Rally Software, the company that offers Software-as-a-Service–based Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) platform and products, announced the acquisition of Agile Advantage, a performance management solution that helps organizations maximize the financial return of Agile software development projects.  ALM is the union of business management to software engineering and a continuous process of managing the life of an application through governance, development and maintenance.

“Just as Rally disrupted the project management market 10 years ago, it’s now disrupting the next generation of portfolio management with the same Agile principles that revolutionized how projects are managed,” said Tim Miller, Rally’s CEO. “Adding Agile Advantage’s financial reporting capabilities to Rally Portfolio Manager fuels value-based decisions and provides organizations with the ability to deliver highly profitable products faster than the competition.”

In April 2012, Agile Advantage was named as Gartner’s “Cool Vendor” in their first “Cool Vendors in Program and Portfolio Management, 2012.”  The title given to Agile Advantage is based on the evaluation of emerging vendors with innovative, impactful, and intriguing technology.

Back in December 2011, Rally introduced the Rally Portfolio Manager, the first Agile Portfolio Management Solution, that provides a single system record connecting strategic initiatives with project execution.  Rally’s acquisition of Agile Advantage will add scope, schedule, and cost measurement to their Rally Portfolio Manager which will then enable them to deliver accurate and objective evaluation of portfolio investments for determining what to continue investing in versus what to divest from.

Since the launch of the Rally Portfolio Manager, they’ve been adding functionality to the service based on customer feedback.  It is built on the Agile ALM platform and delivers benefits of Agile practices to strategic roadmap and portfolio planning levels by offering: Business view of Agile development status, Development aligned with portfolio investment plans, Fact-based governance, Value-driven prioritization, and Realistic roadmaps.

“We share a core belief with Rally — we passionately believe in the power of Agile practices,” said Brent Barton, co-founder of Agile Advantage and Rally’s newest Product Line Director. “We’re excited to help accelerate the financial budgeting, planning along with scope, schedule and cost forecasting features of Rally Portfolio Manager.  In turn, customers can maximize the value delivered by optimizing their complex portfolios of projects and products.”