Borland Software has announced the newest release of Borland® Together® 2005 for Microsoft® Visual Studio® .NET, a significantly updated version of its popular Together modeling suite for Visual Studio .NET users. The release marks the first Borland role-based modeling solution for .NET and is one of the first products to support the UML® 2.0 standard for Microsoft's development environment.

Together for Visual Studio .NET provides Visual Studio developers with an important bridge between Microsoft's own modeling solutions, including the emerging Software Factories approach, and advanced modeling benefits offered through the use of the industry standard Unified Modeling Language™ (UML). The new Together 2005 for Visual Studio .NET suite includes Together Designer and Together Developer, integrated and easy-to-use products made available individually for role-specific modeling functions within the software development lifecycle.

The tool is designed to provide Microsoft developers with flexible levels of modeling capabilities based on the specific degree of modeling complexity and utilization preferred by their teams and business requirements. Capabilities range from use case diagrams and physical class models, to audits, metrics and re-factorings, as well as initial support for Model-Driven Architectures (MDAs). This flexibility makes the tools easier to use, while helping organizations elevate their modeling practices to more efficiently and successfully develop software.

According to Borland, the new role-specific design of Together for Visual Studio .NET is intended to help Visual Studio .NET users more effectively realize the benefits of modeling within their software development efforts. Challenges that have historically thwarted widespread adoption of modeling practices – such as lack of standardization, the ability to organize and understand large volume of requirements and difficult, often complex tools – are greatly mitigated through the role-based design and flexible nature of the Together 2005 suite.

MDA designs seek to separate business and application logic from the underlying platform technology, providing a platform-independent model of an application that is capable of more easily adjusting to business and technology changes while promoting interoperability between platforms. Together 2005 helps enable organizations to conform with key MDA standards beyond UML, including XML Metadata Interchange (XMI®) and Object Constraint Language (OCL).

Together Designer and Together Developer for Visual Studio .NET can be purchased as an integrated suite or as individual products. For more information, please go to http://www.borland.com/together.