SE News

A Potemkin village is “something that appears eloborate and impressive, but in actual fact lacks substance”. The software analogies for the Potemkin vilage are ripe for exploration.

Identifying a software Potemkin village is easier if you think about antipatterns. Refactoring one takes courage.

Philip A. Laplante

http://www.computer.org/itpro/promo2.pdf

So-called “model-driven” development (MDD) methods, which are based on higher levels of abstraction and greater use of automation compared to traditional methods, have already demonstrated their potential for radical improvements in the quality of software and the productivity of development. Since the role of modeling languages is crucial to the success of MDD, a major revision of the industry-standard Unified Modeling Language (UML) was recently completed. While several important new modeling capabilities were added — such as the ability to more accurately capture software architectures — the dominant characteristic of this revision is the heightened precision of the language definition that enables greater levels of automation. This article explains how this was achieved and also describes other highlights of UML 2.0.

Bran Selic

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/05/321_uml/

The .NET Framework supports a variety of programming languages, including Microsoft’s much heralded C#. Huw Collingbourne considers whether Visual Basic is still as sharp as the competition.

Huw Collingbourne

http://www.dnjonline.com/article.aspx?ID=mar05_vbvscsharp

Many quality practitioners rely on auditing to verify compliance of process changes. However, when my division used a positive reinforcement approach to verify compliance, we saw deeper institutionalization of the desired organizational change.

We verified the program’s governance through auditing, but questions remained: Had we changed the culture? Would we continue to live CMM Level 4 after the assessment? Was the use of statistical techniques institutionalized throughout the organization? Several quality engineers suggested further auditing to ensure compliance. We could see that because of the scope of organizational change in such a short period, the engineers had reached a point of change saturation. Imposing another audit seemed to be the wrong answer. Consequently, we decided to try a contest, which would let us achieve the same goals in a more fun, positive way.

This article describes the contest and the results of using the contest as a positive reinforcement.

Barbara Hirsh

http://www.computer.org/SOFTWARE/homepage/2005/mar-apr/quality.htm

In this first half of a two-part article, author Ramnivas Laddad provides a conceptual overview of the new Java metadata facility and shows where AOP could most benefit from the addition of metadata annotations. He then walks you through a five-part design refactoring, starting with a metadata-free AOP implementation and concluding with one that combines the Participant design pattern with annotator-supplier aspects.

Ramnivas Laddad

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-aopwork3/

A large number of developers (and managers) have heard of service-oriented architecture (SOA) and are familiar with the idea in principle, but have no idea about how to go about applying it to a particular system. This article begins a two-part series discussing how to refactor mainframe routines using service-oriented techniques into deployable services and make the framework available via the Web.

Jeff Hanson

http://www.devx.com/Java/Article/27521

There are many activities involved in developing a solution to a problem. We need to understand the problem, gather requirements for a potential solution, translate those requirements into a design, build the solution, and test it. This order is fairly natural, and generally correct. Problems creep in, however, when we try to scale this up — that is, when we try to gather all requirements, then do all design, then all development, then all testing in a strictly linear fashion.

Instead, we need to work more like scientists. The modern scientific approach is founded on the principle of direct observation: theories are proposed, then experiments are designed and performed to test those theories. From the measured results, we either reject the theory or confirm it.

How does this apply to software development?

Ian Spence Kurt Bittner

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/rational/library/mar05/bittner/index.html

What is it that makes an enterprise architecture assessment a worthwhile undertaking? In our view, the purpose of architecture is to align the IT infrastructure with the organization in a way that best promotes the organization’s goals, while maximizing the benefit of IT dollars spent. This makes it valuable to clearly understand how that purpose is currently being served. In fact, we often begin the entire enterprise architecture “adventure” by conducting an architecture assessment. So the purpose of undertaking an enterprise architecture assessment is to understand how well the current architecture is aligned with the organizations needs and goals.

Jane Carbone

http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-10594-5599622.html?tag=nl.e105

Java inherited many of its defining characteristics from C and C++, making it substantially easier to work with. Unfortunately, despite these many syntax improvements, Java still has to be compiled.

Of course, to compile source code requires that a framework for executing a program be constructed. In Java that means you have to write both a class file and a main entry point method. While this isn’t necessarily much of an issue when working with familiar APIs, it can slow development down if you’re working in unfamiliar territory. Fortunately, there are an increasing number of options available to Java developers to test code and circumvent the compile step. Jython is one such tool, and the subject of this article.

Doug Tillman

http://www.devx.com/Java/Article/27571

Hacker extraordinaire Kevin Mitnick delivers the explosive encore to his bestselling The Art of Deception. Kevin Mitnick, the world’s most celebrated hacker, now devotes his life to helping businesses and governments combat data thieves, cybervandals, and other malicious computer intruders. In his bestselling The Art of Deception, Mitnick presented fictionalized case studies that illustrated how savvy computer crackers use “social engineering” to compromise even the most technically secure computer systems. Now, in his new book, Mitnick goes one step further, offering hair-raising stories of real-life computer break-ins-and showing how the victims could have prevented them. Mitnick’s reputation within the hacker community gave him unique credibility with the perpetrators of these crimes, who freely shared their stories with him-and whose exploits Mitnick now reveals in detail for the first time, including:

- A group of friends who won nearly a million dollars in Las Vegas by reverse-engineering slot machines - Two teenagers who were persuaded by terrorists to hack into the Lockheed Martin computer systems - Two convicts who joined forces to become hackers inside a Texas prison - A “Robin Hood” hacker who penetrated the computer systems of many prominent companies - and then told them how he gained access

With riveting “you are there” descriptions of real computer break-ins, indispensable tips on countermeasures security professionals need to implement now, and Mitnick’s own acerbic commentary on the crimes he describes, this book is sure to reach a wide audience-and attract the attention of both law enforcement agencies and the media.

Kevin D. Mitnick, William L. Simon

http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0764569597.html

Na de succesvolle Agile Special Interest Group bijeenkomst in september 2004 is de Agile Alliance Seminars Programme verheugd dat zij hieraan vervolg kan geven met het Agile Seminar op 20 april 2005 in Nieuwegein.

Het doel van Agile Seminars is IT en bedrijfsleven een forum te bieden waarin over Agile Software Ontwikkeling gediscussieerd kan worden en ervaringen uitgewisseld kunnen worden.

De Agile Seminars worden infrequent gehouden en hebben daardoor presentaties en seminars van hoge kwaliteit door vooraanstaande sprekers over Agile technieken en de Agile denkwijze. Iedereen die belangstelling heeft voor Agile moet beslist deze bijeenkomsten bijwonen.

http://www.agileallianceeurope.org/Nederland/copy_of_agileseminar/document_view

It-auditing is een vakgebied in beweging. Met externe factoren als voldoen aan Sarbanes-Oxley, Tabaksblat et cetera. Technische factoren als standaardisatie. XBRL en agents. Afbakening van verschillende typen audits. En de veranderende rol van de auditor in de organisatie.

http://www.informatie.nl/