Microsoft's Oslo project for model-driven service-oriented architecture (SOA) will support, but will not be based on the unified modeling language (UML), according to Burley Kawasaki, director of Microsoft's connected systems division.

While some analysts criticize Microsoft for fuzzy communications where its SOA plans are concerned, Kawasaki was perfectly clear in ruling out a UML basis for Oslo, the code name for development of its Visual Studio 10 wave release.

"It's one of the standards Microsoft needs to support, but it's not the only one," the Microsoft director told SearchSOA when asked about Oslo and UML. "We think of it as one of the important modeling notations, but it's not the only one."