Constructing component-based software engineering environments: issues and experiences

Developing software engineering tools is a difficult task, and the environments in which these tools are deployed continually evolve as software developers’ processes, tools and tool sets evolve. To more effectively develop such evolvable environments, we have been using component-based approaches to build and integrate a range of software development tools, including CASE and workflow tools, file servers and versioning systems, and a variety of reusable software agents. We describe the rationale for a component-based approach to developing such tools, the architecture and support tools we have used some resultant tools and tool facilities we have developed, and summarise the possible future research directions in this area.     

面向协作的软件开发环境及其构造方法

针对现有软件开发环境中,工具集成缺乏灵活的过程逻辑,开发者、工具、制品数据之间关系割裂的问题,提出了一种新的面向协作的软件开发环境—软件生产线,以及一种构造软件生产线的方法-软件生产线框架,详细阐述了软件生产线框架的组成部分,并给出了软件生产线的构造和使用方法。应用案例表明,软件生产线框架能够加快软件开发环境的构造,并...     

Tools that bind: creating integrated environments

Software engineering tools are critical to the progress of software development, virtually defining the limits of what developers can accomplish. Each generation of tools is preceded by promises of shorter life cycles, greater productivity, greater portability and simplified maintenance. Unfortunately, these promises are often not realized, primarily because tool creators cannot overcome the difficulties associated with integrating tools into a cohesive environment one that is adaptable to both development and maintenance organizations. The paper discusses a list of considerations for managers when evaluating how well a tool fits the organisation's context. It considers integrated project support environments     

How are Java software developers using the Elipse IDE?

The Eclipse integrated development environment continues to gain popularity among Java developers. Our usage monitoring approach allows tool builders to sample how developers are using their tools in the wild. The data gathered about tool use can be used to prevent feature bloat and to evolve the environments according to user needs. Information about how developers work in a development environment can also provide a baseline for assessing new software development tools. We hope this report provides a start in defining which in formation to collect and distribute on an on going basis to help improve Eclipse and other similar platforms and tools.     

A framework for integrated CASE

An organizational framework for integrated CASE development and research that is based on the reference model for integrated software-engineering environments being developed by the NIST and the European Computer Manufacturers Association is proposed. Services defined in the reference model permit three forms of integration: data integration, control integration, and presentation integration. The reference model, which describes a wide range of CASE environments, and frameworks, can guide standards development and serve as a basis for educating software engineers. The organizational framework divides systems development and management into three activity levels: IS infrastructure planning and design is undertaken at the enterprise level, systems project management and decisions are made at the project level, and software-development processes are carried out at the individual and team level. The ways in which the organizational framework, which complements the technical framework, can guide the development and deployment of integrated CASE environments, direct future research, and help CASE users select and configure tools in an integrated CASE environment are discussed     

Learning from IPSE's mistakes

The authors argue that current work on integrated project support environments (IPSEs) is based on an inappropriate view of integration, and that IPSE developers should create semantically rich infrastructures or produce well-integrated tool sets rather than open repositories or infrastructures. The requirements of IPSEs are outlined. The meaning of integration is examined, and tool integration in IPSEs, the only form of integration most IPSEs have, is discussed. CASE tools are perceived to be more effective and are much more widely used than IPSEs     

A CASE tool for software architecture design

This paper describes the Software Architect's Assistant, an automated visual tool for the design and construction of Regis distributed programs. Unlike conventional CASE tools and their supported methodologies, the Architect's Assistant supports a compositional approach to program development in which the software architecture plays a central role throughout the software life-cycle—from the early design stage through to system management and evolution.In its implementation, we have addressed some of the limitations of existing CASE tools, particularly in the degree of automated support offered to the human developer. Conscious effort has been made to maximise usability and efficiency, primarily by enhancing the level of automation and flexibility together with careful design of the user interface. Our objective is to provide a tool which automates all mundane clerical tasks, enforces program correctness and consistency and, at the same time, accommodates the individual working styles of its users.Although currently specific to the development of Regis programs, the Architect's Assistant embodies concepts and ideas which are applicable to CASE tools in general.     

Disaggregating and calibrating the CASE tool variable in COCOMO II

CASE (computer aided software engineering) tools are believed to have played a critical role in improving software productivity and quality by assisting tasks in software development processes since the 1970s. Several parametric software cost models adopt "use of software tools" as one of the environmental factors that affects software development productivity. Several software cost models assess the productivity impacts of CASE tools based only on breadth of tool coverage without considering other productivity dimensions such as degree of integration, tool maturity, and user support. This paper provides an extended set of tool rating scales based on the completeness of tool coverage, the degree of tool integration, and tool maturity/user support. Those scales are used to refine the way in which CASE tools are effectively evaluated within COCOMO (constructive cost model) II. In order to find the best fit of weighting values for the extended set of tool rating scales in the extended research model, a Bayesian approach is adopted to combine two sources of (expert-judged and data-determined) information to increase prediction accuracy. The extended model using the three TOOL rating scales is validated by using the cross-validation methodologies, data splitting, and bootstrapping. This approach can be used to disaggregate other parameters that have significant impacts on software development productivity and to calibrate the best-fit weight values based on data-determined and expert-judged distributions. It results in an increase in the prediction accuracy in software parametric cost estimation models and an improvement in insights on software productivity investments.     

No quality without equality

Quality control mechanisms play an important role in improving software quality. However, quality improvement requires us to customize and calibrate these mechanisms to particular development environments. To do this, managers must understand how quality mechanisms affect developers and, in turn, how developers and their perspectives affect quality mechanisms. Otherwise, calibration and improvement are uncontrolled. Managers must recognize that software developers do not form a homogeneous group. Different developers may have different thoughts about and reactions to the use of formal quality mechanisms, which makes optimizing quality control a tricky business. Indeed, developers may have significantly different views of what quality itself means. To implement effective quality-control tools and practices, managers must understand these different developer attitudes. When differentiating types of developers, we often classify them in terms of their experience with different domains, languages, tools, and practices. My research reveals that we may want to look also at the differences in attitudes between men and women     

A hypertext based software-engineering environment

HyperCASE, an architectural framework for integrating CASE tools under an extended hypertext system, is described. HyperCASE's objective is to provide a powerful, user-friendly, integrated development platform that can significantly raise productivity. Its specific goal is to support software developers in project management, system analysis, design, and coding. HyperCASE integrates tools by combining a hypertext-based user interface with a common knowledge-based document repository. It includes extensive natural-language capabilities tailored to the CASE domain. These are used in the interface to the software repository, providing an alternative to hypertext information management and interdocument navigation. English input can be analyzed during informal system-requirements specification, allowing a significant degree of automation for design and concept reuse at the earliest development stages. HyperCASE's three subsystems, HyperEdit, the graphical user interface, HyperBase, the knowledge base, and HyperDict, the data dictionary, are discussed     

Integrating Process and Project Management for Multi-Site Software Development

Recent advances in information technology have made Internet-based collaboration much easier. It is now possible for a software team to draw on talented developers from around the world without the need to gather them together physically. However, being able to tap into a large pool of talent does not guarantee success. Software managers have to be able to manage these distributed teams. They need to define sharper processes and ensure that they are followed. They also need to better control project execution. To do so effectively, we have developed a tool that integrates features for both project and process management. Existing project management tools were originally designed for projects on a single site. Many of them do not provide the features necessary to support cooperative multi-site software projects or process management. We have developed a tool, called IPPM, which supports these features. IPPM, which integrates features for process and project management, resolves differences between existing project and process tools, and provides a number of unique features to support multi-site development. IPPM has been implemented and used by several development teams working in different regions in Hong Kong and Mainland China.     

Tools fair: untangling the web with Web and client/serverdevelopment tools

This article concentrates on tools for developing applications for the Internet and for client server distributed environments. These tools help serious software developers build applications that support company missions, goals, and objectives. The article also includes a testing and a miscellaneous category to describe a few tools that may interest software development managers     

Modeling collaboration for large-scale software system integration by formal communication models

In the development of large software systems, several synchronization points have to be passed successfully in order to achieve high-end user acceptance of the final system. In particular, the integration of conceptual design entities has turned out to be the most crucial step in software development. At this point, an explicit representation of the organizational knowledge, namely how the integration can be performed, is required. The overall organization of the integration of design entities is a set of knowledge, action (including communication), and time. The knowledge part comprises the integration procedure itself as well as the design entities. Actions are performed by the members of the project team (project leaders, developers). Each integration step has to be performed synchronized, so that each member of the development team knows concurrently the status of the integration procedure. All other individual design activities are usually performed asynchronously. According to the need for an explicit representation of the organizational knowledge for large software system design, this paper attempts tounderstand the nature of large software system integration and formallydescribes the coordination of a dispersed set of software developers. The organizational knowledge is represented by processes that occur in an asynchronous development environment. The design knowledge is assigned to logical formulas that are processed as exchanged messages among developers. Hence, the activities for integration are based on the transmission of messages. Time-critical events, such as the integration of a particular design entity into the final conceptual design of the software system, have to become common knowledge concurrently for all developers. This organizational constraint has been formalized in the communication model. Not only can the proposed framework be adapted to organizational changes in a flexible way, it can also be applied to any specific development strategy for the integration of conceptual design entities. Thus, such kind of formal communication models may provide a sound basis for cooperative CASE (computer-aided software engineering) tools.This work has been sponsored by the Max Kade Foundation, New York.     

TBus：一种CASE环境体系结构风格研究与实现

CASE(Computer Aided Software Engineering计算机辅助软件工程)环境作为一类复杂的系统软件，其体系结构至关重要。本文在工具总线(ToolBus)的基础上，从软件体系结构的角度，提出了一种基于工具总线的CASE环境体系结构风格TBus，对体系结构模型、系统行为进行了形式化描述，以及相应的工具结构模型、工具适配器结构模型、工具集成机制等方面进行了深入的研究与分析。建立TBus体系结构风格，对于促进分布式CASE环境和软件平台开发具有重要的指导意义。     

支持多工具协同的流程管理系统的设计与实现

软件开发流程中越来越依赖各种计算机辅助软件（CAS）。在使用多种工具的情况下,会遇到开发流程不可定制、流程数据不一致和流程管理效率低等问题。针对这些问题提出了一个支持多工具协同工作的软件开发过程管理系统。通过分析软件开发过程,研究支持快速迭代、偏向流程管理的软件工程开发模式,结合工作流思想设计分层架构的软件开发过程管理系统。该系统经过严格的测试用例检测,在设计的576个测试用例下通过率达到85%,能够完成工具协同的大部分需求,包括流程可定义、保持数据一致和开发流程管理。该系统在7个软件开发组,共约200人的规模下推广试用。根据管理组、开发组和测试组的反馈结果,该系统比传统方式节省了每周例会的时间,方便了开发任务的管理,从而提高了开发效率。     

Designing interfaces for programmers

Describes tools, techniques and concepts to optimize user interfaces. Increasingly, individual tools are being replaced by programming environments, which increase productivity and usability by tight integration with and knowledge of the user's working context. An integrated environment provides several benefits, such as preventing users from making mistakes that cause rework. Recently, as integrated environments have demonstrated higher levels of usability and the ability to enhance productivity, experienced developers have overcome their resistance to them     

METKIT: training in how to use measurement as a software management tool

A Science is as mature as its measurement tools. Louis PasteurThe main purpose of this paper is to present the results of the ESPRIT project METKIT, a three-year collaborative technology transfer project in the field of software engineering measurement. METKIT was concerned with developing a set of integrated training courses that show how to implement process improvement programmes and use measurement as a powerful management tool. METKIT can be used by an organization to enable them to provide in-house training to their managers and software developers to enable them to understand control and then improve software development.     

Inconsistency management for multiple-view software developmentenvironments

Developers need tool support to help manage the wide range of inconsistencies that occur during software development. Such tools need to provide developers with ways to define, detect, record, present, interact with, monitor and resolve complex inconsistencies between different views of software artifacts, different developers and different phases of software development. This paper describes our experience with building complex multiple-view software development tools that support diverse inconsistency management facilities. We describe software architectures that we have developed and user interface techniques that are used in our multiple-view development tools, and we discuss the effectiveness of our approaches compared to other architectural and HCI techniques     

工具接口技术研究

随着CASE环境（Computer Aided Software Engineering Environment)的不断发展，工具间如何协调高效地支持整个软件开发过程显得愈为重要，文中重点研究了CASE环境中工具间的接口技术，对各种类型的接口技术进行了分析和比较，并阐述了工具接口的应用问题。