Computer-aided Software Engineering - History

History

The ISDOS project at the University of Michigan initiated a great deal of interest in the whole concept of using computer systems to help analysts in the very difficult process of analysing requirements and developing systems. Several papers by Daniel Teichroew fired a whole generation of enthusiasts with the potential of automated systems development. His PSL/PSA tool was a CASE tool although it predated the term. His insights into the power of meta-meta-models was inspiring, particularly to a former student, Dr. Hasan Sayani, currently Professor, Program Director at University of Maryland University College.

Another major thread emerged as a logical extension to the DBMS directory. By extending the range of meta-data held, the attributes of an application could be held within a dictionary and used at runtime. This "active dictionary" became the precursor to the more modern "model driven execution" (MDE) capability. However, the active dictionary did not provide a graphical representation of any of the meta-data. It was the linking of the concept of a dictionary holding analysts' meta-data, as derived from the use of an integrated set of techniques, together with the graphical representation of such data that gave rise to the earlier versions of I-CASE.

The term CASE was originally coined by software company Nastec Corporation of Southfield, Michigan in 1982 with their original integrated graphics and text editor GraphiText, which also was the first microcomputer-based system to use hyperlinks to cross-reference text strings in documents—an early forerunner of today's web page link. GraphiText's successor product, DesignAid, was the first microprocessor-based tool to logically and semantically evaluate software and system design diagrams and build a data dictionary.

Under the direction of Albert F. Case, Jr. vice president for product management and consulting, and Vaughn Frick, director of product management, the DesignAid product suite was expanded to support analysis of a wide range of structured analysis and design methodologies, notably Ed Yourdon and Tom DeMarco, Chris Gane & Trish Sarson, Ward-Mellor (real-time) SA/SD and Warnier-Orr (data driven).

The next entrant into the market was Excelerator from Index Technology in Cambridge, Mass. While DesignAid ran on Convergent Technologies and later Burroughs Ngen networked microcomputers, Index launched Excelerator on the IBM PC/AT platform. While, at the time of launch, and for several years, the IBM platform did not support networking or a centralized database as did the Convergent Technologies or Burroughs machines, the allure of IBM was strong, and Excelerator came to prominence. Hot on the heels of Excelerator were a rash of offerings from companies such as Knowledgeware (James Martin, Fran Tarkenton and Don Addington), Texas Instrument's IEF and Accenture's FOUNDATION toolset (METHOD/1, DESIGN/1, INSTALL/1, FCP).

CASE tools were at their peak in the early 1990s. At the time IBM had proposed AD/Cycle, which was an alliance of software vendors centered around IBM's Software repository using IBM DB2 in mainframe and OS/2:

The application development tools can be from several sources: from IBM, from vendors, and from the customers themselves. IBM has entered into relationships with Bachman Information Systems, Index Technology Corporation, and Knowledgeware, Inc. wherein selected products from these vendors will be marketed through an IBM complementary marketing program to provide offerings that will help to achieve complete life-cycle coverage.

With the decline of the mainframe, AD/Cycle and the Big CASE tools died off, opening the market for the mainstream CASE tools of today. Nearly all of the leaders of the CASE market of the early 1990s ended up being purchased by Computer Associates, including IEW, IEF, ADW, Cayenne, and Learmonth & Burchett Management Systems (LBMS).