This document discusses case tools for software engineering. It defines case tools as computer-based tools that aid in software development by diagramming and documenting design. The objectives of case tools are listed, such as creating development standards, improving quality, and decreasing testing time. The document outlines the types of case tools, including front-end analysis tools and back-end code generation tools. Benefits include enforcing engineering disciplines to improve quality, facilitating prototyping, and simplifying maintenance. Potential costs are also discussed.

1. CHAPTER 4
ROLE AND UTILIZATION OF
CASE TOOLS
SOFTWARE SYSTEM ENGINEERING
(260CT)

2. Motivation
 Definition
 Characteristics
 Types of CASE
 Benefits

3. Definition
 Any computer-based tool for developing
software.
 Tools that diagram and document
software design.
 A tool which aids a software engineer to
maintain and develop software.

4. THE OBJECTIVES OF CASE
 Create development process standards
 Improve overall application quality
 Decrease design time and improve time to market
 Decrease required effort and time in application testing
 Encourage integration of development projects
 Improve effectiveness of project management activities
 Decrease required effort and time in application maintenance
activities
 Promote organization wide reusable program code
 Improve portability of application across platform and
operating environment

5. Characteristics
 Graphics Interface for creating Diagrams
 Central Repository For storing and managing All
metadata
 Highly Integrated Toolset Sharing a common user
interface
 Modules to assist every phase of the lifecycle
 Prototyping Facilities
 Automatic code generation from analysis/design
Definitions
 Support Development Lift Cycle
 Extensive Error Checking

6. Types of CASE
Upper Case:
Front End Tools
 Planning
 Design
 Analysis
Lower Case:
Back End Tools
 Prototyping
 Code Generation
 Schema Generation
 4GLs

7. COMPONENT OF CASE TOOL
Process Modeling Tools
Detailed Analysis Tools
Transformation Tools
Database/Application Design Tools
Application Generation Tools
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8. Categories of CASE
 Diagramming Tools
 Dictionaries
 Specification Validation
 Code and Schema Generation
 Documentation Generation
 Reverse Engineering

9. Benefits
 Makes structured methods practical to perform
 Enforces engineering disciplines (Software Information)
 Improves Software Quality through
• Facilitating User Involvement
• Automated Checking
 Facilitates Prototyping
 Simplifies Program Maintenance
 Accelerates the development process
 Permits specific focus by developer and user
 Encourages Evolutionary and Incremental Development
 Enables Component Engineering (Re-use)

10. Traditional vs CASE
 Emphasis on coding and
testing
 Paper prototyping
 Paper Specification
 Manual Coding
 Manual Documentation
 Software Testing
 Code Maintenance
 Emphasis on Analysis and
Design
 Rapid/Iterative
Prototyping
 Stored/Automated
Specification
 Automate Code
Generation
 Automated Error Checking
 Automate Test Case
Generation
 Maintain Design
Specification

11. POTENTIAL CASE TOOL COST
CATEGORIES
 Initial training and education cost
 Evaluation cost
 Costs of maintaining the model over time
 Upgrade costs of the tool
 Ongoing usage/maintenance fees
 Time lost waiting for the tool to do its job
 Time lost overusing the tool
 Migration costs to transport models to another
tools

12. POTENTIAL CASE TOOL COST
CATEGORIES
 Increased effort to synchronize models with
other artifacts such as source code
 Often, promotion of syntax over
communication between developers
 Generated code that is often to simplistic or is
cluttered with extraneous information required
by the tool
 Poor user interface that often hamper the
modeling effort

13. POTENTIAL CASE TOOL COST
CATEGORIES
 Inadequate integration with other tools,
reducing productivity and/or requiring
integration work
 Often, exclusion of nondevelopers from
modeling efforts due to complexity of the tool

14. THE GOOD NEWS
 Development process productivity and quality
increases are reliazable
 Portability of new systems to other platform is
greatly enhanced
 Analyst skill set will improve due to greater
understanding of the process
 Time to delivery of new applications will
decrease
 Conformity to development standards will
increase

15. THE BAD NEWS
 Case acquisation costs are extremly high
 Training of analyst and administrators is costly
and time consuming
 Most organizations do not have clear
standards for application development
 CASE tools can be viewed as a threat to job
security
 CASE tools do not have a great reputation
since early benefits are not realized