Before the age of service orientation, software applications were typically built via tightly coupled components and designed for the prevailing architecture of the day. Changes were difficult, and a business's response to compliance mandates or hightened security concerns often meant starting over. SOA changes all that, in theory. Yet one of the fundamental challenges of SOA is the design and construction of components that remain reusable into the future. Our cover story takes a fresh look at Model Driven Systems Development as a way to approach the delivery of SOA, describing how UML, RUP, and the principles of MDSD can be combined for successful SOA engineering. We also explore operational governance, IBM Rational Business Developer, and the worldwide growth of Rational User Groups.
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Cover story:An engineering paradigm for Service Oriented Architecture, by James Densmore and Tim Bohn This article presents an approach for using the IBM Rational Unified Process (RUP) framework in combination with Model Driven Systems Development (MDSD) to reduce risk in the development of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) components. It also touches on some of the pitfalls associated with SOA development.
Sustaining Portfolio Management: The EPMO Contribution
, by Michael F. Hanford The seventh installment in a series on Portfolio Management, this article offers insight into the contribution an Enterprise Portfolio, Program or Project Management Office (EPMO) can make to sustaining Portfolio Management as an organizational discipline.
Operational IT governance, by Murray Cantor and John D. Sanders
This article introduces an operational approach to IT governance, describing governance as an intentional activity with its own lifecycle and artifacts. The authors then describes a value-based approach to IT governance processes and a set of principles that IT organizations can adapt to realize the benefits of governance in their business setting.
Measuring Project Health -- Part III, by Kurt Bittner Proper measurements during a project's Transition phase will help assure successful deployment of a developed solution into a production environment. This final installment of a three-part series also discusses managing projects embedded in a larger program.
IBM Rational Business Developer Extension: An executive overview, by Stefano Sergi Rational Business Developer Extension (RBDe) provides development teams with a language IBM introduced in 2006, Enterprise Generation Language (EGL). This article describes the reasons IBM developed EGL and discusses how IT organizations can use it to become more productive, more quickly in today's Web- and services-based arena.
Book review: The Art of Software Modeling, reviewed Gary Pollice
A favorable review of Ben Lieberman's recent book on modeling, which takes a general, non-UML approach to the craft of visually representing information as part of the software development process.
Rational User Groups: A spotlight on North Florida, by Mike Perrow Many IBM Rational software users have realized that their skills grow faster when they share their experiences, which is why Rational User Groups have sprung up in dozens of localities throughout the world. This article describes the "RUG" phenomenon from the perspective of one organization, the North Florida Rational User Group, and also describes the more recent Global Rational User Group.
