Meta-CASE Support for Method-Based Software Development

This paper defines the scope and context of meta-CASE technology in software engineering. It then outlines the role of meta-CASE tools in “multi-perspective software development”; that is, development in which multiple participants deploy multiple methods to specify their respective areas of concern. CONTEXT: SOFTWARE ENGINEERING Software engineering is the discipline of software development. It provides and combines (1) methods for software development, which in turn provide techniques for specification, implementation, quality assurance, coordination, management and control of development; and (2) automated tool support for many of the activities in this process. A model representing such a development process (its constituent activities and their ordering) is generally termed a software development life cycle model. As Fig. 1 illustrates, the final objective of software engineering is to produce a software artefact (application) and install it in an environment. Developers working in a particular organisation use tools based on methods to produce such an artefact. These methods support a particular software development life cycle. The software application that is produced by this process is used by application users. Fig. 1 shows these high level software development activities in this setting. Life Cycle Methods Tools Organisation Environment (Problem World) used-by S O F T W A R E method engineering & process modelling meta-CASE computer-aided software engineering

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