Review Modelcamp: The Modeling Craftsmanship Camp 2016 Hanover #mcmscamp

Last Saturday, the first Modeling Craftsmanship Camp took place. Even though Stephan and I already had experience in organizing bar camps, we didn't know beforehand how much interest there would ultimately be in the topic of "craft modelling". However, the extremely positive response showed that we were on the right track with the modeling camp.

Broad range of topics

The topics fell into the following areas:

• Functional modeling - both with SysML and other languages. The session on Functional Modeling Concepts (FMC) in particular attracted a lot of attention.
• Getting started with modeling - It is not so easy to find the right starting point. Here, "The first step to the SysML model" was discussed, as well as "Modeling guidelines - help or hindrance?" and "Meta rules for modeling". There was also a session on model organization, which involved live modeling with Enterprise Architect
• Interfaces - When things go wrong in development, it's often at the interfaces. Here there was "Context and external interfaces"
• Requirements - Every development should start with the requirements - but how does this fit in with modeling? "Requirement tracking in the model" provided the answer here, as well as "From customer requirements to the model"
• Craft - As this was a central point of the camp, there was also a session entitled "The Craftsmanship Movement", which was aimed at Software Craftsmanship Movement leaned on.
• Tools - Tools were also discussed. The session "Tools experiences, code generation" dealt explicitly with this, and in the model organization session, models were created live with Enterprise Architect. And of course, outside of the sessions, laptops were often opened to look at one model or another directly in the tool.

Certainly not the last model camp

The camp was fully booked except for one place, and there was a lot of positive feedback at the end. Stephan agreed to organize another model camp in 2017.

The Modeling Craftsmanship Camp #mcmscamp was a great success and will take place again next year. [tweetthis]Another Modeling Craftsmanship Camp #mcmscamp is planned for next year[/tweetthis].

As Stephan also has the Systems Engineering Camp in the spring, it made sense to compare the events. In particular, we asked ourselves whether the topic should be broader (SE) or narrower (modeling). Of course, we did not arrive at a definitive answer: After all, the participants' interests are broad and varied. However, we agreed that a narrower topic would give the experts the opportunity to go into more detail.

In one week (on 3.12.) the the next Systems Engineering Camp in Hamburg will take place. I am planning to put a session on the topic of "event format" on the wall there, where this question can be discussed.

Thanks to all

An event like the Modeling Craftsmanship Camp depends on the participants, without whose active participation nothing would happen. We would therefore like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to everyone who attended. Special thanks of course go to Stephan Dankers, who initiated the camp. And we would also like to thank Andreas Willert, who actively supported this event both as a sponsor and as an active participant.