Serena Software’s New Visual Design Tool Puts Business and IT on the Same Page

Bangalore, November 15th, 2007 — Another free tool from Serena Software will help business and IT professionals speak the same language when it comes to building software applications. Serena® Prototype Composer™ is a free requirements visualization tool that allows business analysts to simulate how applications will look and function before developers write a single line of code. End-users interact with the prototype as if it were the delivered application, confirming requirements with business analysts in real time. Buy-in at the project’s outset ensures the new application is just what the business ordered while controlling development costs. The result: happier developers, more accurate applications, and satisfied business users.

Closing the Cultural Divide

Everyone knows that business and IT folks approach the world from vastly different perspectives. Often, they literally do not speak the same language. It’s been difficult and frustrating for these communities to come together on application development projects, where the typical requirements gathering process involves lengthy meetings, countless specs, and massive Word documents. Serena knew there had to be a better way.

Enter Serena Prototype Composer, which lets business analysts visually design forms and workflows that look like a real application but are just a simulation. The end user can interact with the prototype and give feedback about problems and priorities in real time, helping the business analyst to understand how the user really wants to use the application. This simple, fast, and intuitive way to assess requirements shows developers exactly what to build – the first time around.

“Visual models and prototypes can provide a much better blueprint for software applications than a 100-page Word doc that few people ever read,” said René Bonvanie, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, partner programs, and online services at Serena Software. “With a prototype application, you get a clear view of expected user behavior. No translation is necessary. Everyone is on the same page before development even begins.”

Serena Prototype Composer is available now free of charge. Please visit www.serena.com for more information.

About Serena Software, Inc.
Serena Software, Inc. is the global leader in Business Mashups and Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), for distributed and mainframe systems. More than 15,000 organizations around the world, including 96 of the Fortune 100, rely on Serena solutions to automate the application development process and effectively manage their IT portfolio. Serena is headquartered in San Mateo, California, and has offices throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia Pacific. For more information on Serena solutions and services, visit www.serena.com