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Modeler Grady Booch in IBM-land

• By Jack Vaughan
• January 1, 2003

A recent IBM Rational media day afforded the opportunity to check in with Grady Booch. The theme of the event: IBM will take a more integrated approach to development, centered on the Rational toolset. Central in that toolset: UML modeling.

''Development has been and will remain a very hard thing,'' said Booch, an original UML co-author. ''If we look at the way we can improve the efficiencies of development, it is by using models, asset change management, driving testing through the life cycle and driving a common development experience through Eclipse.''

Modeling can bridge the gap between technology and business plans, but it is not pure pedal-to-the-metal UML. IBM Rational is not averse to creating wizards and such that enable modeling for people in the organization who don't want to know about UML, Booch indicated. He said business rules are likely the next great frontier for modeling improvement.

In the merged IBM Rational company, once-chief scientist Booch holds a post as IBM Fellow. There, he said with some glee, his job is to ''destroy bureaucracy and act as a designated free radical. I am having a heck of a lot of fun ... and getting paid for it.'' During the past year, which he described as ''opportunistic,'' he has worked as a liaison to IBM Research. The experience has been that of ''a child in a candy store.'' The next year will ''be more intentional,'' he said, meaning Rational will look to fund R&D projects that will in turn drive specific development and design tool projects.

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