SE News

Web services provide interoperability between software components that can communicate between different companies and can reside on different infrastructures. This solves one of the most critical problems that customers, software developers, and partners face. HTTP and SOAP provide communication and message interoperability. WSDL provides the description of the service to support interoperability between development tools; it complements communication interoperability with the ability to exchange interface definitions.

In addition to basic message interoperability and interface exchange, developers increasingly require that higher-level application services interoperate. Many commercial applications execute in an environment (”middleware” or “operating systems”) that provide support for functions like security and transactions.

Donald F. Ferguson, Tony Storey, Brad Lovering, John Shewchuk

http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-securtrans/

You’re moving from Windows to Linux. You’ve decided you want the stability, flexibility, and cost savings of Linux, but you have many questions in your head. Isn’t Linux like Unix? Isn’t Unix hard? Where do you begin to make sense of all of this? Is there a map you can follow?

Chris Walden

http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-roadmap.html

Several architecture-centric analysis and design methods have been created in the past 10 years, beginning with the Software Architecture Analysis Method, or SAAM. The SAAM inspired the creation of a number of other methods. These methods share not only a common heritage, but also a common set of characteristics aside from being architecture- centric. For example, they all use scenarios to direct and focus activities in the methods; and they are all driven by operationalized quality- attribute models. In each of these methods there are activities that logically belong to different parts of the traditional software development life cycle (SDLC).

Rick Kazman, Robert L. Nord, Mark Klein

http://interactive.sei.cmu.edu/news@sei/columns/the_architect/architect.htm

When used together, object-oriented design and comprehensive unit tests can lead to a very clean design, as the test-first methodology implies a user-based interface design, resulting in a public interface that is simple yet efficient.

However, when it comes to testing, sometimes these clean interfaces are not as good as they could be. There are often member variables that the test suite would like to access but that have been scoped private or protected, and making these members public would expose the internals, ruining the clean design. C++ has a way of working around this: by declaring the test suite as a friend class, the access protection is sidelined. In Java, a similar approach can be used by making certain members package scope and putting the test classes into the same package. However, this leads to an unsatisfactory design, as some members are private or protected for good reasons, and then an arbitrary set of members are package scope solely for the current test suite.

However, there is a third option available to Java programmers.

Ross Burton

http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2003/11/12/reflection.html

Use cases describe the way a system will be used, but they don’t specify the system user interface (UI). User experience storyboards, based on the use cases, add the process and techniques necessary to design and build a user interface that will meet requirements and allow users to exercise all the system behavior described in the use cases. These storyboards provide a firm foundation for the detailed UI design and also facilitate communication among development team members — especially between the creative team that designs the UI and the architects and developers who design and implement the system.

Jim Heumann

http://www.therationaledge.com/content/nov_03/f_usability_jh.jsp

Patterns and Frameworks for synchronizing IT with the changing business environment.

For the last few years, companies have tried to develop their software systems with use case driven development processes. This practice brings many benefits by allowing you to concentrate your analysis and design efforts on the usage dimension of a system.

However, modeling a system with only use-case driven UML specifications does not allow good levels of business reactivity (= response time necessary for a business system for implementing changes as required by its controlled process of adaptation to its environment). Implementing requested changes as a reaction to new requirements for time-to-market is still very much a challenge for organizations.

Birol Berkem

http://www.jot.fm/issues/issue_2003_11/article4

The Design Pattern Toolkit is an Eclipse-enabled tool for generating applications based on customizable model-driven architecture patterns. This plug-in can speed up the development of common types of applications by the use of patterns that capture best (or current) practices for the design and implementation of those applications. Users apply patterns to information encoded in XML files to generate multiple Eclipse resources of multiple types that together make up an application. The toolkit has a component for pattern-based resource generation as well as a component that supports pattern development and distribution.

http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/dptk

Jetspeed is an Open Source implementation of an Enterprise Information Portal, using Java and XML. A portal makes network resources (applications, databases and so forth) available to end-users. The user can access the portal via a web browser, WAP-phone, pager or any other device. Jetspeed acts as the central hub where information from multiple sources are made available in an easy to use manner.

http://jakarta.apache.org/jetspeed/site/index.html

Python for .NET is a near-seamless integration of the Python runtime with the .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR). It lets you script and build applications in Python, using CLR services and components written in any language that targets the CLR (C#, Managed C++, VB.NET, etc.).

The package is open source, released under the ZPL. It is currently in beta, nearly feature- complete and usable for real-world applications.

The README provides a detailed overview of Python for .NET, as well as some basic usage examples. Many other examples can be found in the demos and unit tests for the package.

http://www.zope.org/Members/Brian/PythonNet/

Nowadays, there are many methodologies you can introduce your to students. On the one hand, there are the more agile methods that focus on individual projects, and how to get them done fast—the camp represented by Beck and Cockburn. On the other hand, there are the more disciplined methods, focused on setting up organizational processes for getting projects done with predictable high quality—the camp best represented by the SEI, the CMMI, and Humphrey. Although these methods are often presented as mutually exclusive, they actually lie on a continuum. The authors of Balancing Agility and Discipline have worked out clear guidelines for determining where on that continuum a particular software development project is located—and therefore, how agile or disciplined a chosen methodology can or has to be.

Barry Boehm, Richard Turner

http://www.aw-bc.com/catalog/academic/product/0,4096,0321186125,00.html

In November 1997, the Object Management Group (OMG) set a standard for object-oriented analysis and design facilities. The standard, known as the Unified Modeling Language (UML), includes model diagrams, their semantics, and an interchange format between CASE tools. Within UML, the Object Constraint Language (OCL) is the standard for specifying expressions that add vital information to object-oriented models and other object modeling artifacts.

Recently, the OMG has launched an initiative called the Model Driven Architecture (MDA). The essence of the MDA approach is that models are the basis for software development. To be able to work with this architecture good, solid, consistent, and coherent models are a neccesity. Using the combination of UML and OCL you are able to build such models.

Jos Warmer, Anneke Kleppe

http://www.aw-bc.com/catalog/academic/product/0,4096,0321179366-PRE,00.html

Steeds meer it’ers noemen zich architect, publicaties over it-architectuur zijn ontelbaar en organisaties die niet ‘onder architectuur werken’ worden als reddeloos verloren beschouwd. Verwachtingen van it-architectuur beginnen overspannen trekken te krijgen. In dit themanummer een poging om it-architectuur tot realistische proporties terug te brengen.

http://www.informatie.nl/

Op dinsdag 20 januari 2004 houdt de Rotterdamse ICT ondernemersvereniging i-Portal het eerste Nederlandse Open Source Ervaringen congres. Op dit congres presenteren een vijftiental organisaties en personen hun ervaringen met Open Source.

De dag zal beginnen met de presentatie van de onderzoeksresultaten van de enquête over de stand van zaken van Open Source in Nederland. Vervolgens houden 15 ervaringsdeskundigen een inleiding. Het inhoudelijke deel van het programma wordt afgesloten met een paneldiscussie met 5 ‘opinion leaders’ die over scherpe stellingen inzake Open Source en Open Standaarden zullen debatteren. Aansluitend is er een borrel met netwerkgelegenheid.

Het congres omvat een drietal thematische tracks, allereerst de ervaringen van gebruikers van Open Source. Organisaties die projecten of pilots met Open Source Software uitvoeren of hebben uitgevoerd presenteren hierover. De tweede track gaat over de ervaringen van ondernemers met Open Source. Wat zijn succesvolle business modellen en licenties, welke mogelijkheden biedt het beleid van de overheid en wat is er nodig om succesvolle Open Source Software te realiseren. Het thema van de derde track is ‘Van infrastructuur tot desktop’. Hier worden de ervaringen, de mogelijkheden, successen en uitdagingen op de verschillende toepassingsniveaus gepresenteerd.

http://www.oservaringen.nl

Op woensdag 26 en donderdag 27 november 2003 vindt het Landelijk Architectuur Congres plaats. Dit lustrum congres grijpen we aan door u een kwalitatief uitmunted programma aan te bieden. Met 10 paralelle tracks, verspreid over twee dagen, bieden wij u volop keus om voor uzelf het meest optimale programma samen te stellen. Alle presentaties zijn erop gericht om architectuur (en de architect) naar een hoger niveau te tillen.

http://www.lac2003.nl/