ibm.com/partnerworld/isv/rational/readyfor.html). Any IBM Business Partner that is a member of PWD (Partner World for Developers) can validate plug-in products to the RFRS criteria and join the RFRS program. Business Partners can then use the "Ready for IBM Rational Software" mark with any validated product as visible confirmation of the product's validation to the integration criteria. Use of the mark enables Business Partners to differentiate their RFRS-validated offerings from their competition and enables a shorter sales cycle through increased customer confidence and reduced customer evaluation time.

RFRS is also the gateway to a variety of incremental co-marketing resources to help program members extend their marketing reach. These benefits include RFRS presence at trade shows and IBM road shows, a listing of validated products on the RFRS Plug-in Central Web site (www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/downloads/plugin/), and Business Partner content in newsletters and IBM sales flashes.