From tool integration to workflow management - a lean integration solution

The design of complex systems requires efficient tools and strategies to shorten the time-to-market interval from specification to product. The advent of frameworks was intended to combine different tools from different vendors to interact under a homogeneous environment. However, frameworks have become very complex software-systems that need experts to configure and maintain them. They are mainly used to integrate company specific products in one environment. Our approach of a Lean Integration Platform uses a standardized tool integration defined in the CFI Tool Encapsulation Specification. Based on this specification a decentralized tool server executes tool-requests distributed over a heterogeneous local or wide area network. Of course, tool integration is only one problem to overcome in order to support tool-driven design. A complete coverage of the design domain requires apt solutions for design data management including versioning and configuration management, process management and project management, to name only a few. To create a lean and scalable system the integration platform concentrates on supporting workflow-driven designs with an open interface to additional components as flow editors, user management add-ons or a sophisticated product data management facility. The behavior of the work-flow system is highly configurable.