Factories 201 Series - Building Software Factories

Posted by Hartmut Wilms on Mar 11, 2007

Sections

Development,

Architecture & Design

Topics

Domain Specific Languages ,

.NET ,

Design

Tags

Code Generation ,

Patterns and Practices ,

Software Factories

Edward Bakker and Jezz Santos have been writing a very interesting series about Software Factories, which goes way beyond the basics. Lately the series has come to an end and now provides a complete set of concise guidelines. The Microsoft Software Factories Initiative and Domain-Specific Languages have been a cause of many discussions long before any implementations were available. Today, Microsoft provides tools such as the Guidance Automation Extensions (GAX), the Guidance Automation Toolkit (GAT), and the Domain-Specific Language Tools (DSL Tools).

The tools allow developers and architects using the Software Factories provided by the Microsoft patterns & practices team as well as building Factories on their own. Altough many resources are available, it is still very difficult to enter the world of Software factories. The 201 series is a great way to start. As Edward Bakker points out

It might sound simple; install GAT and the DSL Tools and build your first factory but unfortunately, from what I experienced, it isn't that easy (it might be me of course!). I had (and still have) a lot of questions like for example: "What is a software factory", "When would you build one", "How would you build one", "What tools would you use" and many, many more.

The series elaborates on a wide variety of aspects, which developers and architects have to deal with when using or building Software Factories:

Factories 201 Series - Building Software Factories

• What are they (concretely)? (Edward)
• When would you build one? (Jezz)
• What do I tell my Manager? (Edward)
• How long will it take? (Jezz)
• What would you build? (Jezz)
• With what would you build it? (Edward)
• How would you build it? (Jezz)
• What should you strive for? (Edward)
• What are the challenges? (Jezz)

The issues are discussing the meaning of Software Factories, when to use or build one, how to integrate factories into your development cycle and IT-Governance and what challenges are to expect and how to cope with them.

This series was created in a format that asks a logical sequence of questions that you might have when trying to figure out how to build software factories today. We have covered many such issues as they arose and shared much of the combined knowledge and experiences built up over the last few years in this space.

Whether you like or dislike the idea of Software Factories, you should take a look at this series.

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