IBM (NYSE:IBM) today announced the release of software products to support the Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC) standard for sharing data between applications.

The first portion of the standard, covering change management, was released this summer, IBM said. The goal of OSLC, an initiative that IBM participates in, is to deliver a full set of standards for Application Lifecycle Management (ALM).

"OSLC is breaking down barriers and easing the pain and cost associated with ALM tool integration. Its open community and common integration approach is very appealing for a company like Tasktop that supports integrations with nearly three dozen change and task management systems," said Mik Kersten, Tasktop CEO, in a statement.

Today, IBM announced that IBM Rational Concert and IBM Rational ClearQuest support the interfaces defined by the OSLC change management standard.

In addition, IBM Rational Change will be available in September.

Finally, IBM also announced that IBM Rational Quality Manager and IBM partner Tasktop support the OSLC interfaces delivered by IBM Rational Concert and IBM Rational ClearQuest and planned for IBM Rational Change.

"IBM did not hesitate to embrace the OSLC Change Management services in its Rational software development solutions because we recognize the tremendous potential of the industry coming together to agree on ways to integrate and share data between tools," said Martin Nally, IBM Rational Software CTO, in a statement.