Due in beta soon, Compass is designed to help development teams deal with the complexity of a distributed software architecture. Credit: BlackRed / Getty Images Atlassian has unveiled Compass, a collaboration portal for developers that the company describes as “mission control” for building software. Compass is designed to help teams deal with the complexity of a distributed software architecture. Announced April 6 and now in an alpha state of development with a beta due soon, Compass is composed of three key features: A components catalog that provides a map of all components used to assemble software and the teams collaborating around them. Developers can access shared components, documentation, and other information to build software in one place. Scorecards that allow developers to evaluate their architecture based on baselines, security, or compliance requirements. An extensibility engine to install apps and bring in information across a variety of developer SaaS tools to give teams alignment across work and flexibility in choosing tools. Free tryouts of Compass are being offered at the Atlassian website. Compass was developed as part of Atlassian’s Point A program for developing products in collaboration with customers. Software Development