I am the lead developer and project manager for Umbrello UML Modeller, a computer programme for drawing diagrams of software. I am developing it using the bazaar method, a collaborative and open development style with contributions welcome from anyone. I took control of the programme from the original author in summer 2002.

As project manager I have encouraged and organised feedback and contributions to the programme and managed a growing group of regular contributors. I have successfully incorporated Umbrello into the larger KDE (K Desktop Environment) project, working with a number of KDE developers to ensure a smooth transition. Successful project management requires good handling of programming resources such as CVS and the bug tracker and communication resources such as the mailing lists and the website.

When I took over Umbrello many features had been added which had not been sufficiently debugged. There had been no stable release in almost a year and the programme crashed frequently. My initial development work focused on bringing the stability of the programme to a state where a new release could be made, this involved a great deal of debugging. Since then I have added new features and diagram types, while refactoring the internal code to make it much more easily maintainable in future.

Through my work on Umbrello I have created a thriving programme with an increasing number of real world users which will help to bring effective software engineering and modelling to the development of Free Software.