Practical Software Factories in .NET

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxiii

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2. Software Factories Overview

   Pages 1-20

3. Software Factory Definition

   Pages 21-37

4. Software Factory Specification

   Pages 39-60

5. Software Factory Schema: Architecture

   Pages 61-91

6. Software Factory Schema: Application Development Process

   Pages 93-120

7. Software Factory Template: Application Core Assets

   Pages 121-146

8. Software Factory Template: Development Core Assets

   Pages 147-177

9. Product Development

   Pages 179-200

10. Back Matter

    Pages 201-214

    PDF

The promise of software factories is to streamline and automate software development, and thus to produce higher-quality software more efficiently. The key idea is to promote systematic reuse at all levels and exploit economies of scope, which translates into concrete savings in planning, development, and maintenance efforts. However, the theory behind software factories can be overwhelming, because it spans many disciplines of software development. On top of that, software factories typically require significant investments into reusable assets.

This book was written in order to demystify the software factories paradigm by guiding you through a practical case study, from the early conception phase of building a software factory to delivering a ready-made software product. The authors provide you with a hands-on example covering each of the four pillars of software factories: software product lines, architectural frameworks, model-driven development, and guidance in context.

While the ideas behind software factories are platform independent, the Microsoft .NET platform, together with recent technologies such as DSL Tools and the Smart Client Baseline Architecture Toolkit, makes an ideal foundation. A study shows the different facets and caveats and demonstrates how each of these technologies becomes part of a comprehensive factory. Software factories are a top candidate for revolutionizing software development. This book will give you a great starting point to understanding the concepts behind it and ultimately applying this knowledge to your own software projects.

Contributions by Jack Greenfield, Wojtek Kozaczynski

Foreword by Douglas C. Schmidt, Jack Greenfield, Jorgen Kazmeier and Eugenio Pace.

• .NET
• Visual Basic
• complexity
• design
• development
• language
• object oriented design
• productivity
• software
• software development

From the reviews:

"The purpose of this work is to introduce and demystify the concept of software factories in the .NET environment. … The book covers both the theory and practice of software factories, including an acknowledgment of the genesis of the term in the late 1960s. … this book is recommended reading for people involved in the management of large software development groups, particularly ones that develop many similar products. It provides a good theoretical discussion, and practical illustration … in the creation of software solutions." (Neil D. Burgess, ACM Computing Reviews, Vol. 49 (3), March, 2008)

Gunther Lenz is a pioneer in the field of software factories. He received a master's degree (Dipl. Ing. Univ.) in electrical engineering from the Technical University of Munich, Germany. He spent five years working on research and product development of a high-performance medical image-processing system, under FDA regulation. In addition to his project experience, Gunther was also a core member of the Software Engineering Process Group (SEPG), which defined, implemented, and optimized the software development process. In 2002, Gunther joined Siemens Corporate Research in Princeton, New Jersey, where he is a program manager in the software engineering department. His current research activities focus on model-driven software development (MDSD), model evolution, and software factories. Within Siemens, Gunther leads the global research efforts in the areas of software factories and Microsoft technologies. Gunther is the author of .NET: A Complete Development Cycle (Addison Wesley, 2004) and has published many articles in different software development magazines, focusing on a variety of software engineering topics. Furthermore, Gunther has received the Microsoft "Most Valuable Professional" Solution Architect award and is an invited member of the Microsoft Software Design Review Team. He frequently presents at international conferences on subjects related to his research area.

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