Practical Software Factories in .NET

The Software Factory methodology is based on recognition of these similarities and a drive to extend the concept of "reusability" to the point where we achieve entirely automated product lines. Based on an analysis and understanding of the common features and techniques of a set of applications, a Software Factory defines a tailored, end-to-end methodology for building these applications. At the heart of the Software factory methodology is the concept of Domain Specific Languages (DSLs), which in essence are development environments specifically tailored to the set of applications in hand. It removes a certain degree of flexibility but greatly enhances productivity by removing a lot of the coding complexity (for an analogy, consider the use of the now ubiquitous drag-and-drop controls in Winforms or Visual Basic).
Further, in the SF methodology, patterns, process advice, and best practices can be harvested and applied for all applications in the set.
There are some good books on the theory of SF already on the market. Up until this point, a lot of these concepts were fairly theoretical and abstract.

Gunther Lenz is a pioneer in the field of software factories. He received a master's degree (Dipl. Ing. Univ.) in electrical engineering from the Technical University of Munich, Germany. He spent five years working on research and product development of a high-performance medical image-processing system, under FDA regulation. In addition to his project experience, Gunther was also a core member of the Software Engineering Process Group (SEPG), which defined, implemented, and optimized the software development process. In 2002, Gunther joined Siemens Corporate Research in Princeton, New Jersey, where he is a program manager in the software engineering department. His current research activities focus on model-driven software development (MDSD), model evolution, and software factories. Within Siemens, Gunther leads the global research efforts in the areas of software factories and Microsoft technologies. Gunther is the author of .NET: A Complete Development Cycle (Addison Wesley, 2004) and has published many articles in different software development magazines, focusing on a variety of software engineering topics. Furthermore, Gunther has received the Microsoft "Most Valuable Professional" Solution Architect award and is an invited member of the Microsoft Software Design Review Team. He frequently presents at international conferences on subjects related to his research area.