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MANAGING OBJECT ORIENTATION IN BUILDING DATABASE APPLICATION SOFTWARE EASILY

Objective

A lot of systems developed by Daimler-Benz Aerospace - Lm (Dasa-Lm) and PCS are EDP systems or contain EDP sub systems. Software is very often a significant and critical component. To compete more effectively in today fast-paced market Dasa-Lm and PCS have to improve their SW development process and the SW development process of their suppliers continuously. Using new approaches is one means to achieve this goal. Object oriented (OO) methodologies and tools promising to make SW easier to create, simpler to use and far more reliable are making the leap from the research laboratories to the commercial environment. Adopting this technology is a major task and one of the strategic challenges of Dasa-Lm's SW management.

To be successful, the adoption of a new technology has to be planned carefully. The anticipated benefits adopting OO technology, i.e. faster development, higher quality, easier maintenance, reduced costs, increased scalability, better information structures, increased adaptability and others have to be proven by day-to-day project work.

THE EXPERIMENT

As test bed we choose a low risk project with the potential of many variants: The MOONBASE (Managing Object Orientation in Building Database Applications Software Easily) project comprises two application experiments developed by Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa) and PCS. The subject of the Dasa application is a framework for complex transformations which can be specialised to the user requirements. The subject of the PCS task is an experimental re implementation of a data entry system configuration.

The development team consists of only a few, but open minded members. To raise the knowledge on OO methodology and OO tools training courses where performed. Development of this knowledge was increased by Training on the Job.

EXPECTED IMPACT AND EXPERIENCE

By performing the MOONBASE project we got knowledge of the current capabilities and maturity of the OO approach based on experience rather than on virtual capabilities.

The key lessons learned can be summarised as follows:

We verified that a complex system is easier to understand and to maintain if its structures clearly map onto real-world entities in the problem domain. The Object approach supported by visual representation tools allows more intuitive modelling of real-world objects. Efficient validation of domain analysis as well as SW design and implementation is enabled by an iterative development process. The use of dynamic object oriented programming environment increases productivity during all phases of software development. Iterative development allows the development team to efficiently measure and track progress, quality, and costs, even when requirements change frequently.

Topic(s)

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Call for proposal

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Funding Scheme

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Coordinator

DAIMLER -BENZ AEROSPACE AG
EU contribution
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Address

81663 Munich
Germany

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