Large app development a job for OO A&D tools - object-oriented analysis and design tools for large application development

Software Magazine, Jan, 1994 by Mitch Kramer

Shops looking to extend object technology to large-scale app development are exploring methodologies and tools to automate them. Unisys is retooling its engineering process with Rumbaugh and StP/OMT

The benefits of object technology are becoming more widely recognized and understood. Object applications can be easier to maintain, and object reuse can shorten considerably the development time for subsequent applications.

Many companies have enjoyed positive experiences with object programming and would like to expand its use. "We're doing more and more object-oriented programming," said Ken Baird, an advisory programmer at IBM's Productivity Software Tools Group in Cary, N.C. "First, we saw all the hype. Then, there was the fear of new technology and change. Now there is comfort. We're in the pilot stage for many projects." In fact, IBM has over 500 object development projects worldwide, according to Carla Mapes, program manager of application development at IBM's Toronto Lab.

To date, most object development projects have been small in size and number of developers. Many experts feel there is a strong need for object technology for large-scale projects, but acknowlede that such efforts require that the formalization, rigor and structure of systems analysis and design must be incorporated into the object development process.

"There is a major requirement for object-oriented analysis and object-oriented design tools in large-scale development for business systems," said Allen Wolpert, worldwide practice director for object technology in the New York City offices of Andersen Consulting, based in Chicago.

Jerrold Grochow, vice president and chief technical officer at American Management Systems (AMS), a Fairfax, Va., systems integrator, agrees with Wolpert. "Object-oriented analysis and design tools are needed in order for us to build large applications," he said. "We can't develop the equivalent of 20,000 to 30,000 function point systems without them."

It is a typical progression for firms to begin to use object technology for large projects following early efforts on routine projects. The adoption cycle of hte technology has followed the same path as most technologies: Firms move from pilot projects to small projects to large, critical projects, and from ad hoc approaches to increasingly structured and disciplined approaches.

Michael Chonoles, chief technologist for Martin Marietta Corp.'s Advanced Concepts Center (ACC), King of Prussia, Pa., said, "We did object-oriented programming before we did object-oriented desiogn, and we did object-oiented design before we did object-oriented analysis. It's a natural progression. We saw it before in the conventional development process."

But before object technology can deliver its benefits to large projects, developers need object methodologies that provide for a disciplined approach to the development process. These methodologies bring formal analysis and design techniques and notation to the process.

A methodology is a set of techniques, models and a notation. Techniques, or methods, are used to build the models. Notation is used to visually express the models. All three components vary somewhat from methodology to methodology.

All object methodologies include techniques for designing object applications. Most include models for analysis as well. However, only a few methodologies include techniques for application construction. From the object-oriented design, developers are expected to manually construct the application.

A typical way for analysts and developers to learn about methodologies is by purchasing a book published by a methodologist. The techniques are carried out manually using white boards to document the various models. "A company can use a methodology for the cost fo the book in which it's published," said Andersen's Wolpert.

In fact, the Yourdon Division of CGI Systems Inc., Berwyn, Pa., took that approach for a recent project. They bought several methodology books and built a methodology that combined the best techniques and notations in them, according to Scott McBride, a senior consultant for the Yourdon Division located in Raleigh, N.C. both CGI's Case operation based in Pearl River, N.Y., and its Yourdon Division made their mark in structured development: CGI for I-Case tools, and Yourdon for structured methods. CGI Systems and its parent firm, Paris-based CGI Informatique, were acquired in mid-1993 by IBM.

"We developed a methodology that incorporates techniques from several methodologists and we took what we felt was the best from each," McBride said. "The notation we used is similar to the structured Yourdon methodology. We feel that it's purely object-oriented with very familiar constructs. There are client/server relationships between objects and the system is built via assembly. Behavioral models are based on event threads and the static object model reflects relationships among objects in a manner similar to entity-relationship models."