Kennedy Carter IUML Review Notes
UPDATE - March 2008
The Single Integrated Air Picture (SIAP) program was the largest project I know of that attempted to use Kennedy Carter iUML. After many years making every possible effort, it became clear to all that the KC was not going to meet the needs of the program. Management made the very difficult decision to transition from the Kennedy Carter tool set to the Rhapsody Modeling environment. Approximately nine months after the decision, the program is able to declare it a complete success. The development team has experienced a huge surge in productivity. And the software product itself is running more that 10x faster than it had been.
I am very proud of the work our team has done to support the transition to an effective tool. Most importantly, the confidence of the software development group is the highest it has been in years.
Should anyone stuck in the Kennedy Carter development environment come across these notes I welcome you to contact me. I know the way out of your dilemma.
Original Post - 2006
Executive Summary
Kennnedy Carter iUML is primarily hype with very little substance. It is unfit for modern, large scale software development.
I’ve been working on a project that uses Kennedy Carter iUML for the last two years. I’ve had all the training Kennedy Carter offers, I’m considered to be a model compiler expert in my group, and I’ve reviewed the latest technology from Kennedy Carter. If you are considering using Kennedy Carter then I have a couple of points to make. All of these issues are clear by reviewing the free iUML Light tool from Kennedy Carter.
Q:What do you call a branch you can not merge?
A:A dead end.
KC has an incomplete understanding of source control and is incompatible with CVS, SVN and tools like diff or merge. KC does not play well with other tool chains, so using make is very difficult. The IDE does not keep track internally of project dependencies so you are left to regenerate all of the code if you want to be sure you’ve correctly updated the project. This lead to long edit/generate/compile/debug cycles.
I suggest you carefully consider your needs for scalability, interoperability, number of qualified iUML engineers, and long term maintenance issues. Also consider your desire to maintain a custom compiler in addition to the application you are developing. Look carefully at ASL, the “language independent language” used in Kennedy Carter. Look carefully at the iUML simulator and the large number of instances in which it does not behave the same as the compiled code. All of these issues are clear with a careful reading of the documentation available from the free download available of the iUML tool set. When you look at the iUML IDE, note the lack of even a simple FIND command - good luck finding particular code in a large code base.
If you are still considering Kennedy Crater after reviewing the above issues, I strongly suggest a read of the classic The Mythical Man-Month by Brooks with particular attention to the essay No Silver Bullet - Refired.
Update: I’ve now had a chance to work with i-logix Rhapsody modeling and development tool. Rhapsody puts iUML to shame. I was able to do with Rhapsody in three days tasks that had taken six months with iUML.