IBM Rational has just announced that it has open sourced the Rational Unified Process (RUP) platform to the Eclipse Open Source Foundation. This is big news! (at least for us process weenies)

You can read lots about it here...

• http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3555696
• http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5893845.html
• http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=7239FDC1-7119-4764-AC93-8AD912248C5B

Why is this big news?

Well, it would appear that IBM has all of our best interests in mind with respect to driving to a true single unified process. Is that possible? Do we even want a unified process? Is this the holy grail of software development process just as the Unified Field Theory is in physics?

I believe that IBM has made a move to attempt to sway the leadership position of a unified theory away from the current agile thought leaders. By introducing this now, they are essentially turning the tables so that the agile movement now needs to come to them to play in a true consolidated model. That's my devil's advocate side speaking.

I would love to hear your perspectives on the possibilities of a true open unified process. We have been seeking such goals in the agile community now for some time and it appears that we now have a bear at our front door asking to join the party.