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Stefano Butti 07:44 on April 18, 2012 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
Tags: it equations, ratio, webratio ( 9 )Isn’t it time to change your IT equations?
Completely renewing your Web presence is not an easy task. If you need to do more than just graphic restyling and introduce new messages and a new payoff then the task is twice as difficult. However, one week from the publication of our new site, I can say that in our case it was worth it! A big thanks to all those who have so far passed us their compliments:-)
How did we get to the point of such radical change?
Software engineers, often enamored with their own creation, and completely tied to the product of their creative energies, are no longer in grade to step outside of his creation and see it from a different perspective. They take it for granted that their creation is useful, even indispensable, to its users, without asking themselves why. We are aware of having fallen prey a long time ago to this unconditional love. We have challenged ourselves in a difficult exercise of abstraction – and for us fanatics of abstraction in software development this seems like a joke of destiny – to see WebRatio from afar and, in a few seconds, explain to a business person what are the tangible benefits for his company.
The “ratios” of WebRatio
We began from an external point of view: what better place to begin than the voices of our clients? The “ratios” of WebRatio come straight from them. They are the synthesis of all the testimonials we have gathered: the maintenance costs cut, the agile development cycles, the involvement of the business user in the development process, the space given to analysis.
The final touch was to then express these concepts in the form of ratios, inspired by our own name.
So, here are the results: four business-level messages, each one expressed by a ratio and supported by a testimonial from one of our clients. This had to be our new homepage! And here it is!
A last nod to our brand promise, another recent creation: a paragraph of a few lines that express our vision and our “why”, a message that resists time and technological evolution. The brand promise is the true essence of ourselves and the reason why you should work with us:
“Man has always desired to dedicate himself to creative activity and invented machines that do repetitive boring tasks in his place. Why should it be different for software development? For this we created WebRatio, an environment that changes the equations that govern the development process of enterprise applications: our clients can dedicate themselves to analysis of their needs, to creative activity and to validation of results, because the repetitive tasks are followed by WebRatio! The clients become an integral part of the development process and see immediately a response to their requests. This efficient collaboration between stakeholders guarantees the best results that stand the test of time. Isn’t it time to change your IT equations?”
We are anxious to know your opinions: what do you think of our new site and of our ratios?
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Marco Brambilla 10:31 on January 13, 2012 Permalink | Log in to leave a Comment
Tags: DSL ( 3 ), IFML, Interaction Flow Modeling Language, OMG ( 4 ), RFP, Silicon Valley, standard, standardization ( 2 ), WebML ( 10 )Interaction Flow Modeling Language RFP: first cornerstone towards the standardization of WebML
We finally make it!
After 9 months of participation to the OMG meetings, intensive interactions with stakeholders, and interesting feedback from big vendors and users (including IBM, Microsoft, Thales, NoMagic, SoftTeam, and others), OMG issued the official request for proposal (RFP) for IFML (Interaction Flow Modeling Language), a domain-specific modeling language for describing model-driven specification of user interaction. The RFP has been proposed for issuance by the ADTF (Analysis and Design Task Force), and then approved by the AB (Architecture Board) during the last technical meeting in Santa Clara, CA. WebRatio Cubes autonomously went to the Golden Gate at sunset, while I was engaged in the approval of the IFML RFP in Santa Clara, CA.
You may say this is not the final result, but just an intermediate step (actually, the basic starting point for the real standardization work). Rest assured, we know this, but still we are happy about the goal we reached so far, because the interactions and the outcome demonstrated high interest in the topic and strong commitment from OMG in pursuing this standardization path.
The IFML RFP will be the framework where we propose our contribution to OMG standardization based on the extensive 10-year experience on WebML and WebRatio. IFML’s scope is much broader than WebML though, so we expect some significant extensions and changes to our language. Indeed, the IFML RFP solicits proposals for a standard Interaction Flow Modeling Language for expressing the content, user interaction and control behaviour of the front-end of applications belonging to the following domains:
- Traditional, HTML+HTTP based Web applications. o Rich Internet Applications, as supported by the forthcoming HTML 5 standard. o Mobile applications. o Client-server applications.
- Desktop applications.
- Embedded Human Machine Interfaces for control applications.
- Multichannel and context-aware applications.
It’s worth noting that the IFML RFP does not cover the modeling of the presentation issues (e.g., layout, stlye and look&feel) of an application front-end and does not cater for the specification of bi-dimensional and tri-dimensional computer based graphics, videogames, and other highly interactive applications. This makes WebML well fit to the objective.
For all the other interfaces, the IFML RFP covers the modeling of interaction objects and their properties that are subject to or that impact the interaction flow.
The technical requirements of the RFP can be found directly on the RFP document, which is publicly available on OMG servers at the url:
www.omg.org/cgi-bin/doc?ad/11-12-06
Basically, the RFP asks for the semantics, an abstract syntax, and a concrete syntax with stylistics (in terms of a visual notation plus a companion textual notation) for an interaction flow specification language. Concretely, submitters shall develop a MOF-compliant metamodel, a UML profile aligned to the metamodel, grant interchange between tools via XMI, and a concrete syntax for the language.
The official schedule of the standardization process is as follows:
- RFP Issued: December 16, 2011
- Letter of Intent (LOI) Deadline: May 20, 2012
- Initial Submission Deadline: August 13, 2012
- Voting List Deadline: September 3, 2012
- Revised Submission Deadline: February 18, 2013
If you are an OMG memberyou can see the updated status of the process on the OMG servers. If you want to join our submission effort (either as an author or as a supporter), feel free to contact me and we will see how to merge your contribution. we are already scheduling a regular reporting on the status of the submission at all the upcoming OMG meetings and we will host a private workshop at every meeting for the submitters. We are already in touch with several interested parties, but we are more than happy to enlarge the partnership!
(@elenaWebRatio) (@elenaWebRatio) 07:44 on April 18, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Isn’t it time to change your IT equations? t.co/50DiGPo3 New post by @stebutti on #WebRatio Blog!
(@racerbis) (@racerbis) 08:37 on April 18, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Isn’t it time to change your IT equations? t.co/LvqSwVZn
(@emanuelemolteni) (@emanuelemolteni) 14:54 on April 18, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Isn’t it time to change your IT equations? #WebRatio #agile #MDD t.co/6c8u88vP
(@emanuelemolteni) (@emanuelemolteni) 14:54 on April 18, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Isn’t it time to change your IT equations? #WebRatio #agile #MDD t.co/6c8u88vP
Fernando P. Garcia (@develCuy) 06:12 on April 26, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Isn’t it time to change your IT equations? t.co/pQcftLsn