Software developers are incessantly inundated with wave upon wave of offered solutions to their many pains (pains that are unfortunately and ultimately felt by their clients): third-generation languages, object-oriented programming, CASE tools, aspects, components, programming frameworks, extreme programming, and agile methods, to name just a few. Some of these solutions have indeed dramatically impacted how software is developed, while others have proved mere passing fads, never fulfilling the potential claimed for them. One of the more recent entries in this multitude is model-based software engineering (MBSE). From its emergence in the 1990s, this approach to software development along with its accompanying technologies have been promoted by advocates as game changers, promising quantum leaps in productivity and product quality. Following the initial excitement and hype generated around MBSE, its position in the limelight is now slowly fading, displaced by more recent cure-alls. While MBSE is being used in some enterprises, it is far from being the dominant software development paradigm that its proponents had hoped for. For many software professionals, its relevance and impact are unclear at best.

In this talk, Bran will first examine the essential precepts of MBSE and the value proposition claimed for it. Next, in order to understand the reality behind it – as opposed to the hype -- we will review the current industry experience with MBSE, based on thorough survey of published data. We conclude with a critical assessment of the real impact that MBSE has had to date, and what the future might hold for it.

In order to bring the productivity benefits of the task-focused interface to engineers using Eclipse-based modeling technologies, Mylyn created a “Context Bridge” for EMF-based models and diagram editors. The result of this will be a focused mode for diagrams that shows only the elements related to the task-at-hand, dramatically reducing information overload for engineers working on large models. In addition, the task-focused interface extensions will provide Mylyn’s one-click multitasking facilities for working with models, ensuring that engineers can instantly recover from interruptions, and share model-specific expertise, when working with models in addition to what Mylyn already provides for engineers working with source code. In this session, we will showcase the use of the task-focused interface within the Ecore Tools and the Papyrus UML Editor. In addition, we will discuss the aspects of bringing the task-focused interface to model and diagram editors and will give a quick overview how to enable these for your own diagram types.

Looking for a review tool fully integrated with Eclipse that can preserve your comments at specific line ranges for Java, C/C++ or XML files?
Or that will allow you to register your comments at specific element locations in your EMF based models?

R4E allows you to select commits on multiple version control systems, e.g. Git, SVN, using Mylyn versions connectors.
It will preserve the commit information to allow multiple reviewers to work in parallel, to quickly select the committed files and navigate through the associated differences to carry out the review and register comments. Three types of reviews are available to better adapt to the ways of working in your team: Basic, Informal and Formal IEEE 1028-2008.

R4E interfaces with other tools to integrate the review environment in Eclipse:
- LDAP to resolve contact information of the review participants
- Different mail/calendar systems to automate review notifications and meeting request creation
- BIRT to create metrics reports

The model review features are being developed based on the following improvements: Egit Logical Model support, Papyrus/EMF compare and the Mylyn Context Bridge for EMF based models

This presentation will describe the current and planned features, the architecture and possibilities to extend the functionality.

R4E was demonstrated at Eclipse Hot New Products Showcase and received an honourable mention
It was also presented at Eclipse Demo Camp 2011.
For additional information, see the Mylyn Reviews web site