Software Development Magazine - Project Management, Programming, Software Testing |
Scrum Expert - Articles, tools, videos, news and other resources on Agile, Scrum and Kanban |
Methods & Tools - News, Facts & Comments Edition - January 2007
*** News ***************************************************************
* Who Profits from Free Software?
Telelogic has just announced the release of Telelogic Modeler a free Unified Modeling Language (UML) design environment. This entry-level product will allow user with extended needs to migrate to other Telelogic's products in the same area. Telelogic Modeler is available for download at http://www.telelogic.com/modeling/modeler.
Facing the competition of open source products, editors like Microsoft or Oracle have followed the same strategy than Telelogic. They have created free versions of their software development tools. These products are "simplified" versions of the paying product, often minus specific features that are useful for large/complex projects or systems. They hope that people using the free version will one day have unsatisfied needs and will migrate to their paying versions. Time will tell if this strategy is right, but I think that it is facing major issues:
- The majority of people looking for a free software could not be the one that are the more enthusiastic to get it from a commercial editor.
- Upgrading to a commercial version is not the only solution to get more performance. Open source tools are improving and there are companies interested to increase the power of the open source tools they support. Red Hat is doing this with JBoss in the Web server market. Another example is EnterpriseDB (http://www.enterprisedb.com/) that is building an Oracle-compatible product based on PostgreSQL. In both cases, companies are selling their services and not software.
- According to the Pareto principle, 80% of the people should be satisfied with 20% of the features of the original product. Thus migration to a product offering more features could be limited, furthermore if this imply paying for it ;o)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Orient Open Source meets Occident
January 1, the France-based open-source consortium ObjectWeb merged with the Chinese IT institute OrientWare to create a new entity, called OW2. ObjectWeb was launched in 2002 as a joint project between INRIA, Bull and France Telecom, before evolving to a more global organisation. OrientWare was created in 2004 as a consortium of Chinese universities and software companies.
In September 2005, ObjectWeb and OrientWare signed an agreement by which they committed to share their code base and jointly develop open source middleware software. Among the main open source software solutions developed by OW2 you find Lomboz, Sync4j, eXo Platform, JOnAS, XWiki or Enhydra
It is good that organisations working in the open source area join their forces to produce improved solutions with a global perspective and a worldwide pool of talent. As some major open source projects (Eclipse, JBoss, PHP) have strong commercial companies backing them, it is positive to have an organisation with a different perspective involved in the open source world, supporting projects that have perhaps less visible commercial impacts.
On the Web:
http://www.ow2.org
http://www.objectweb.org
http://orientware.objectweb.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/
http://solutions.objectweb.org/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Rectification: Microsoft Does It!
In our November issue, we incorrectly stated in the " Borland Keeps Coding" article that Microsoft does not offer free version of its software tools. Methods & Tools regrets the error and thanks our Redmond's readers for spotting this. You can find the Microsoft's Express tools on http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/
*** Numbers ************************************************************
* Are you outsourcing software development?
Our current poll wants to know if your internal applications are developed exclusively inside your organisation or if you use outsourcing software development services. Go to [poll] to participate and to see intermediate results.
*** Read for You *******************************************************
* The Limits of Cost-cutting
News comes from the Department of Labor that productivity growth in nonfarm business in the U.S. hit a critical number in the third quarter. That number was zero, as in naught, as in nothing, no growth at all, not even something you could round up to a minuscule decimal of some kind. [...]
Let's look at what forces are coming together to suppress productivity growth, to see if we can augment them in some way. [...]
Second, I'm thinking that the reason we kept being more productive in the first place wasn't so good. When I started out, my department had 20 people rushing around working very hard. Then the corporation, under pressure from Wall Street to grow our stock price every day, decided to do what analysts, investment bankers, and business reporters all agree is the most terrific thing a successful enterprise can do: fire a bunch of people and make those who remain do the work that used to be done by others. Before long, we had ten people doing the work of 20. This naturally produced impressive gains in individual productivity. Of course it did! But at what cost, I ask you. Actually, I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. A big one.
The things that's happened now is that corporate America is just about done firing people, because if management wants to fire any more people, it's going to have to start firing itself. That's expensive. Firing an executive is often more expensive than retaining him.[...]
Source: Stanley Bing, "The 0% Solution", Fortune, December 18, 2006
No comments ;o)
*** Books **************************************************************
* Enterprise Architecture for Integration
This book presents a top-down approach to define an information system architecture at the enterprise level. It begins with a short presentation of the Zachman Framework that is used as the basic tool to analyse enterprise architecture. A first part is then devoted to present approaches used to express the strategy. A second part describes the techniques used to translate the strategic goals at the information system level with data and process modelling. Finally, a third part discusses current technologies and products involved to integrate applications and deploy the enterprise architecture. A CD-ROM is provided with the book. It contains problems and solutions to apply the concepts presented in the book, products information and some modelling tools.
Clive Finkelstein is a founding father of Information Engineering and he continues to apply its principles. The goal is to help large organisations to manage their complex information systems. Being strategic doesn't imply always multi-years projects. The book states that the enterprise architecture portfolio plan for a large company can be created in 8-12 weeks. It also recommends 2 days workshops to define sub-systems that have a 3 months delivery objective. Many examples are provided in the book.
This book is recommended for people that are managing applications or portfolios of applications at the enterprise level. It provides also valuable knowledge for business analysts/architects with a detailed examination of the data and process modelling activities and the definition of coherent and autonomous sub-systems. The book has close to 500 pages of dense material, but each chapter could be used separately according to your needs.
To get more details on this book or buy it on amazon.com click below:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1580537138/methotools-20
To get more details on this book or buy it on amazon.co.uk click
below:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1580537138/methotools-21
------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you liked the articles of Bas De Baar and Mark Collins-Cope in our Winter 2006 issue, find more about their knowledge in the following books:
* Surprise! Now You're a Software Project Manager
This book was written as a crash course for people with no project management background but who still are expected to manage a small software development project. It cuts through the jargon and gives you the basics: practical advice on where to start, what you should focus on, and where you can cut some corners.
To get more details on this book or buy it on amazon.com click below:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1895186757/methotools-20
To get more details on this book or buy it on amazon.co.uk click
below:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1895186757/methotools-21
* Agile Development with ICONIX Process: People, Process, and Pragmatism
This book describes using the ICONIX Process (an object modelling process) in an agile software project. To do this, the book defines a core agile subset—so those of you who want to "get agile" need not spend years learning to do it. Instead, you can simply read this book and apply the core subset of techniques. The book follows a real-life .NET/C# project from inception and UML modelling, to working code—through several iterations.
To get more details on this book or buy it on amazon.com click below:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1590594649/methotools-20
To get more details on this book or buy it on amazon.co.uk click
below:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1590594649/methotools-21
*** Conferences ********************************************************
* EclipseCon 2007 March 5-8, Santa Clara, CA, USA
EclipseCon is the premier technical and user conference focusing on the power of the Eclipse platform. From implementers to users, and everyone in between, if you are using, building, or considering Eclipse, EclipseCon is the conference you need to attend.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2007 AJAXWorld East Conference & Expo, 19-21 March 2007, New York
Delegates will hear first-hand from the creators, innovators, leaders and early adopters of AJAX, and a slew of leading vendors will provide sneak-peeks of the very latest frameworks, tools, products and applications during the conference, which will have over 100 sessions and presentations given by 125 different speakers - the largest AJAX-focused speaker faculty ever assembled in one place at one time. Conference & Expo 2007 East will be jump-started with a full one-day "AJAX University Boot Camp", personally led by Web 2.0 and AJAX guru Dion Hinchcliffe.
Pay $50 less registering as a Methods & Tools reader. Use our coupon codes. The registration page: https://www3.sys-con.com/mar07/registernew.cfm. Golden Pass Coupon Code is "methodsgold", Bootcamp Pass Coupon Code is "methodsboot", Golden Pass and Bootcamp Coupon Code is "methodspackage"
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* TheServerSide Java Symposium March 21-23, 2007, Las Vegas, USA
TheServerSide Java Symposium is the community's only enterprise Java conference on emerging technologies. Attend 70+ sessions led by key contributors, thought leaders & experts on topics including: SOA, JSF, Hibernate, Testing/QA, Ajax, Interoperability, Security and much more!
http://javasymposium.techtarget.com/lasvegas/index.html?Offer=JSmtnl918
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Software Practice Advancement Conference 25-28 March 2007,Cambridge UK
SPA provides a high-energy learning experience that’s different and fun. Come and explore how to advance your software practice with the experts. Inspiring invited speakers: Brian Marick, Dave Thomas and Tony Hoare.
http://www.spaconference.org
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* BusinessAnalystWorld & ProjectWorld Toronto, March 26-30 2007, Toronto, Canada
BusinessAnalystWorld is co-located with ProjectWorld in Canada and ProjectSummit in the United States. This is one of the leading venues for members of the project management community for education, networking and the latest in product and services information. In 2005, this series of events attracted over 3500 delegates. The Toronto event is now recognized as the largest event for PMs in the world.
http://www.projectworldcanada.com/toronto/default.asp
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* ROOTS (Recent Object-Oriented Trends) April 25-27 2007, Bergen, Norway
The ROOTS (Recent Object-Oriented Trends) conference is a forum for presentation, debate and study of the latest theories and practices that have evolved from the object oriented paradigm. The conference is held in Norway, the country in which the OO technology finds its roots. Speakers in 2007 include Jim Coplein, Tom Gilb, Gary McGraw, and Linda Rising.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* XP Day France May 2-3 2007, Paris, France
Après le succès de l'édition 2006, la conférence XP Day France est heureuse de vous accueillir de nouveau les 2 & 3 mai 2007. Venez vous informer; rencontrer des praticiens des méthodes agiles: XP, Scrum, Crystal; et débattre de sujets concrets, organisationnels (équipes, conduite de projet) ou techniques (TDD, refactoring).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* 22nd International Practical Software Quality and Testing (PSQT) May 7-11, 2007 Las Vegas, USA
Conference. PSQT focuses on PRACTICAL software testing techniques.
- 1 Day conference with 24 Track and Feature Presentations
- 2 Keynote presentations by leading industry experts
- 4 Days with 6 Tutorials each day that will apply towards
http://www.psqtconference.com/2007west/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* JavaOne(SM) Conference May 8-11, 2007 San Francisco, USA
Registration Now Open for the 2007 JavaOne(SM) Conference! Join us for the 12th annual JavaOne(SM) conference May 8-11, 2007 at The Moscone Center in San Francisco, California. You won't want to miss this year's new and expanded program. Register today and save $200! Use Priority Code J7NLMT
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Code Generation 2007 May 1820 2007, Cambridge, UK
CG2007 brings developers and leading experts in code generation tools and technologies together in a unique, participative event. Whether you’re a veteran or a novice with MDA, MDD, Software Factories, Domain-Specific Languages etc. you will benefit by participating.
http://www.codegeneration.net/cg2007/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* IBM Rational Software Development Conference June 10-14, Orlando, USA
The IBM Rational Software Development Conference 2007 incorporates over 285 technical sessions, 25 unique hands-on technical workshops, IBM certification classes, inspiring and informative keynotes, technology demonstrations and a multitude of networking and sponsorship opportunities. Register by February 28 and save with the early bird rate!
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* European SEPG, 11-14 June 2007, Amsterdam
The European SEPG is the largest and most authoritative event in Europe focused on current practice and thinking in process improvement models, methods and techniques that support business goals. This practical, industry-based conference aims to help systems and software professionals understand how process improvement can be utilised within their organisations: the issues, pitfalls and how to succeed. It also brings together the industry leaders and practitioners to discuss new ideas, approaches and experience-based results.
*** M&T News ***********************************************************
* A blog "From the Editor"
I have decided to change the way information is "broadcasted" from Methods & Tools. The current RSS flow has been stopped and replace by a blog that will allow to create a RSS flow automatically, broadcasting big and small news related to software development and Methods & Tools.
Blog url: http://blog.martinig.ch/------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Software Development Articles
Some of our last additions http://www.softdevarticles.com:
* Use Test Categorization for Agile Builds
This article reveals the three categories of testing needed to ensure end-to-end system soundness and then shows you how to automatically sort and run tests by category.
http://www.softdevarticles.com/modules/weblinks/singlelink.php?lid=462
* Lessons Learned Using Agile Methods on Large Defense Contracts
This article shares the latest lessons learned on what is working and what isn’t working when applying agile software development on large government defense projects.
http://www.softdevarticles.com/modules/weblinks/singlelink.php?lid=468
* Ajax Tradeoffs: The Many Flavors of XML
The X in Ajax is for XML, but XML is not a language, it is a toolkit for building languages. So your first decision is: do you use an existing language, or build your own? Several tradeoffs are involved.
http://www.softdevarticles.com/modules/weblinks/singlelink.php?lid=458
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Future Issues of Methods & Tools
In future issues, you will find articles on:
- Process Improvement – Is it a Lottery?
- Strategic Modeling for Rapid Delivery of Enterprise Architecture
- Fear of Intervention
- Software Release Criteria
- TDD for Embedded Software
- What's Wrong with Agile Approaches
- Evaluating Web Testing Tools
- Requirements for Outsourcing
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* ObjectiveView Issue #10 has been published
Features: Kent Beck Interview; C# 2.0 & 3.0 Overview; Refactoring Databases; OODBMS Revisited; How to Work with Legacy Code
Opinion: Grady Booch on SOA; Kevlin Henney - Why the Waterfall Fails; Matt Stephens - Ruby - I Love You (Not)
http://www.objectiveviewmagazine.com/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Professional Recruitment with Methods & Tools
Do you want to recruit software development professionals? Methods & Tools reaches each month more than 40'000 of them. You can place a job ad with us for $15 each line for the first five lines and $10 for additional lines. These ads will be visible in our text or PDF issues AND on our web sites for as long as three months. [Contact] us if you are interested.
The content of this publication cannot be reproduced without prior
written consent of the publisher
Copyright (C) 2007, Martinig &
Associates
Methods & Tools Testmatick.com Software Testing Magazine The Scrum Expert |