InformationWeek

September 20, 1999

http://www.informationweek.com/753/53adpar.htm

Partnerships Boost Modeling Development

Software vendors and modeling companies team to make more tools available

By James E. Gaskin

isualize your goal" sounds like a sports psychologist at best- or psychobabble at worst. Yet visualizing the task ahead by using modeling tools is becoming standard procedure for software development groups eager to manage the complexity of their application development efforts.

Recently, several major software development vendors have unveiled partnerships with software modeling companies to make more tools available to more developers.

"Modeling is a meaningful way to design and structure complex systems prior to writing code," says Liz Barnett, VP of Giga Information Group. Component-based development for the Internet, E-commerce, and multitier systems are excellent candidates for modeling.

The concept is simple: Modeling is to software development what blueprints and drawings are to architecture-an illustration that can graphically display design flaws before they are cast in stone. Each model presents abstract concepts and complicated designs in a clear format.

Standards Still Evolving
Long popular in the object-oriented programming world, modeling hit the application development mainstream with the increased use of software objects when object-oriented programming techniques started appearing with C++ compilers in the early 1990s. Standards for software modeling are still evolving, but the Object Management Group (OMG) defined a Unified Modeling Language (UML) in November 1997 as a language for specifying, visualizing, constructing, and documenting component parts of software systems.

UML uses standard notation to exchange models between development tools such as Java and other modeling software. The standard, adopted in products from various vendors, is a good beginning-but it's only a notation used to express the software model. More still needs to be done.

"The OMG and UML have a good story, but it's still not easy to build a complex application, even with a model," says Bob Gleason, CEO of Riverton Software Corp., which shipped its first modeling product 2-1/2 years ago. "There is plenty of work ahead for all vendors to make this process easier and less challenging."

Gleason describes some of the shortcomings as a lack of a real object repository for the modeling software to share with the code-generation tools, better integration between modeling tools and version control tools, and more object management support for team projects.

Recent shifts in development philosophy are pushing companies from a two-tier, client-server model to a multitier model utilizing Web or application servers between clients and back-end systems. Business rules, the decisions written into applications to run operations, are moving to the middle. Critical software code running in the middle tier cuts development time since software changes can be made in one place, rather than on both the client and the server.

Best practices for software development provide an application architecture and better methods for creating complex software systems. Following best practices forces development groups to "do the right thing," especially when these practices are built into the model used. Building better design and teamwork habits directly into the modeling software lowers the chance that projects will spiral out of control. Keeping development goals aligned within the modeling software visually shows management where the team is at any time.

One vendor well aware of the need for modeling is Rational Software Corp., the leading vendor in the modeling market. Three of Rational's principals developed the UML standard and turned it over to the OMG. The company provides a range of development tools for large projects, including the Rational Rose modeling tool. The same group at Rational that designed UML has also defined the Rational Unified Process, a searchable knowledge base that runs on the Web and delivers software best practices through guidelines, templates, and tool mentors.

Although Rational Rose has the largest market share, "it's a game of leapfrog now in the UML space," says Giga Group's Barnett. "We are not early in the product life cycle, but we are still early in the mainstream rollout phase."

Taking Partners
Modeling vendors are sought-after partners for development software vendors. Most of the early and recent partnership announcements involve Rational Rose, which generates approximately two-thirds of the modeling market's revenue, estimated at between $400 million and $1 billion.

Three years ago, Microsoft licensed a subset of Rational Rose for its Visual Studio under the name Visual Modeler-and it's gaining acceptance. More than 500,000 copies of Visual Modeler have been licensed, and the relationship was extended and enhanced in late July. Rational and Microsoft will co-develop an extended version of the Visual Modeler component of Microsoft's Visual Studio product for release later this year. Cross-licensing between the companies will weave Rational Rose more tightly into Visual Studio, and Microsoft's software development teams have licensed other Rational products for internal use, as well.

Now, IBM is joining the crowd. In late June, it unveiled an alliance with Rational making Rational Rose plug-ins available for IBM's VisualAge for Java development tool. Using an XML Metadata Interchange (XMI) bridge as translator, VisualAge for Java code can be absorbed and modeled by Rational Rose. Called "round-trip engineering," this process will generate Java code from Java models. "IBM knows E-business system development," says Eric Schurr, VP and general manager of Rational's corporate marketing and suite products. "We will leverage their knowledge in this area with our Unified Process."

Plans call for full integration of Rational Suite into IBM's Application Framework for E-business. IBM's San Francisco Application Business Components-1,100 templates designed to give developers a head start building Java-based E-business applications-are delivered in the Rational Rose modeling format. Development groups will have a framework to use, best practices to follow, and detailed help specifically for their IBM environment thanks to Rational Unified Process.

IBM's Insurance Application Architecture already supports integration with Rational Rose, and Rational Suite TestStudio can automate application testing for VisualAge for Java. IBM's WebSphere Application Server uses Rational Suite PerformanceStudio for application testing. Seamless interaction between development, modeling, and testing tools promises to save time by using common data formats and unifying the developers around a shared architecture.

Even third parties are getting into the Rational Rose integration act. Ensemble Systems Inc., a Rational Unified Solutions Partner, last month unveiled the release of RoseLink. Similar to the XMI bridge between the modeling language and IBM's Visual Age for Java, RoseLink bridges the gap between Rational Rose and Oracle's JDeveloper 2.0 to take advantage of the Java server capabilities in the Oracle8i database.

Riverton Software also released a modeling tool this summer, unveiling the latest version of its component-based HOW 2.1, for Visual Basic, Java, and PowerBuilder.

"Modeling is pretty straightforward now, since there is an industry standard," Gleason says. In November, Riverton disclosed an alliance with Cambridge Technology Partners Inc. as part of Cambridge's consulting and systems integration efforts. Riverton and Rational are members of Microsoft's Visual Studio Integration Program, designed to link modeling and testing tools more tightly with those from Microsoft.

New Choices
The field is widening, however. Advanced Software Technologies Inc., maker of GDPro version 3.2, another modeling tool, just disclosed a strategic alliance with Merant International Ltd.'s PVCS line of software configuration management tools. Advanced Software's goal is easier integration of modeling and configuration management during application planning, development, and maintenance.

While Greg Schottland, president and CEO of Advanced Software, acknowledges Rational's market position, he wants to tie three "best-of-breed applications" together to balance the integration benefits offered by the Rational Suite. "This market is wide-open," Schottland says.

Most participants agree that as larger companies need better modeling tools the market will grow. Rational executives believe modeling isn't just for developers anymore. Every person in the company who deals with application development, Web-server content, or application server support will someday need to put modeling on every desktop.

Internet speed pushes every developer, and users are in charge now, says Schottland. "This product space has been brutal. Developers need tools, not studies, so we have to get product out the door quickly." Advanced Software's focus, and that of its competitors, has sharpened the last two years. The aim is to help developers write better code faster.

James E. Gaskin is an author and consultant in the Dallas area. He can be reached at james@gaskin.com or through www.gaskin.com.

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