ExpeditionWorkshop/SoftwareComponentsWorkshop 2004 05 11

Emerging Technology Innovations in Software Components Development, Reuse, and Management – Applications to Government Enterprise Architecture    (D5)

Purpose: To explore the Potential and Realities of Emerging Technology Innovations in Software Components Development, Reuse, and Management. Improvement Communities interested in this topic include: the Chief Architects Forum (Federal), the Federal Architects Council (Microsoft), the FEA/OMB Lines of Business, the Interagency Working Group on IT R&D, Intergovernmental Partnership Forum, Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative, and the Open Source Software Foundation. The tools, techniques, and motivations of the Open Source Software Community are an important aspect of this discussion.    (CN)

Development of solutions using component-based architectures offers several types of benefits, including application flexibility, component reuse, quality, cost, and speed of delivery. This presentation describes Everware's approach to component provisioning and assembling applications from COTS and custom-developed components. Everware has developed an MDA-like automated tool for generating components using industry best practices and design patterns. A case study using Everware's approach is provided and the resulting metrics show a significant savings in time and cost.    (D7)

Dr. JeffreyPoulin, System Architect, Lockheed Martin Systems Integration, author of Measuring Software Reuse: Principles, Practices, and Economic Models, published by Addison-Wesley, and responsibility for all technical aspects on a major ($250 million) project for The Post Office in the United Kingdom    (D8)

Information technology consultants and vendors have talked for years about the value of reusing software components in application development and integration. And, the idea makes intuitive sense. Companies can deliver sophisticated, quality applications faster and less expensively if they reuse software assets instead of building from scratch every time. These days, however, intuition needs to be supported by a business case before the necessary resources and support are allocated. This presentation will provide information on building a quantifiable business case that unequivocally demonstrates the benefits of reuse. Second, it will explain how reuse can help transform legacy development environments into a flexible, standardized suite of business services that can be easily and rapidly discovered and used in application development and integration.    (GF)

Panel: JanaCrowder, Noblestar, Moderator, GeorgeThomas, GSA Chief Architect, Line of Sight = Reuse, and FSS Big Picture (needs Visio to view), DaudSantosa, CTO, Department of Interior and AIC Components Subcommittee Software Development Asset, DavidMayo, Everware, Dr. JeffreyPoulin, Lockheed Martin, KenCottrell, LogicLibrary, and MichaelMcLay, Python Software Foundation.    (DA)

The CIO of a large insurance company has mandated that their IT organization begin to leverage reusable technology to realize new business opportunities – i.e., that they create a service-oriented architecture that reduces application development and integration costs and time-to-market and increases the company’s ability to respond to changing business needs. To achieve this goal, the enterprise is beginning to migrate its line of business applications from a DNA to a .NET environment by creating a .NET architecture and shared components based on Microsoft-defined .NET Enterprise Solution Patterns, Application Blocks and the .NET Framework. To effectively disseminate and use these software development assets (SDAs), the company has selected LogicLibrary's Logidex, a mapping and discovery engine for SDAs. This case study will describe the insurance company’s approach to developing an SOA and will demonstrate Logidex for .NET, including the Logidex Add-in for Visual Studio .NET, preloaded .NET content and mapping of enterprise-created assets to the Microsoft content.    (GG)

This will be general introduction to the OSS collaboration software services commonly used in the development of open source software. The most widely used portal for collaboration is SourceForge.net. SF has nearly 80,000 open source projects under development with over 800,000 developers registered to contribute to those projects. The software from the SF project has been packaged as an installable collaboration tool called GForge. BBN has set up a GForge based portal for DARPA as a means of facilitating collaboration between Semantic Web developers. The introduction will use SemWebCentral to illustrate how collaborators on open source projects use portal services to coordinate Generic Viagra Generic Propecia setting up software projects, tracking bugs and submitting patches, and managing project schedules.    (GP)

Rich will also provide a brief tour of the SourceForge components and applications registry, Trove. Trove facilitates the investigation of possible software solutions by cross-referencing the software registered on SF, as well as by providing a percentile metric of activity for the projects. Rich will conclude with a brief description of Ruby, an agile, dynamically typed programming language.    (GQ)

The rise of the Web and the Internet has radically transformed the computing platform for all organizations. Less heralded but no less significant has been the accompanying explosive growth in the use of open-source "dynamic", "scripting", or "agile" languages such as Python, Perl, and PHP. The dramatic movement toward the use of such languages has been prompted by the fact that organizations have started to realize the major strategic advantages that agile languages bring to the table. In this presentation, Steve will outline the business case for agile languages, and will address the issues and concerns that organizations confront as they contemplate increasing their use of agile languages.    (H1)

Communities are developing software over the Internet to organize and manage their work using a combination of email messages, documents shared over the web, code repositories, task tracking systems, and a set of shared practices. This talk will discuss the development practices following by the Python programming language community, demonstrating that open source projects may be developed in a loosely structured fashion, but the process is not unmanaged.    (H0)

The success of the Internet has been attributed to the open protocol standards. The HTTP protocol, which is famous for having popularized the Internet, has been joined by new protocols from the Internet Engineering Task Force. This presentation will describe the Jabber protocol, an open standard for building distributed, extensible Peer to Peer (P2P) applications. The Jabber protocol simplifies the task of writing collaborative software. Most widely used for instant message exchange, Jabber can be extended to support other forms of P2P communications between applications. BBN has been working with DARPA since the beginning of the Internet. BBN is currently working with DARPA on methods for making the Internet easier to use. This presentation will discuss new possibilities that the next generation of protocols, like Jabber, will enable. It may be prudent to understand Jabber before investing too heavily in SOAP based web services. Dana will also discuss how Python can act as a bridge between technologies such as .NET, and J2EE. Dana is the author of Jabber: Developer's Handbook . (See http://www.samspublishing.com/title/0672325365)    (H4)

The SciPy project is a Community of Practice that uses Python for scientific computing. As an OSS technology, the use of Python fits naturally within the peer review process of the scientific community. Scientists have always exchanged software as part of the peer review process. Beyond the vetting of the software, how does OSS benefit the scientific community? Python turns out to be an ideal end user "steering" language. The simple syntax and cohesive design make the language suitable to put in the hands of a scientist (or anyone else who would find C, C++, Java, and C# to be cryptic and full of mystery). To the scientists, the Python language looks like a version of Basic with extensions, such as imaginary numbers and FORTRAN like numeric arrays.    (GD)

Jeff will demonstrate Guido von Robot (GvR), a tool for teaching the basic ideas of computer programming. GvR was developed by advanced students in his high school programming class in collaboration with industry mentors. Jeff will also report on the results of a GvR sprint at the recent Python conference. The CP4E aspect of this talk will discuss the need to treat computer programming as a basic skill, like reading, writing, and math. Computer programming teaches disciplined thought, just like learning Latin was used to teach better writing skills decades ago. Growing the next generation of technically skilled citizens will require using appropriate tools in the education process. Jeff will draw on his experience with teaching programming at the high school level to explain what makes Python unique for the role of pursuing CP4E.    (GE)