"Software Lifecycle Integration" initiative announced at EclipseCon

Diagram of the proposed Application Lifecycle Bus
Source: Tasktop

At EclipseCon 2013, Tasktop has announced an initiative to integrate the individual stages of the software lifecycle. The ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) specialist has introduced "Software Lifecycle Integration" (SLI) as a "manifesto" derived from experience with enterprise users to enable communication between all stages of the ALM. One part of this will involve creating an abstraction layer that allows information to be exchanged among all stages of the process, improving cooperation, which would be presented as an ALM integration bus.

Core components that the initiative is currently looking to develop include:

• SLI Technical Architecture: a collection of architecture principles, design patterns, and a corresponding roadmap.
• SLI Data Model: a common model and taxonomy that provides the key abstraction mechanisms that are needed for an organisation to implement SLI.
• SLI Integration Pattern: repeatable design patterns that will help architects streamline the automation and SLI process.

A whitepaper on the architecture principles has already been published. Once the presented ideas have been discussed, Tasktop plans to release a first SLI manifesto at the end of EclipseCon.

The company also said that it is working to propose Mylyn/m4, an open source Eclipse-based project that will revolve around implementing the SLI data model and a runtime library for embedding the SLI principles into existing ALM applications. The project will focus on the server side and is intended as a bridge between the SLI data model and standards such as OSLC (Open Service for Lifecycle Collaboration).

The initiative has proposed the creation of a new position within companies that is similar to that of the Enterprise Architect, which was introduced with the Enterprise Service Bus. The task of the Lifecycle Architect would be to plan and supervise the introduction and implementation of the SLI model in companies which needed to connect the software lifecycle's stages.

More information on the Software Lifecycle Integration concept can be found on the Tasktop web site and in a blog post. Tasktop's Dave West also explains some of the basic concepts in a video:

Dave West from Tasktop explains the basic concepts of SLI

(fab)