Blackwell Reference Online

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The term “computer‐aided software/system engineering” (CASE) applies to tools that assist developers to analyze, design, and construct software applications or information systems. The objective of the tools is to automate software development. This requires an integrated set of features to support the development of models, requirements, design, and code generation. There are a large number of CASE tools, some with a very broad scope and some with limited capabilities. CASE tools may be understood in terms of the process of developing an application using the tools. A software system is developed to provide a solution to a problem. This requires the problem domain to be analyzed before a solution is proposed and a solution to be designed before a software system is constructed. Once constructed, the system is maintained. After use, it may evolve and change. There are different approaches to the development (analysis, design, and construction) of software systems, as well as different formalisms and notations to represent requirements and design during the software life‐cycle phase. There are two broad categories of CASE tools: tools are used in both analysis and design and the construction of applications. Construction usually involves generating computer program instructions. All results of the development process using a CASE tool are stored in a repository. In this way, they ... log in or subscribe to read full text