Software Factories

SD Architecture & Design World 2008

2008-03-29T09:44:00.000-07:00

I will present at the Architecture and Design World 2008 in Chicago this July. My topic will include my experiences implementing Software Factories and the effect on software product development.
Furthermore I will take a look into the Crystal Ball to see what the future might (or might not) has in store......
See you there ;-)

Product Line Talk in Johannesburg

2008-01-28T14:52:00.000-08:00

On Jan. 25th I was talking to 80 developers in Johannesburg about Software Product Lines. The event was hosted by Microsoft in Johannesburg and the feedback from the atendees was great.
JC Oberholzer presented the solution of his company SDT which is an implementation of a product line which gave some meat to the theory......

SAW 2008

2008-01-28T13:41:00.000-08:00

I attended the Software Architecture Workshop (SAW) in South Africa from Jan. 21st until Jan. 24th in Bakubung. The topics this year ranged from team management, OSGI, project estimation, AOP, to Design Patterns. As usual the workshop was hold in the OpenSpace format and was very intense. The discussions continued during breaks on the game drive and at the bar until late at night. As usual, it was a great event with hand selected top experts and obviously a lot of fun.

Implementation of DSL's

2008-01-14T13:41:00.000-08:00

We sucessfully implemented a prototype of a DSL for managing tasks for one of our internal customers. The results are fantastic and you will be able to see the evaluation of the project soon published.....

Microsoft Conference in South Africa

2008-01-14T13:13:00.000-08:00

On Jan 25, I will hold a presentation on the Software Factories work we do in Johannesburg, South Africa with other presenters from the SAW.

Business Case For Software Factories

2008-01-14T12:48:00.000-08:00

I am working on a new article about the Business Value of Software Factories.......
In this article we will discuss our approach, the difficulties we encountered, and the quantitative results of building a thin, vertical slice of a system using the Software Factory approach. The goal of this work was showing the quantitative measurable business value of introducing the Software Factories paradigm in a large enterprise development project.

Introduction
Why Software Factories? This is a question we frequently get asked from many of our clients when introducing our work. While it seems obvious that increased reuse, higher level of abstraction and increased automation provides advantages to today’s text based software development efforts, it is not enough to justify the necessary upfront investment to upper management and other stakeholders. Therefore, we started to look for quantitative data would clearly show the business case for using this paradigm. ......

Stay tuned, you will be able to find this article online soon.... Probably on MSDN....

Practical Software Factories in .NET

2006-06-13T13:15:00.000-07:00

The book went into print and will be in the stores mid July. ;-).
Have fun......

Factory as a pattern

2006-03-07T05:46:00.000-08:00

After extensive discussions with Jack and Wojtek we decided to use the form of a pattern to describe a Software Factory. We believe this will provide a nice structured form to explain the Software Factory.
Furthermore we will use SCBAT from the Patterns Group as a basis for our case study..... This will be exciting.....

Software Factories as a pattern

2006-03-07T05:41:00.000-08:00

In discussions we had with Wojtek and Jack we decided to use the pattern analogy to describe a Software Factory. We believe this is a nice way to provide a structured description in a form that is already proven.....

Book release July '06

2005-10-24T12:47:00.000-07:00

Gunther Lenz and Christoph Wienands, in collaboration with Jack Greenfield, are working on a book with the preliminary title "Practical Software Factories in .NET" which we plan to release in May 2006.

More information can be found on www.ispysoft.net

Microsoft PDC'05 Birds of a Feather

2005-09-07T10:57:00.000-07:00

I will host a BoF session on Tuesday Sept. 13th @ 9 pm with the title
"Software Factories -- What's the big deal".

The goal of this session is to discuss the experiences and questions of attendees regarding Software Factories and the techniques used.....

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Architect Award

2005-08-10T06:05:00.000-07:00

July 1st, 2005: I received the Microsoft MVP architect award ;-).

http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx

https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=33510751-f2f8-4629-b655-37dc6acb83ba

Enterprise Architect Summit 2005 Europe

2005-08-10T06:02:00.000-07:00

I was invited to speak at the EAS 2005 Europe in Barcelona on Software Factories in the Enterprise. While the title of the presentation is the same as the one for the EAS 2005 in the US the format of the conference was changed. Now there will be 60 minute presentations, allowing to go into more details and to have a discussion at the end.

Advanced Developers Converence

2005-06-24T06:45:00.000-07:00

Software Factories - Hype or Real Advancement

In this session I will examine the practical application of Software Factories (as proposed by Jack Greenfield and Keith Short). I will discuss the current state of our implementation as well as the ins and outs of the methodology from a practitioner's perspective.
Aspects that will be discussed are Software Factory Methodology, Domain Specific Languages (DSLs), and integration into the development process, product line development, automation tools, and many more.

The attendees will walk away with an in-depth understanding of the status and the applicability of Software Factories in the industry.
http://www.ms-adc.de/ADC2005/

Enterprise Architect Summit Presentation

2005-05-20T07:02:00.000-07:00

Model-Driven Development: Process Improvements and Software Factories Examine the use of the Microsoft-proposed approach to model-driven development - Software Factories - in the real world. Explore the promise of model-driven development and how Software Factories address some of the problems we face in today's software development. Examine the state of Software Factories and show how and what parts of this new methodology Siemens is using and planning to use to stay ahead of the competition. Then examine what MDA is (a practical implementation of abstraction levels and meta-data usage) and isn't (a rigid adherence to form over function). Ensuring construction consistency with an agile workforce requires managing a delicate balance between control and flexibility. We'll dive into the real-world benefits, less all the hype, behind the MDA. Get a clearer understanding of MDA benefits and how to set expectations when implementing MDA styled processes
Gunther Lenz is program manager for software platform technologies at Siemens Corporate Research, Inc. Mike Sawicki is software product manager at Compuware

Presentation at Better Software 2005

2005-05-20T07:01:00.000-07:00

W6 - Software Factories: Hype or Hope for Real Advancement?
Gunther Lenz
Siemens Corporate Research, Inc.

Wednesday, September 21
3:00 p.m.

The new concept of Software Factories, as proposed by Microsoft, promises to elevate software development to the next level. Siemens is pioneering this new methodology with the goal of improving product maintenance, quality, and time to market. Gunther Lenz explains the common elements and, more importantly, the differences between the Software Factories model and Model Driven Architecture (MDA), as proposed by the Object Management Group (OMG). Learn how UML 2.0, Domain Specific Languages, platform independence, product line development, and synchronization between models can all enter into the development process. Take away an in-depth understanding of the concept of Software Factories and its impact on Software Development.

· The two most talked about approaches for Model Driven Software Development; Model Driven Architecture (MDA) and Software Factories.
· Domain Specific Languages (DSLs), software factory schema, Product Line development, UML, Platform Independent Models and more.
· Generate code from models

Software Factories vs. MDA

2005-03-23T07:13:00.000-08:00

Christoph Wienands and I are presenting a class for UML World 2005 in Austin Texas on June 16th.
This session will examine the two approaches to model-driven development that are currently dominating the discussions – Model Driven Architecture (MDA), trademark of the OMG, and Software Factories, as proposed by Microsoft. In this session, we will highlight the commonalities and more importantly the differences of the two approaches. Aspects that will be discussed include UML 2.0, Domain Specific Languages, and You will walk away with an in-depth understanding of the differences between the two approaches to solve the common goals of domain and model visualization, reuse of implementation assets and raising the level of abstraction.
More info at
www.umlworld.com