Essence – The Standard Bearer for High-Performing Teams

We have been developing software for well over half a century. Throughout that time, people have proposed practices and methods that promise high performance for teams that choose them. Yet, beyond the few case studies accompanying the advertising and the hype, we don’t seem to see the promised results. This inevitably leads to new and better methods that promise to address the failings of their predecessors. But they don’t. They also have their shortcomings, and beyond the few case studies accompanying the new hype, they fail to bring the promised results to teams that adopt them. The answer is not to create new and better methods and frameworks. Instead, we must look into why methods fail to deliver what they promise and overcome those problems. That’s what Ivar Jacobson set out to do and what led to Essence being adopted as an OMG Standard ten years ago. In those ten years, we have seen a growing number of experts and methodologists use Essence to describe their frameworks and practices, and an increasing number of teams and organizations adopt Essence. This talk will explore some of the use cases of Essence and the value it can provide to various stakeholders, including the methodologist, the team, and the organization. We will share some success stories and look to the future by describing some of the changes proposed for Essence 2.0 and the drivers behind them. We will also explain why Essence is designed for a world of living and breathing AI. Whether you are entirely new to Essence or already enjoying its benefits, there will be something to interest you in this talk.