In 2004, I had bought “Software Factory” book written by Microsoft techies and it was more conceptual and theoretical. This book approaches the model driven development (MDD) in a different perspective, and introduces software factory and domain specific language (DSL) concepts. The theory was successfully implemented in VSTS. Unfortunately, it was not mature and very inconsistent. The software factory and DSL tools were only used by Microsoft itself. They did not touch the heart of ISVs. Event though, I have used Microsoft’s Webclient Software Factory (WCSF) and WCF Service Model Factory successfully and bit consistently in one of our product development. I had really seen the benefit of MDD approach from DSL perspective upfront. However, I am expecting the mature and stable version of this.
Thanks God, Microsoft concentrates more on this and came up with “Oslo”. The hot core part of Oslo is Oslo Modeling Language “M”. The definition for M in MSDN:
M lets users write down how they want to structure and query their data using a convenient textual syntax that is convenient to both author and read.
With Oslo, Microsoft boosts the software factory concept. You can design and develop your application with UML 2.0 standard using M. M is a textual and declarative language which enables you to write down what you want from your data without worrying about underlying technology and platform. M will compile both on Win and Linux.
In parallel, Microsoft is developing Quadrant, a model designer for M which allows you to design graphically.
You can save your models in SQL Server.
Hope, we can see a smart changes in our SDLC by Oslo.