Computer Assisted Software Engineering CASE

Introduction
Computer-assisted software engineering (CASE) tools are a set of programs and aids that assist analysts, software engineers, and programmers during all phases of the system development life cycle (The stages in the system development life cycle are: Preliminary Investigation, Analysis, Design, Implementation, and Installation). The implementation of a new system requires a lot of tasks to be organized and completed correctly and efficiently. CASE tools were developed to automate these process and to ease the task of coordinating the events that need to be performed in the system development life cycle. CASE tools can be divided into two main groups - those that deal with the first three parts of the system development life cycle (preliminary investigation, analysis, and design) are referred to as Front-End CASE tools or Upper CASE tools, and those that deal mainly with the Implementation and Installation are referred to as Back-End CASE tools or Lower CASE tools.

The major reason for the development of CASE tools was to increase the speed of the development of systems. By doing so, companies were able to develop systems without facing the problem of having business needs change before the system could be finished being developed. Quicker installation also allowed the companies to complte more effectively using its newly developed system that matched its current business needs. In a highly competitive market, staying on the leading edge can make the difference between success and failure.
CASE tools also allowed analysts to allocate more time to the analysis and design stages of development and less time coding and testing. Previous methods saw only 35% of the time being spent of analysis and design and 65% of the time being used to develop code and testing. CASE tools allowed analysts to use as much as 85% of the time in the analysis and design stages of the development. This resulted in systems that more closely mirrored the requirement from the users and allowed for more efficient and effective systems to be developed.
By using a set of CASE tools, information generated from one tool can be passed to other tools which, in turn, will use the information to complete its task, and then pass the new information back to the system to be used by other tools. This allows for important information to be passed very efficiently and effectively between many planning tools with practically no resistance. When using the old methods, incorrect information could very easily be passed between designers or could simply be lost in the shuffle of papers.


History of Case Tools
CASE tools began with the simple word processor which was used for creating and manipulating documentation. The seventies saw the introduction of graphical techniques and structured data flow diagrams. Up until this point, design and specifications in pictorial form had been extremely complex and time consuming to change. The introduction of CASE tools to aid this process allowed diagrams to be easily created and modified, improving the quality of software designs. Data dictionaries, a very useful document that holds the details of each data type and processes within a system, are the direct result of the arrival of data flow design and structural analysis made possible through the improvements of CASE tools. Early graphics packages were soon replaced by specialist’s packages which enabled editing, updating and printing multiple versions of a design. Eventually, graphic tools integrated with data dictionary databases to produce powerful design and development tools that could hold complete design cycle documents. As a final step, error checking and test case generators were included to validate software design. All these processes can know is integrated into a single CASE tool that supports all of the development cycle.

Early 80's Computer aided documentation computer aided diagramming analysis and design tools
Mid 80's Automated design analysis and checking automated system information repositories
Late 80's Automated code generation from design specification linking design automation
Early 90's Intelligent methodology driver habitable user interface reusability as a development methodology


Advantages of CASE Tools
Current trends are showing a significant decrease in the cost of hardware with a corresponding increase in the cost of computer software. This reflects the labor intensive nature of the software. Developing effective software packages takes the work of many people and can take years to complete. Furthermore, small errors in the logic of the programs can have huge consequences for the user. CASE tools are an important part of resolving the problems of application development and maintenance. CASE tools significantly alter the time taken by each phase and the distribution of cost with in the software life cycle. Software engineers are now placing greater emphasis on analysis and design. Much of the code can now be generated automatically with the development of detailed specifications. Improvements in both these areas made possible through the use of CASE tools are showing dramatic reductions in maintenance costs. The power of CASE tools lies in their central repository which contains descriptions of all the central components of the system. These descriptions are used at all stages of the cycle; creation of input/output designs, automatic code generation, etc. Later tasks continue to add to and build upon this repository so that by the conclusion of the project it contains a complete description of the entire system. This is a powerful device which was not feasible before the introduction of CASE tools.

More specifically CASE tools:
Ensure consistency, completeness and conformance to standards
Encourage an interactive, workstation environment
Speeds up development process
Allows precision to be replicated
Reduces costs, especially in maintenance
Increases productivity
Makes structured techniques practical


Selection of a CASE Tool
With thousands of tools available the decision of which one will best fit your needs is not an easy one. The failure or success of the tool is relative to your expectations. Therefore a clear understanding of the specifications and expectations of the CASE tool are of utmost necessity before beginning your search. There are three common points of failure; the selection process itself, the pre-requisites of the tool, your business. As previously mentioned the evaluation and selection of a CASE tool is a major project which should not be taken lightly. Time and resources need to be allocated to identifying the criteria on which the selection is to be based. Next, examine if these expectations are reasonable. Make sure you have a clear understanding of the tools purpose. There must be a common vision of the systems development environment in which the tools will be used. Finally, know your organization and its needs. Identify the infra structure and in particular, the level of discipline in the information technology department. Is your selection of a CASE tool compatible with the personalities, and expertise of the individuals who will be using it? If these three areas are taken into consideration the tools is sure to be a success and offer all the benefits outlined above to your development project.


Upper (Front-End) CASE Tools
During the initial stages of the system development, analysts are required to determine system requirements, and analyze this information to design the most effective system possible. To complete this task, an analyst will use data flow diagrams, data dictionaries, process specifications, documentation and structure charts. When completing these tasks manually, it becomes very tedious to have to redraw the diagrams each time a change is made to the system. Computerized CASE tools allows for these types of changes to be made very quickly and accurately. However, using the old methods, a bigger problem arises when changes need to be made to the system - a change to one diagram may require many changes to occur throughout all the documentation. For a very large system, it is very easy to forget to make the changes in all documentation, leading to an erroneous representation of the system which could lead to problems during the implementation phase. By using CASE tool's analysis feature, information shared throughout the flowcharts and documentation can be checked against each other to ensure that they match.

CASE tools are also a very helpful tool to use during the design phase of the system development. CASE provides tools to help develop prototype screens, reports and interfaces. These prototypes can then be check and approved by the users and management very quickly. This avoids the problem of having to redesign the interfaces during the implementation phase, that users do not like or do not complete the task they are suppose to handle.


Lower (Back-End) CASE Tools
Lower CASE tools are most often used to help with the generation of the program code. Forth generation programming languages and code generators measurably reduce the time and cost needed to produce the code necessary to run the system. Code generators also produce a high quality of code that is easy to maintain and that is portable (i.e. is easily transferable to other hardware platforms).
Forth generation program code is also much easier to test. Since forth generation code tends to focus on the logic of the program, there are much fewer lines of code for the programmer to examine and test. Fewer lines also aids in the maintenance of the program since fewer lines need to be examined, and only the higher level forth generation code will need to be changed, not the lower level third generation code.
Code generators also have the feature that they are able to interact with the upper CASE tools. Information that was stored from the upper CASE tools can be accessed using the code generators to aid in the development of the code. Code generators also allow for specialized code to be inserted into the generated program code. This allows special features to be designed and implemented into the program.


Benefits and drawback of CASE tool:

Benefits of CASE tool:
Produce systems with a longer effective operational life
Produce systems that more closely meet user needs and requirements
Produce systems with excellent documentation
Produce systems that need less systems support
Produce more flexible systems

Drawback of CASE tool:
Produce initial systems that are more expensive to build and maintain
Require more extensive and accurate definition of ser needs and requirements
May be difficult to customize
Require training of maintenance staff
May be difficult to use with existing systems