Information engineering and the Information Engineering Facility verus rapid application development and FOCUS.

238 Pages·4.1 MB·en_US

by  Clark, Lucille Charlotte.;Frew, Barry A.

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Naval Postgraduate School 53 Naval Postgraduate School
ADDRESS {City, State, and ZIPCode) 7b. ADDRESS(City. State, and ZIPCode)
Monterey, CA 93943-5000 Monterey, CA 93943-5000
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I. TITLE (Include Security Classification)
INFORMATION ENGINEERING AND THE INFORMATION ENGINEERING FACILITY VERSUS RAPID APPLICATION
DFVFT.nPMF.NT AND FOCUS (UNCLASSIFIED)
,
PERSONAL AUTHOR(S)
I.
Clark. Lucille C,
3a. TYPE OF REPORT 13b. TIME COVERED 14 DATE OF REPORT (Year.Month,Day) 15 PAGE COUNT
Master's thesis ^FROM TO December 1992 231
5. supplementary notation views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not
reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Defense or the U.S. government
COSATI CODES 18 SUBJECT TERMS (Continue on reverse if necessary and identify by block number)
FIELD GROUP SUB-GROUP SSffBffiiiMWSiffiSI EI§F?e!nfg§ma?f§S Engineering
, '
Facility, FOCUS, Rapid Application Development, Methodology
9. ABSTRACT (Continue on reverse if necessary and identify by block number)
The Management Information Systems Department of the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS)
is considering using the information engineering methodology with Texas Instrument's
Information Engineering Facility (IEF) an integrated computer-aided software engineering
,
toolset, for application development. The costs and benefits of introducing information
engineering and IEF versus the rapid application development methodology and fourth
generation language, FOCUS, were analyzed through a case study developed in both IEF and
FOCUS. IEF offers a one model implementation, a standard computerized methodology,
consistency checking, management tools for the application developer, and superior
diagramming features and screen design whereas FOCUS offers rapid prototyping, numeric
functions, a report facility, security within the data model, inherent database
management facilities and excellent documentation. The benefits of IEF did not outweigh its
costs. RAD and FOCUS were determined to be the methodology and tool of choice respectively
for application development for the MIS department.
.
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Barry A. Frew [phone] 05
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Information Engineering and the
Information Engineering Facility verus
Rapid Application Development
and FOCUS
by
Lucille Charlotte Clark
B.A., Princeton University, 1984
Submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
MASTER OF SCIENCE IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS
from the
NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
December 1992
ABSTRACT
The Management Information Systems Department of the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS)
isconsidering using the information engineering methodology withTexasInstrument's Information
Engineering Facility (IEF), an integrated computer-aided software engineering toolset, for
application development. The costs and benefits of introducing information engineering and IEF
versus the rapid application development methodology and fourth generation programming
language, FOCUS, were analyzed through a case study developed in both IEF and FOCUS. IEF
offers a one model implementation, a standard computerized methodology, consistency checking,
management tools for the application developer, and superior diagramming features and screen
design whereas FOCUS offers rapid prototyping, numeric functions, a report facility, security
within the data model, inherent database management facilites and excellent documentation. The
benefits of IEF did not outweigh its costs. RAD and FOCUS were determined to be the
methodology and tool of choice respectively for application development for the MIS department.
nt
I
a.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTION 1
A. PROBLEM DESCRIPTION 1
B. RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1
C. INVESTIGATIVE METHODOLOGY 3
D. STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS 4
II. SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT METHODOLOGIES AND THE LIFE
CYCLE
6
A. DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATIONS 6
B. METHODOLOGY CHARACTERISTICS AND EVALUATION
QUESTIONS
9
C. THE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT 11
D. THE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE (SDLC) AND
ITS CRITICS 14
E. PROTOTYPING 21
F. INFORMATION ENGINEERING 28
G. RAPID APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT (RAD) 49
H. A TAILORED AND UNIVERSAL METHODOLOGY 56
III. SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT TOOLS 59
A. RELATIONSHIP OF A TOOL TO ITS METHOD 59
B. FOURTH GENERATION LANGUAGES 60
IV
C. FOCUS 66
D. COMPUTER-AIDED SOFTWARE ENGINEERING (CASE) 72
. .
....
E. INFORMATION ENGINEERING FACILITY (IEF) 80
F. SUMMARY OF METHODOLOGIES AND TOOLS 88
....
IV. BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR THE CASE STUDY 90
A. MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS' SOFTWARE
DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT 90
MINOR PROPERTY ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEM
B.
REQUIREMENTS 98
V. EVALUATION 104
A. INTRODUCTION 104
B. INVESTIGATIVE METHODOLOGY 112
C. TOOL EVALUATION 115
1. Data Modeling 116
2. Activity Analysis 131
3. Action Diagramming or Programming 139
4. Dialogue Flow 155
5. Screen/Report Design 165
6. Documentation, Training, and Technical
Support 174
D. METHODOLOGY AND TOOL SUPPORT FOR THE METHODOLOGY
EVALUATION 176
E. CONCLUSION 187
APPENDIX A: DATA MODELLING 193
APPENDIX B: ACTIVITY ANALYSIS 198
APPENDIX C: PROGRAMMING 201
APPENDIX D: DIALOG FLOW 213
APPENDIX E: SCREEN DESIGN 216
APPENDIX F: IEF SUPPORT FOR INFORMATION ENGINEERING 218
.
LIST OF REFERENCES 219
INITIAL DISTRIBUTION LIST 223
VI