.. O pe WEEKNAPPLIGATION DEVELOPMENT AVGUST 20, 1000 Do a O —5——56<———5<5<5<— Ni zero One of the most urgent needs in the computer field today is the re- 'auirement to retool informa- tion systems (18). Organiza- tions can no longer wait months to re- spond to a com- petitive threat. They must re- act rapidly to competitive challenges through in- creased integration and computeriza- tion. In most organizations, IS is still using manually oriented technigues to develop new applications and main- tain existing code. With these ineffi: eient technigues, maintenance and en- hancement of code may consume up to. partment. This cripples the ability of IS to respond to new challenges. Manually oriented technigues must be replaced by powerful development and maintenance technigues. dramatic improvements in both hard- ware and software, including: the in- creasing power of PCs and worksta- tions; the rapid growth of end-user computing; the development of inte- grated CASE (I-CASE) tools capable of generating 100 percent, of the code for an application on the desktop; the in- troduction of new prototyping metho- dologies such as rapid application de- velopment ); and the use of inte- grated computing architectures such as IBMs Systems Application Architec- ture (SAA) and Digita/s Network Ap- plication Support (NAS). Within a year, leading ICASE tools will support desktop generation of 80 percent of the resources of an IS de- 'These new technigues are based on '. APPLIED INTELLIGENCE code for entire applications in COBOL and C for a variety of target environ- ments. They will be compliant with standards for a graphical user interface and will be nearing compliance with an industry-standard repository. Support will be provided for simultaneous access to specifications by multiple analysts on Unstructured tode and data IS Must Move to Powerful Development Technigues 'The next step for ICASE tools is full compliance with industry-standard re- positories of design information and with the services provided by integrated a unih itectures AA computing archi such as S. and NAS. Within two years, leading I- CASE tools will be capable of automatic construction of cooperative-processing The Evolving Environment For Program Development And Re-Engineerihg All facilities show ure eapeeted to be available ivithiH two to three years. 6urce to! UE PA! tor selected environment Nr Integrated a LAN, as well as consolidation of speci- fications on a high-speed file server. In addition, I-CASE tools will support the development of real-time applica- tions and applications targeted at the Unix environment. Increased support will be provided for project-management functions, configuration control and re- guirements traceability. CASE tools | Ravetse- brigiheering tools CASE tepositoty (Abrcyela compalible) John Avakjan and client/server applications that are fully compliant with SAA and NAS. As I-CASE tools mature, they will pro- vide a wealth of additional functions, in- cluding embedded methodology aids, just-in-time training aids, expert-system support and a powerful icon-driven in- terface that may replace the use of con- ventional structured diagrams. Majo! es will also occur in the a maintenance environment. 'These changes will include the progres- sive integration Kl apri aids, es, tools and reverse-engineering a st The specific mechanism for integra ing these tools is compliance with a common repository, such as AD/Cyele. Once the tools are integrated, it will be possible to use structuring tools to con: vert unstructured, existing code into eguivalent fully structured code; re-en- gineering tools to analyze the pro- gram's data definitions, and structure and populate a repository with design information; and reverse-engineering tools to extract specifications for both data and processes that are indepen- dent of the target environment. Reverse engineering is likely to remain an interactive, user-assisted process. Specifications extracted by the reverse engineering process are entered into the design repository, where they may be used for design enhancement and reimplementation of the application. Many of the facilities discussed are available, and all will be available within the next two to three years. An important challenge for management is to use the major improvements in ap- tion, not a bottleneck. The concepts embodied tn this article are described in the CASE volume in The James Martin Report Series. For more information on this volume, call (617) 639-1958. For information on seminars, contact (in the United States and Canada) Technology - Transfer Institute, 741 10th St., San- ta Monica, Calif. 90402 (213) 394- 8305. In Europe, contact Savant, 2 New St., Carnforth, Lancs., LA5 9BX United Kingdom (0524) 734 505. BankAmerica 105/2 Development with COBOL | Aliance V Alcatel, Continued from Page 57 "We wanted to put the processing out on workstations partly to offload the main- frame CPU, partly to give very good re- on imen arij bose ve ned a curreney counter to the PC" kepe Bi DOS,08/2 will allow bank trans- to be conducimd while database he noted. in the background, — The Automated Cash pi taps IBM's Vault System, stacks of bilis ga chin cash-couni s pcb to PČ« viehpputiero Manager o Database Previously, done by hand, making Ht Na m Source of errors. "We wanted to point the improve throughput: and improve track- ing so we could locate problems guickly;" Bunday said. The pilot. system, which runs on 10 workstations connected to an IBM PS/2 Model 80 server, employs a fault-tolerant, data-storage system that distributes data Pad o ane traka disks. company plans to deplo: the system to 900 workstations preši across 22 LANs—one located in each of the bank's California vaults. Once the ap. plication is fully implemented, the data will automatically be posted to a ceni located mainframe that houses critical in- formation about customer accounta, Out o£ the Mainstream instead or opting for the mainstr 08/2 Presentation Manager face Bank meica che o nil ac painter. "We were looking for a product to build screens and panels without too much of a learning curve, and we didn't have much experience in PM two years ago [when the project began]" Bunday said. "In Dialog, System, you can design a very complex panel in a few minutes." Also, the screens created during the prototyping phase can be used in the final application, he said. Although most of the application has been coded in COBOL, the bank was forced to write C programs to handle access to OS/2's Communications Manager and Da- tabase Manager, since IBM does not pro- vide COBOL application programming in- terfaces in this area, Bunday said. IBM confirmed that COBOL support is BESIn IL is not a multitasking system, and O is," said IBM spokeswoman Tracy Ga in White Plalns, N.Y. "For that rea- ere s more support for BOL in OS/z' a ipport for C than CO- ExperTelligence Combine Forces Continued. from Page 57 The earlier Macintosh version was limited because it followed the Mac interface guidelines very strictly, he said. Spoke is written in C and generates both C and Ct code, said Bernard Vargel, president of Alcatel ISR of Paris. It sup- ports the object-oriented concept of dy- namic object classes, which can be created on the flyatany point in program develop- men As part of the agreement between the companies, Alcatel will market both Ac- tion! and Spoke in Europe, while ExperTelligence gains the right to market Spoke, as well as its Action! program, in the United States. Spoke costs $10,000 per copy. Action! costs $3,000 per copy. ExperTelligence can be contacted at (805) 967-1797.u