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BMC SOFTWARE COMPLETES MERGER WITH BOOLE & BABBAGE

Company Raises the Bar for Application Service Assurance; Announces First
Integrated Product 

HOUSTON, TX -- (March 30, 1999) -- BMC Software (Nasdaq: BMCS), today completed
its merger with Boole & Babbage, Inc. As part of the merger agreement, Boole &
Babbage shareholders receive .675 BMC Software shares for each Boole & Babbage
share held. Together with the recent announcement to acquire New Dimension
Software, the company creates a new era for enterprise management providing
customers around the world with the assurance that the business-critical
applications they rely on are available, recoverable and perform around the
clock.

"The completion of the merger firmly establishes BMC Software as the powerhouse
and undisputed leader in application service level management in the enterprise.
We have the right technology and solutions - built for the explosive demand for
application management - the right talent, and the right strategy for our
customers who are reinventing industries and leading the way into the new
millennium. BMC Software is out in front and sets the standard for the new era
of enterprise management," said Max Watson, chairman, president and chief
executive officer of BMC Software. "We have been greatly impressed with the high
degree of competence, technical depth and professionalism at Boole & Babbage.
Our combined talents will provide us the ability to more quickly deliver
solutions to the market."

FIRST INTEGRATED PRODUCT AND PRODUCT ROADMAP PREVIEW 

Delivering on its integration commitment, as the first step in integrating the
product lines, BMC Software also announced today the general availability of the
COMMAND/POST connect PATROL product which delivers rapidly configured, seamless
integration between its suite of PATROL management products, the industry leader
in event automation, and COMMAND/POST, the best-of- breed enterprise management
console. COMMAND/POST connect PATROL extends the management capabilities of
COMMAND/POST to encompass the broad range of applications, databases, messaging
and middleware systems, and Internet and Intranet servers managed today by
PATROL products.

It enables PATROL users to manage their entire enterprise from the COMMAND/POST
enterprise management console, improving responsiveness and eliminating
redundant problem assignment by providing a consolidated view of the entire IT
enterprise. (see separate release)

In late April, as part of its fiscal year kickoff during which the company will
outline its strategic imperatives for the coming year, BMC Software will
announce a detailed plan on the integration of the Boole & Babbage team and its
family of products. The company plans to roll out integration milestones
throughout the year.

The combination of the companies' product lines provides customers:




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         o        Reduced management complexity by providing tailored
                  infrastructure, application and, ultimately, business process
                  views across the distributed enterprise for service level
                  management.

         o        Enhanced interoperability through synergistic product
                  capabilities, alignment, functionality and integration.

         o        Superior customer service via an enhanced global distribution
                  and support network.

         o        Additional technology innovation through the combined
                  company's extensive expertise and talent pool.

As the two companies are assimilated, BMC Software will work with its customers
to consolidate pricing and terms and conditions to simplify them, therefore
making it even easier to do business with BMC Software. At this time, the
company does not foresee the need for any significant changes in Boole & Babbage
prices. 

BMC Software exchanged approximately 19 million shares of common stock for all
outstanding shares of Boole & Babbage. The transaction will be accounted for as
a pooling of interests.

With the completion of the Boole & Babbage transaction, BMC Software now employs
approximately 4,400 people in 26 countries and has combined revenues during the
last 12 months of approximately $1.2 billion.

ABOUT BMC SOFTWARE 

BMC Software, Inc. is the industry leader in delivering application service
assurance solutions - enterprise-level software and support that improves the
availability, performance and recovery of critical applications and data in
complex computing environments. BMC Software is the world's 12th largest
independent software vendor and an S&P 500 company, with calendar 1998 revenues
exceeding $1.2 billion. The company is headquartered in Houston, Texas, with
offices worldwide. For more information, please call 800 841-2031 or 713
918-8800.

This news release contains both historical information and forward-looking
information. For example, statements in this discussion regarding BMC Software's
future financial and operating results, the development of and anticipated
markets for BMC Software's products, BMC Software's operating strategies,
anticipated acquisition benefits and other statements that are not statements of
historical fact are forward looking statements. Actual results could differ
materially from any expectation, estimate or projection conveyed by these
statements and there can be no assurance that any such expectation, estimate or
projection will be met. Numerous important factors, risks and uncertainties
affect BMC Software's operating results and could cause actual results to differ
from the results implied by these or any other forward looking statements. These
factors include, but are not limited to, the following: 1) BMC Software's
revenues and earnings are subject to a number of factors, including the
significant percentage of quarterly sales typically closed at the end of each
quarter, that make estimation of operating results prior to the end of a quarter
extremely uncertain; 2) competition for BMC Software's products is increasing
for both the distributed systems and the mainframe database utility products; 3)
international results have been volatile over the last two years; 4) BMC
Software continues to increasingly depend on large enterprise license
transactions as an integral part of its core mainframe and distributed systems
businesses; 5) the uncertainties of whether new software products and product
strategies will be successful; 6) the high degree of difficulty of integrating
different software products and technologies and the general risks associated
with mergers of high technology companies, including the potential loss of key
personnel and cultural conflicts; and 7) the additional risks and important
factors described in the companies' Annual Report to Stockholders on Forms 10-K
and 10-Q and other filings with the SEC.