Large cooperative work systems require work coordination, context awareness and process modelling and enactment mechanisms to be effective. Support for process modelling and work coordination in such systems also needs to support informal aspects of work which are difficult to codify. Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) facilities, such as inter-person communication and collaborative editing, also need to be well-integrated into both process-modelling tools and tools used to perform work. Serendipity is an environment which provides high-level, visual process modelling and event-handling languages, and diverse CSCW capabilities, and which can be integrated with a range of tools to coordinate cooperative work. This paper describes Serendipity's visual languages, support environment, and architecture, together with experience using the environment and integrating it with other environments. 1. Introduction Most computerised or semi-computerised work systems have evolved informal...

A new model for supporting collaborative software development with shared multiple textual and graphical views is presented. Multiple views of software development can be synchronously, semi-synchronously and asynchronously edited by different developers. View versions can be incrementally merged, and view updates broadcast to other developers and incrementally incorporated as required in their alternative versions. The model is illustrated by its use in a software development environment for an object-oriented language. 1.

ion John C. Grundy + and John G. Hosking ++ + Department of Computer Science University of Waikato Private Bag 3105, Hamilton, New Zealand jgrundy@cs.waikato.ac.nz ++ Department of Computer Science University of Auckland Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand john@cs.auckland.ac.nz Abstract We describe a visual language and environment for designing and implementing systems using the tool abstraction paradigm. This paradigm permits systems to be constructed from toolie and abstract data structure components, using an event response mechanism to handle inter-component interaction. This approach leads to systems more easily adapted to functional specification changes than with conventional design. 1. Introduction In a recent paper, Garlan et al [4] introduce the toolabstraction (TA) paradigm for constructing computer systems that support functional evolution. In this approach groups of abstract data structures (ADSs) are shared by a collection of co-operating toolies. Each toolie...

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Schema definition is a vital component in the development of computerised A/E/C projects, but existing tools to manage this task are limited both in terms of the scope of problems they can tackle and their integration with each other. This paper describes a global modelling and development environment for large modelling projects. This environment provides a total solution from initial design of schemas to validation, manipulation and navigation through final models. A major benefit of the described system is the ability to provide multiple views of evolving schemas (or models) in both graphical and textual forms. This allows modellers to visualise their schemas and instance models either textually or graphically as desired. The system automatically maintains the consistency of the information in these views even when modifications are made in other views. Simple and intuitive view navigation methods allow required information to be rapidly accessed. The environment supports strict checking of model instances and schemas in one of the major ISO-standardised modelling languages now used in product data technology. In this paper we show how such a modelling environment has been constructed for evaluation in the JOULE funded COMBINE project.

In order to facilitate better Information Systems Development (ISD), Method Engineering technqiues and tools are needed that support flexible creation, modification, and reuse of ISD methods and tools for use on specific problem domains. A metamodelling notation is needed for specifying and integrating different design notations. MetaCASE support is required for building, reusing and evolving tools for these design notations. Process modelling tools for both the coordination of these design notation tools and the evolution of software processes are also needed. We describe our work on developing an integrated environment which supports metamodelling, metaCASE and flexible software process modelling, and illustrate its use for supporting Method Engineering. Keywords Method engineering, metamodelling, metaCASE, software process modelling 1. INTRODUCTION Information Systems Development (ISD) methodologies are generally assumed to be situationindependent. However, there are a multitude ...

The building industry employs a significant percentage of the workforce of any country, and encompasses a considerable proportion of a country’s GDP. Despite that, IT tools used in the design and management of a building project are still fairly crude. Many projects have been undertaken to develop IT-based solutions to support the architecture, engineering, and construction domains (A/E/C), but little effort has gone into the tools required to support these development activities. This is the area in which this thesis concentrates. To develop a schema representing some subsystem of a building it is necessary to have support tools which enhance the modeller’s environment. The current state of the art, a replicated paper based approach, is ineffective at guaranteeing the consistency and validity of large schemas. In this thesis, a more appropriate environment is developed and demonstrated. This provides multiple overlapping views of the developing schema, with guaranteed consistency between all views, the ability for many modellers to work on the schema, and links to related aspects. The array of schemas being developed for the A/E/C domains contain overlaps of information, though often in different representations. To enable the full use and correct transfer of information between schemas, mappings between their representations need to be defined. This thesis

We describe several approaches to supporting the construction of design environments with multiple views of common information. We then outline a new approach that draws on the best of each of them. KEYWORDS multiple views, view consistency, change descriptions,

Traditional object oriented analysis methodologies are based not only upon objects, but also upon relationships between objects. Object oriented programming languages do not provide support for relationships, and so analysis relationships must be expressed indirectly within a program's design, and then incorporated into implementations of other objects in a program's code. By using explicit relationships in design and implementation, analysis relationships can be expressed directly within a program's code. Programs which use explicit relationships are often smaller and easier to comprehend than traditional OO programs, and are generally quicker to write and easier to maintain. 1 Introduction Seamlessness is one of the most important benefits of object orientation (Henderson-Sellers 1994). In an object oriented system development lifecycle, the same conceptual model (the object model) is used to organise the analysis of a problem, the design of a solution, and the implementation of a r...

Coordinating distributed software development projects becomes more difficult, as software becomes more complex, team sizes and organisational overheads increase, and software components are sourced from disparate places. We describe the development of a range of software tools to support coordination of such projects. Techniques we use include asynchronous and semi-synchronous editing, software process modelling and enactment, developer-specified coordination agents, and componentbased tool integration.