Microsoft-isms 2007

Throughout the conference, I heard a few phrases and pronunciations that seem to be used by Microsoft as well as a number of the product partners there.  As is often the case, we will no doubt be using these phrases ourselves within a matter of months and not think about them a second time.

 

v.Next()

This phrase was used by many presenters to talk about the next version, or whatever was coming in the future.  Heh, clever :)  I guess software manufacturers are moving away from incremental naming schemes, this is more accurate than version++.

 

dub *

Since it is apparently too time-consuming to say "double-ewe", the new components of .NET 3.0 are cited as dub-eff (WF), dub-see-eff (WCF), and dub-pea-eff, (WPF).

 

Connect

Not a new word, but the word at Microsoft come the new year.  Someone suggested an MS marketing exec believes MSFT can own the word connect.  No doubt, we will see this word peppered in every marketing campaign next year, from Dynamics, Office, to all Server-based products.  While arguably inane, to MSs credit, the technology demonstrated this past week did indicate a culmination in their efforts towards interop/integration of all MS products.

 

As a side note, there is apparently to be a large public marketing campaign for BizTalk Server 2006, the scale of the recent Dynamics campaign.  I don't know how accurate this statement is, but if it is true, we may see a large increase in demand from customers.

 

 

Cool things in Visio 2007

Visio 2007 will obviously host many new features including new stencils, shapes, an improved "auto-connect" system. What is most intriguing is the focus on connecting a diagram (particularly Business Process Diagram)

By defining a data connection to a diagram and respective shapes, you can pull visual information about the analysis for a business process. So if you model a BP in visio, and then collect information about that BP in, say, Excel or Access, you can connect the two. Say for each BP step you have collected metrics on cost, average duration, total resources required etc, once connected you can have visual representations of each of those metrics tied to each process shape and thus have a bird's eye view of the BP, quickly identifying the targets of improvement.

They introduce the notion of a Pivot Diagram too which looks like it could be a replacement of Pivot Tables (for some applications). Taking your data-linked business process shapes, you can drill down into those same metrics using the familiar concepts of dimensions and data items. Very appealing to a potential customer.

Finally, using a partner tool, they demonstrated how you can tie Visio into BizTalk in both directions. The analyst develops the BP model in visio, exports it to a BizTalk orchestration (using XLANGs) at which point both developer and analyst can collaborate on essentially the same artifact. Changes to the process diagram, once exported, are reflected in the BTS Orchestration. Though they did not have time to demonstrate this piece, once deployed and BAM is in place, those metrics defined in BAM are then brought back into the BP model to update the metrics displayed there. Very slick. I wouldn't be surprised if this partner tool is purchased by Microsoft or otherwise bundled into post 2007 releases.

SOA and BPM Conference Day One Summary

Some interesting things came out of yesterday's sessions, particularly around Office 2007 and other 2k7 releases:

To clarify:
.NET 3.0 (formerly WinFX) is the amalgamation of .NET 2.0, Windows Communication Foundation (Formerly Indigo), Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), Windows Presentation Foundation (formerly Avalon), Windows Cardspace.

A new tool called Office Sharepoint Designer allows the information worker to design workflow that will be 'run' on the WF (apparently pronounced dub-eff). Instead of a visual tool like the orchestration designer, this will be based on the Office Rules Wizard allowing the IW to determine the workflow using a set of rules.

Useful links for SOA:

www.microsoft.com/architecture
www.microsoft.com/practices
www.microsoft.com/webservices

The Architecture Journal
www.architecturejournal.net

HP is doing some great benchmarking and performance analysis of BizTalk Server 2006 as well as creating reference architectures to help answer customer questions like "how well does BizTalk perform?". They have sizers as well, for determining what architecture/license structure will be necessary given a set of usage/volume requirements. As yet, they do not provide one for BizTalk, but it will come soon.

www.hp.com/solutions/microsoft/biztalk

www.hp.com/go/activeanswers
www.hp.com/dspp

SOA Conference - Day One: Morning

It's 8am PST and I've just eaten my hot breakfast outside the conference rooms.  I've been proven wrong.  Scrambled eggs at large functions aren't all bad.  These ones were pretty damn good.

 

The other nice thing about conferences is the free stuff.  No cheap highlighter, no dinky keychain.  All attendees get an mp3 player.  I'm not so much excited about the chance to play mp3s (and WMAs, can't forget that at MS) since my palm already does that, but the fact that it records.  Small feature but one I hope to take advantage of.  The manual says it has an FM tuner too, but it would appear not on this model.

 

On a real note, I have learned that all sessions will be recorded and all participants will receive a DVD compilation with all sessions.  So, I don't have to be upset that I am missing one or more concurrent sessions that tore my decision making.  Further, I can then share that with key people at the office (and of course saves me from the times I may have a faulty memory).

 

This should be fun!