CASE tools have evolved from supporting only analysis and design (upper CASE tools) to also supporting construction and maintenance (lower CASE tools). Modern integrated CASE tools offer full life cycle coverage and automated diagram support including checks for correctness, consistency, and completeness. They can generate code and database schemas from designs as well as support reverse engineering and maintenance through analysis of existing code.

1. CASE tools
Upper CASE tools: support for the analysis and design
Lower CASE tools: support for construction and maintenance
1980s…
Nowadays…
Integrated CASE tools:
Offer extensive life cycle coverage

2. CASE tools: Automated Diagram
Support
 Checks for syntactic correctness
 Data dictionary support
 Checks for consistency and completeness
 Navigation to linked diagrams
 Layering
 Requirements traceability
 Automatic report generation
 System simulation
 Performance analysis

3. CASE tools: Software
construction and maintenance
 Code generators
…Generate code from the design model…
Think of the advantages!
…may also generate database schemata…
 Maintenance tools
 Reverse Engineering
 Analysis of program code

4. CASE tools: Advantages
 Help standardization of notations and diagrams
 Help communication between development team members
 Automatically check the quality of the A&D models
 Reduction of time and effort
 Enhance reuse of models or models’ components

5. CASE tools: Disadvantages
• Limitations in flexibility of documentation
• May lead to restriction to the tool’s capabilities
• Major danger: completeness and syntactic correctness
does NOT mean compliance with requirements
• Costs associated with the use of the tool: purchase +
training

6. UML: History and
Brief Summary (1/2)
Adoption of the OO paradigm … problematic
Emergence of UML as a methods’ unification approach
UML notation: a melding of graphical notations
from various sources.
+ other concepts…
UML: An OMG standard since 1997…
Under way to become an ISO standard!

7. UML: History and
Brief Summary (2/2)
UML: A method or a notation?
Primarily a notation
Modeling method: techniques + guidelines + notations 
roadmap for the development of a model
However, there are attempts to describe OO methods
or methodological frameworks that would be able to employ UML.
1. The Rational Unified Process
2. The Object-oriented Process, Environment and Notation (OPEN)