JANUARY 15, 1990 APPLJED INTELLIGENCE | Use of Automated Tools Crucial to RAD Life-Čyele Success , | type was successively refined. CASE .. ME This ts the tools provided graphically oriented ways fourth in a se- of expressing models and designs. Code ries of articles generators, which could generate COBOL on rapid appli- | or other languages from high-level con-: cation develop- structs, were also created. | ment (RAD), a Recently, these tools have been com- tory typically stores enterprise models, data models and process models that are to be standard desigri componentS . across tHe organization. | The developers, who can be miles from the mainframe, connected to it by : telephone lines, download a subset of do uncoupled tools. The integrated tool set is the basis for RAD. | In advanced I-CASE tools, all of the functions associated with planning, anal- ysis, design, consolidation ol specification, analysis of specifications, code genera- : tion, database generation, documentation h M V methodology de- signed to be much faster bined into powerful, integrated facilities. CASE tools for planning, data modeling, analysis and design were integrated the central repository design informa- tion into their local project-level reposi- tory, where it is accessible via the LAN generation and project management can be performed within a LAN using a net: work of desktop computers. than traditional with code generators. Prototyping capa- methods. file server to all members of'the design bility was linked into the design tools. team. No longer is there any need to inter- act, with a remote mainframe computer, Improved ap- And non-procedural languages, including Individual members of the team can except to access shared, corporate-level plications-devel- SOL and report generators, were inte- then transfer this information to their design specifications. A ZASE opment life cy- grated into the CASE environment. — desktop machine and work with it local- Formerly, code gener pari! PANJI cles are urgently The most important feature of CASE ly. A desktop design analyzer checks the tools were located on a main! ue needed to devel- is the ability to generate code directly integrity of what is built. now they are rapidly moving to £Us. op strategic applications more guickly, as well as to deal with the growing backlog, of applications waiting to be de- veloped. Information systems need to be retogled with technigues that can devel- op applications in months rather than years, days rather than weeks. The RAD life cycle addresses these concerns through a combination of high- ly focused management technigues and advanced applications-development technology. Unlike more conventional Today's PCs are powerful enough for i V | complete development, code atija stribi ie nvirol | and compiling of programs that eventu- Distributed Development Environment and pline ot pe OE CE l — host computer. | Ii Using I-CASE tools with desktop code 4 A N)) generators is generally faster than RA 174 accessing a mainframe for code genera- ZMiH4 tion and corhpiling. A developer should be able to design a system (or subsystem), generate code IH CASE Todi Šeig ca Personal Rafositary — |. > »Deslgn Antlyžak (——) ih fee | ji Server for it, test it, modify it and regenerate it Za development, life cycles, RAD empha- as guickly as possible. In addition, he or ti sizes the use of small, highly motivated she should be able to do this on a desk- il | teams of users and information-systems top machine, completely debugging the | 1. (IS) professionals, as well as extensive logic on that machine and generatinyg | V use of interactive, joint application-de- AT UK RA the linkages to the mainframe a: sign technigues. Applications develop- o o NE rr a 4 v databases, the network and the operat- | HM | ment is performed in an iterative man- S—Ti V m san — die | ing system. SE E A | ner using integrated computer-aided Once fully tested on the PC, the code "a software engineering (CASE) tools capa- Maintrame km. o is handed over for execution and testing it ble of generating code for complete ap- odli, Hit MUV on the host machine on which it will | plications. aa ii H AE eventually run. Ma | ME The success of the RAD life cycle de- | : | | pends greatly on the use of automated Complexity Calls for ECASE tools. Organizations that have achieved high productivity with RAD typically use tool sets, such as integrated CASE (I-GASE) tools, to rapidly build applica- tions within an automated life cyele. | These integrated tools, developed in t1 | SPE, the late 1980s, permit entire applica- Up — tions to be specified on the desktop. | tič Fully integrated CASE products provide The more complex the project, the greater the need for I-CASE tools. As the complexity of a project increases, the gain in productivity, relative to the traditional COBOL life cycle, also in- creases. Complex projects have many | components that; need to be integrated; thus, the integrating capability of the re- pository and design analyzer becomes especially important. The key to building complex systems John Avakan is to have small, autonomous teams working simultaneously with powerful |- CASE tools, their work coordinated with a model that is in the common 1-CASE repository. People who have learned to manage the RAD life cycles with ICASE tools look back on the earlier methodologies N. Server / Y l1 Corporate Reposltory dejo Enterprise Modelš ib A ai » Data Models. a complete software-development envi- Project-Level Repository ' Process Models | ronment that supports the entire life-cy- — | h 3: cle process. | ne Seni | A variety of tools—both simple and | complex—have been created to help make IS development faster, cheaper and of higher guality. Simple tools should be used to build simple systems—a complex tool may slow its development. (For some needs, a report generator or a spreadsheet tool is sufficient.) Most systems developed Simple tools should be used to build simple systems. Most systems developed with RAD technigues, however, are likely to be complex and will reguire sophisticated tools. with RAD technigues, however, are like- ly to be complex and will reguire so- phisticated tools. ln the early 1980s, fourth-generation anguages were invented. Non-procedural rs reacted to seča Prototyping languages gave rise to lerative development in which a proto- from the CASE design tool. The figure shows a typical distributed CASE environment. Members ofa' project design team usually work within a LAN, Each member has on his or her desk an 1-CASE tool set with its own re- pository and design analyzer. With the desktop tools, they can do planning, analysis, design and code generation. Consolidation and analysis of specifi- ; Catlons across the project is performed using a project-level repository that typ- ically resides on a file server within the LAN serving the project. > im in addition, there may be a central | Corporate repository, which is usually on a mainframe. The corporate reposi- TJ ' results in okši Periodically, the changes made to the subset, are sent back to the project-level repository, where they are consolidated with specifications from other members of the design tedm, under project-man- agement control; A design analyzer then goes to work on the consolidated specifi- cations, detecting any discrepancies among the different analysts' work. A critical characteristic of an I-CASE tool (as opposed to a CASE tool) is its rajski to generate executable programs. k Code generator is n b: design workbench. | ea une bi tight integration of the analysis design tools with the code generator much higher productivity than 'X |" i with horror. Guality systems simply cannot be built guickly with the tradi: tional methods. | | The components of integrated CASE tools used with the RAD life-cycle pro- cess will] be discussed in more detail in next week's column. H pe raci The concepts embodied in RADarede- ||. seribed in a new volume inthe James — Martin Report Series. For moreinfjor- ——|—|—|—|— mation on this volume, call (800) 242: —2——— 1240. For information on seminars, contact (in the United Statesand Can- ———oo ada) Technology Transfer Institute, 741 10th St., Santa Monica, Calif. 90402 (213) 394-8305. In Europe, con- tact Savant, 2 New St., Carnforth, Lancs., LA5 9BX United Kingdom (0524) 734 505.