PATTERN LANGUAGE

Modeling, Managing, Making it Right.

November 2006

Version 7.1 of the open source UMLet has been released by the UMLet team.

The UML editor is an Eclipse 3 tool that lets you draw UML diagrams with a lightweight, pop-up-free UI. Diagram sketches can be exported to EPS, PDF, JPG, SVG, and system clipboard. UMLet runs stand-alone or as Eclipse plug-in on Windows, OS X, and Linux.

According to the UMLet team, you can use UMLet to add elements to a UML diagram with a double click, edit elements using the lower-right text panel, select multiple elements using Ctrl or lasso, or press "C" to copy diagrams to the system clipboard.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 01:06 PM  Permalink |

Microsoft has released for download the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) for Agile Software Development Process Guidance, guidelines for scenario-driven, context-based, agile software development process that use many of the ideas built into Team System.

The new versions of MSF for Agile Software Development and MSF for CMMI Process Improvement create the first commercial agile and CMMI-based software development processes with support for database unit tests and refactoring. The release of these processes coincided with the release of Microsoft's tooling support for these practices, Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals. These new versions also contain several bug fixes and clarifications.

The download contains an update to the agile process guidance that ships with Visual Studio 2005 Team System. Version 4.1 provides new guidance for the Database Professionals to use Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 12:59 PM  Permalink |

So why and how does someone become a software architect? Answers to these questions are presented in a fascinating set of profiles of IBM architects.

The basic question a group of architects were asked was "Why did you decide IT architecture was right for you, and what career path did you follow to become an architect?" The architects included:

• Ali Arsanjani, Chief Architect for SOA and Web Services
• Grady Booch, an IBM Fellow who has served as architect and architectural mentor for numerous complex software-intensive systems around the world in just about every domain imaginable.
• Sanjay Bose, program director for the SOA Requirements Hub
• Jorge Diaz, a solution architect with IBM Software Services for WebSphere
• Donald Ferguson, Chief Architect for IBM Software Group
• Chris Ferris, a senior technical staff member in IBM's Software Standards Strategy group.
• Kerrie Holley, Chief Technology Officer for IBM's Services Oriented Architecture and Web Services Center of Excellence
• Sridhar Iyengar, who leads technical strategy for the IBM Rational Software development team
• Christina Lau, an architect on the On Demand Development team
• Calvin Lawrence, an executive architect on the IBM Software Group Emerging Technology team.
• Sridhar Sudarsan, a senior IT architect with IBM Software Services for WebSphere
• Andras Robert Szakal, chief architect for the IBM Federal Software Group
• Bobby Woolf, a member of IBM Software Services for WebSphere

Fascinating stuff indeedn. Take the time to find out what some of the leading architects have to say about their profession.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 11:48 AM  Permalink |

Coming up in a couple of weeks is the Sixth Annual CMMI Technology Conference.

The conference will be held this year on November 13-16, 2006, in Denver, Colorado at the Hyatt Regency Tech Center.

It is sponsored by the Systems Engineering Division of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) in conjunction with the Software Engineering Institute.

The conference is deisgned to be a forum for exchanging ideas, concepts, and lessons learned concerning the continuing evolution, adoption, and use of the CMMI and its associated appraisal (assessment and evaluation) methods. This conference brings together CMMI adopters, users, developers, and appraisers, as well as those with general interest in process improvement. It provides a forum for the free exchange of ideas and affords a unique opportunity to meet with the sponsors, developers, and stewards of the CMMI, as well as those offering CMMI training and implementation assistance. Emphasis will be placed on CMMI implementation methodology and strategies return on investment and benefits, and transition from SW-CMM and EIA/IS-751 to CMMI.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 01:05 PM  Permalink |