OMG! Microsoft Move Boosts Modeling

With Microsoft's recent announcement that it is rejoining the Object Management Group (OMG), the industry can finally put to rest a protracted debate about the relative value of Unified Modeling Language (UML) and model-driven architectures (MDAs) versus domain-specific languages (DSLs) and begin to once more focus on the value of modeling. Microsoft has much to offer the OMG and, assuming that it intends to take strategic advantage of full member status, is well positioned to help the OMG make significant progress in resolving a number of challenges that have bedeviled the modeling community, for example, the lack of a standard industry metamodel and a robust way to exchange application metadata. Reconciliation among the UML/MDA/DSL opponents introduces a real opportunity for progress and calls for a new model of the software modeling space, delimited by different modeling archetypes instead of competing approaches to the "one true path" to modeling righteousness.