We looked at the Rational products not strictly for software development. We looked at them for program management.
Rational tools can address key areas for any development expert or development project.
Whether the project is hardware, or systems integration, or strictly software, Rational products provide a capability that is available nowhere else. The Rational University training in conjunction with mentoring from the Rational e-development Services team was a very good combination. Many times we would get the instructor from the course to come in and do follow up mentoring. This provided a lot of continuity, making it much more efficient to get up and running. The Rational Unified Process helped ensure that everybody was on the same page throughout the software development lifecycle.