Prominent software design guru Ivar Jacobson, one of the three software design founders of the Unified Modeling Language (UML), this week pledged to support Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System. A lightweight approach to design and modeling, as opposed to 'heavy' processes that constrict developers' ability to code, is the ultimate goal of the partnership.

The move follows news that other specialist firms will provide add-on tools to fill out the needs of teams using Microsoft's flagship developer product. Include among these Borland, Compuware, Sparx Systems and others.

Jacobson's firm, Ivar Jacobson Consulting announced that it has joined the Microsoft Visual Studio Industry Partner program. The anticipated result is a software process called the Essential Unified Process (Essential UP) that is based on the Microsoft Solutions Framework and integrated with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team System. This move aligns a well-known voice of the UML community with Team System, which brings an alternative to UML-style design to market.

Together with Jim Rumbaugh and Grady Booch at Rational Software in the 1990s, Jacobson worked to develop the approach to unified notation of models known as UML. The three toured extensively, and were billed as the "Three Amigos." As Microsoft's new Visual Studio Team System product is viewed in many quarters as an alternative to Rational's suite of process-oriented tools, Jacobson's appearance in the Microsoft camp is a feat of sorts. Microsoft-competitor IBM bought Rational in 2002.