[epf-dev] Well Done - EPF 1.2 is out

[Per Kroll <pkroll@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I want to congratulate every body to
yesterday's release of EPF 1.2, which you can download on 
http://www.eclipse.org/epf/downloads/tool/epf1.2.0_downloads.php

Thanks you all for the hard work.

• EPF 1.2 contains 2 components: OpenUP 1.0 and EPF Composer 1.2.
• 29 committers and 13 contributors built the product.
• 631 bugs and enhancements were done to EPF Composer, and 416 bugs and enhancements to OpenUP.

EPF Composer 1.2 - New Features
and Key Improvements

• Improved Diagram Editor
  • Diagram editor has been completely reimplemented.
  • Provides swimlanes, control flow labels, free-form drawing, and font styles.
  • Files can be saved in GIF, JPG, or BMP format.
  • Improved Rich Text Editor
    • Font family and size can be changed.
    • Content cut from Microsoft Word can be pasted as plain text.
    • Links and images can be added in the HTML view.
    • Improved HTML error markers and correction features.
    • Improved Configuration Editor
      • Processes can be fine-tuned by adding or removing categorized elements.
      • Improved configuration error reporting for Method Configurations and Method Libraries.
      • Current view is highlighted in configuration editor.
      • Configuration views can be ordered.
      • Improved Process Editor
        • Activities are displayed with indented and outdented elements.
        • All tasks at any level can be suppressed.
        • Activities can have multiple descriptors.
        • Additional platform support
          • Vista
          • Internet Explorer 7
          • Mozilla FireFox 2
          • Subversion
          • Eclipse 3.3
          • Other Improvements
            • New plug-in naming convention allows plug-ins to be displayed in hierarchical lists.
            • Published sites on application servers can implement server-based search.
            • GUIDs are no longer present in published filenames.
            • A new variability type is provided: Extends and Replaces.
            • Elements in categories can be ordered alphabetically, manually, or by type.
            
            OpenUP 1.0 - Key Characteristics
            • Scope: OpenUP aims at being minimal and complete, focusing on only fundamental content required for a development process that can be used as-is for specific contexts. This means that we have on purpose de-scoped many content areas, including environment, advanced configuration management, GUI prototyping, database refactoring, and model-driven development, among others. Those and many other content areas may later be added as plug-ins extending OpenUP. While de-scoping we have ensured that the resulting process is complete enough to be applied by a team to build a software application.
            • Field testing: OpenUP captures the vast experience of its authors on real projects and borrows from many different processes, including IBM Rational Unified Process, other variants of the Unified Process, DSDM, XP, Scrum, Eclipse Way, Agile Model-Driven Development, and the experience of contributors from a broad cross-section of environments. The content of OpenUP 1.0 has been written from scratch to provide a concise and well integrated process that takes an integrated, team-based and stakeholder focused approach that provides a fresh perspective on software development. OpenUP is stable enough to be used as is by project teams, and it will continue to evolve as teams adopt it and provide feedback.
            • Extensibility: Customizations via extensibility (plug-ins) are encouraged to ease maintenance when new versions of OpenUP are released. However, we expect to change the structure of process elements in OpenUP for the next release to address scalability. This could mean that some restructuring of your plug-in may be required after OpenUP has been refactored.
            • Consistency: OpenUP has been collectively written by many people from a dozen or so organizations. However, we have firmly pursued consistency in style of writing and depth of content through copy-editing, published authoring guidelines and extensive reviews.
            
            This is a major step forward for the EPF project. We have something to be very proud over!
            
            Looking forward, we brainstormed yesterday about future potential enhancements, and it is obvious that we have many potential exciting things to work on, including:
            • Leverage Wiki technology
            • Release Scrum 1.0
            • Release XP 1.0
            • Refactoring and broadening of OpenUP content
            We invite you and your friends and colleagues to work on these and many other exciting capabilities moving forward.
            
            Again, thank you all for the hard work, now let's go out and help organizations harvest the benefits of what we have built!
            
            Per Kroll
            Project Lead: Eclipse Process Framework
            Rational Software, IBM Corp
            (M) 408-219-2963