No I am not talking about the capital and largest city in Norway. Oslo is Microsoft’s modeling tool used for Business Process Modeling. The project was started in 2003 as an easy way for business analysts to transform requirements into initial database objects without a lot of technical expertise, change the software/requirements problem into a database design exercise.  This appears to have been a lofty goal however and since then Project Oslo has morphed from a Biz Server integration project to more of a modeling tool used to be shipped in some future edition of SQL Server. Doing research on Oslo, was a bit confusing as it has had more name changes than P Diddy and Prince combined. As of this writing, Oslo is now called the SQL Server Modeling CTP. I will keep calling it Oslo for now, as it easier to type and it sounds cooler than SQLSMCTP. It may have another name by the time you read this anyway.

All jokes aside, Oslo is a powerful platform made of three parts:

• The Language -  Now called M, formerly known as D. This language allows you to enter descriptions for the objects you are developing and from those descriptions develop your own grammar that is then used to create SQL for database objects in an xml like type syntax using attributes like an xsd.
• The Tool – If modeling data with text is not your thing. Oslo provides a modeling tool called the Quadrant Model Editor for creating and browsing through the data objects.
• The Repository – Is the database portion of Oslo, where all the data models are stored. It also provides pre-built domains which are templates for various type of data projects optimized out of the box.

While this was initially designed as a BPM tool, it now encompasses a lot more with its additional features for data modeling and querying.  It just seems that it may seem a bit too much and complicated for business analysts who want to capture requirements using a BMP tool.  It does appear that this may be a cool tool for DBAs or Programmers who need better ways of data modeling. For more information on OSLO, start here with an overview of the M language . For your viewing entertainment see the video below featuring Paul Vick a member of the OSLO team pitching the product on a Microsoft talkshow. Enjoy and leave comments please.