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We're pleased to be joined today by Jared Rodriguez, the CTO and founder of Skyway Software, a company that focuses on using models to build services and SOA for application delivery.

DDJ: Jared, it is easy to see how modeling and prototyping can play a role in scientific and engineering arenas, but what is their role in the software development process?

JR: Actually, the engineering analogy is quite similar to the software lifecycle due to the capital intensiveness (significant labor and tools are necessary in both arenas) and the fact that many functional areas are needed and their interdependencies on one another are critical to corporate success (design/build/test are key process steps in both arenas, as is the ongoing balance of speed versus quality).

DDJ: And business? Don't we have spreadsheets to model business objectives?

JR: LOBs use many suboptimal tools, including spreadsheets, Visio documents, and text editors to "model" business requirement, but the challenge is capturing everything necessary to convert this into an automated solution

DDJ: So once an organization puts all the work into building and proving a model, do they have to then start over from the ground up to build the "real" app itself?

JR: Not with Skyway Software! Unlike other prototyping tools, Skyway Visual Workspace prototypes are actually working solutions and oftentimes represent up to 50 percent of the completed application. Other tools are purely simulative and do NOT contain any working code, so many of the productivity and accuracy gains are lost when the prototype must be turned over to IT and built for deployment using traditional hand-coding tools and methods.

DDJ: Is there a web site where readers can learn more about these issues?

JR: Many of these issues are widely reported and frequently discussed in the latest academic and trade publications, including:

• www.sei.cmu.edu/pub/documents/92.reports/pdf/tr12.92.pdf.
  
• searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/ informationCenter/0,296712,sid92_iid76,00.html.
  
• lifelong.engr.utexas.edu/shortcourse.cfm?course_num=788.
  
• projectmanagement.knowledgestorm.com/ ksprojectmgmt/search/viewabs tract/87646/ index.jsp?pos=13&referer=SEARCH_RESULTS&trkpg=search_results_abstract.
  
• www.ercim.org/publication/Ercim_News/enw52/nacsa.html.
  
• www.amazon.ca/Software-Requirements-Karl-E-Wiegers/ dp/0735618798.

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