Tool for Object-Oriented Software Development

Dateline: January 21, 1994

Rational will release in February the next generation of its Rational Rose software-engineering tool. According to Rational, the new version, Rational Rose 2.0, which can be used with Ada, automates object-oriented analysis and design and support development teams in producing object-oriented applications more effectively. Rational says Rational Rose 2.0 allows members of a software-development team to communicate their analysis and design model to their fellow team members. In addition, tools assist users during each step of the design process, says Rational.

[Source: Rational News Release, January 10, 1994. For more information, contact: Kara Myers, 2800 San Tomas Expressway, Santa Clara, CA 95051-0951; 408/496-3600.]

Army Software Reuse Case Study

Dateline: January 21, 1994

"The Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) Concept Evaluation Program (CEP) has successfully enjoyed reuse benefits within their Fire Support Command and Control domain, in the Forced Fusion Support Prototype (FFSP) project. The reuse of Ada code was estimated to be 93.45%, resulting in theoretical savings of $2,824,764.00 for the FFSP project alone. Army Field Artillery Systems (AFAS) has also utilized substantial amount of CEP software to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Because AFATDS interoperates with Army, joint service, and allied nation fire support C3 systems, overall cost avoidance as a result of this Army initiative is estimated between $20-$40 million dollars.

AFATDS reuse efforts focus on the horizontal use of general purpose software, domain-specific objects, high-level architecture reuse, and reuse of Ada bindings. Its incredible cost savings is the direct result of good planning. Since FFSP does basically the same thing as AFATDS, just on ships instead of land, the Navy STARS program was able to reap reuse benefits from the CEP. This type of common sense planning saved millions of dollars in a single project. Several other factors contribute to CEP's success; reuse coordinators were used as resources for software development, and metrics were used to track progress and to detect defects. The consistent and well organized approach employed by AFATDS represents a successful Army commitment to savings and technological advancement through software reuse efforts."

[Source: The above has been extracted from Army Software Reuse Case Studies, The Army Reuse Center News, Vol. 2, No. 4, December 1993, p. 8.]

Software Developer's Tool Box

Dateline: January 21, 1994

The Army Reuse Center (ARC) has created a software developer's Tool Box that groups numerous Ada software tools into one easily extracted package. The tools are organized into seven categories or compartments: Sorts, Conversions, Input/Output Operations, Date/Time, String Operations, Data Structure, and OS Spec (see figure below). Users will be able to extract from the ARC Library the entire Tool Box, one or more compartments within the Tool Box, or one or more tools within a compartment, as desired.

'"Our goal is to give the ARC Library user all the software tools an Ada developer needs in one easy to grab component," says Mr. Henry Marshall, Process Implementation Branch Chief for the ARC.'"

[Source: Software Developer's Tool Box, The Army Reuse Center News, Vol. 2, No. 4, December 1993, p. 3]

ARC Receives Components from SIMTEL-20

Dateline: January 21, 1993

The Army Reuse Center (ARC) is currently evaluating Ada code components received from the Ada Software Repository (ASR) (SIMTEL- 20).

The components under evaluation represent code not currently found in the ARC Library. The Ada code currently being analyzed to determine its suitability for inclusion into the ARC Library include components from the following high-demand categories: data communication; math; graphics; message-handling; menu management; data structures; artificial intelligence; forms generation.

Once a component is deemed satisfactory to be installed into the ARC Library, it will undergo the standard certification procedures for code components. Each component will conform to accepted coding standards and guidelines and it will undergo metrics evaluation and possibly formal testing.

[Source: ARC Receives Components from SIMTEL-20, The Army Reuse Center NEWS, Vol. 2, No. 4, December 1993, p. 7]