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From the Editors: Microsoft right to accept UML


By SD Times News Team
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October 1, 2008 —  (Page 1 of 2)
Eyebrows were raised when Microsoft released modeling tools as part of its Visual Studio 2005 Team System (VSTS). While it’s certainly common for Microsoft to eschew industry standards for proprietary approaches, few had expected Redmond’s “not invented here” syndrome to extend to the Unified Modeling Language.

Yet, as this newspaper first reported in June 2004, the modeling tools in the Team Architect version of VSTS were based on the company’s own notation, which was quite separate from UML. It wasn’t just a subset; it was an implementation that reflected Microsoft’s own idea of what developers needed for modeling.

Now, more than four years later, Microsoft has done an about-face: It has joined Object Management Group and will contribute to OMG’s UML initiatives. While it’s not clear how UML will be implemented in future Microsoft tools or what will happen to Microsoft’s own modeling notation, we can expect more UML, not less.

Does that mean Microsoft was wrong to avoid UML in its original implementation of VSTS? Not at all. There was no culture of formal modeling in Microsoft’s traditional customer base of smaller and mid-sized companies. Formal UML-based modeling was far too complex for that market segment and would have worked against the rapid application development that characterized .NET development. In 2004, Microsoft was right to introduce modeling but to hold back from embracing UML.

Times have changed. UML is more streamlined, and the projects being constructed with .NET are larger. In 2008, Microsoft is right to join the OMG, to take part in future work on UML development and to help its developers move to model-driven development.

Security in the life cycle
It was no small challenge for Microsoft to make security an integral part of its software development life cycle; the company had to overcome a raft of cultural, political and technical obstacles. So its decision to share its know-how with customers should be a great help to enterprises that are struggling with those same problems.


Related Search Term(s): UML, Visual Studio, Microsoft

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