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Essence

Essence is a standard for the creation, use and improvement of software engineering practices and methods, which is maintained and published by the OMG international open standards consortium.

The spirit of Essence is to concentrate on the essential information and to optimize both the technical and human aspects of engineering by providing super-lightweight practices, often distilled into a small handful of cards, that focus on outcomes and minimize production of documentation.

The Essence language

The Essence language enables practices to be expressed in a simple and standard form that ensures that they can be easily shared, understood, and applied both independently and in combination with other Essence practices.

The Essence kernel

The Essence kernel provides the common ground for defining these Essence practices. It includes the essential elements that are always central to every software engineering endeavor. The Kernel also helps practitioners compare practices and make informed decisions about which practices to adopt, and how to apply and adapt them.

Play Games

Essence provides a fresh, new user experience by allowing the team members to play many serious games using poker-sized cards.

Playing progress poker, reviewing health indicators and defining checkpoints triggered some good conversations in the team and helped crystallize some risks that he thought the team wasn’t aware of and vice-versa. In order to explore Essence in a practical setting, a 2-day workshop was hosted at Google.

Martin Landers Engineering Manager, YouTube

We currently live in an disruptive age where the standard industry processes and thinking are constantly being challenged. This disruption is changing the ways Fujitsu customers are looking to engage and the manner that Fujitsu has to respond to deliver end-to-end solutions. It is therefore becoming more vital than ever that a common and firm foundation can be used to act as the anchor point to deliver successfully. Essence is this anchor point.

Ste Nadin Chief Architect, Business and Application Services, Fujitsu

Highlights