mcgregor@hemlock.Atherton.COM (Scott McGregor) (02/26/91)
I few weeks ago, there was a posting concerning CASE and Configuration
Management products from a number of vendors. While the list was lengthy
it was not a complete review of all the products available, and a number
of other vendors who were not included in the orignial posting have
posted information concerning their products. I have been asked by
others to post information about Atherton's products in the CM and
CASE arena to help round out the field. So, for those of you interested
here is information about Atherton Technology's Software BackPlane.
Questions concerning our products may be directed on line to
Lewis Byington (lewis@atherton.com) or John Burdekin (john@atherton.com).
--Scott McGregor
Atherton Technology
mcgregor@atherton.com
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The software industry needs development environments that can
accomplish the following:
o a positive balance between engineering freedom and management
control.
o a method for tracking requirements easily through the lifecycle.
o can retain old versions of files so that old baselines can be
readily reproduced.
o incorporate methodologies to produce better builds, eliminate
reappearing defects, and cleaner releases.
o ensure that tasks persist so they do not fall through the cracks.
o allow a software development process to be evaluated and optimized
on an on-going basis.
Our product, Software BackPlane is a framework for an integrated
project support environment (IPSE) with facilities for building,
using, and maintaining the environment. The IPSE approach to software
development encompasses the complete process -- including all
disciplines involved, the various forms of project data, and the
software tools used. An IPSE provides tools to help software
professionals individually and collectively, both managers and
engineers. IPSEs connect software tools, allow data to be exchanged,
and make it easy to manage project data.
Specifically, Software BackPlane provides
o Data repositories - These safeguard your data. All versions of
project data checked into a Software BackPlane repository remain
securely in the database so that you can always retrieve an old
version.
o Environment facilities - They let you control access to an object
in the database according to the user's group or name and defined
role in the organization. The work flow control features enable
you to define and enforce procedures for users accessing the
database and/or tools in Software BackPlane. The tool integration
facilities allow software tools to be readily integrated into the
environment.
o Open architecture - Software BackPlane is a framework you can
build on. Based on an object-oriented implementation with
inheritance, it is independent of hardware platforms, languages,
and methodologies, with an emphasis on compliance to industry
standards.
In addition to Software BackPlane, Atherton Technology offers the
following products and services:
o Project SoftBoard - A communication tool for tracking tasks
throughout a project.
o Integration SoftBoard - A tool for integrating other software
tools into the IPSE.
o C-Make SoftBoard and FORTRAN-Make SoftBoard - Utilities for
integrating the UNIX make tool for building applications
written in the C and FORTRAN programming languages respectively.
o Atherton-integrated Software Tools - These include text editors,
documentation applications, edit/compile/debug tools, and other
software tools.
o Environment customization planning - A consulting service to help
you define your existing software development process, find areas
where process controls can be applied, and devise an
implementation plan.
o Customer training - There are basic courses for new Software
BackPlane users and advanced courses for customers who wish to
integrate their tools into Software BackPlane.
The remaining paragraphs describe features of Software BackPlane.
How Software BackPlane Ensures Data Integrity
---------------------------------------------
Software BackPlane protects your data through its access control,
context management, and version management features.
Access control lets you define who can access an object in the
database. Access permission is granted according to a combination
of the user's group or name and defined role in the software
organization, such as programmer or technical writer.
Context management lets you define which part of a database a
specific user can access. With contexts, users need be exposed
to only the project data they work with.
Version management enables you to retrieve the current or older
version of a database object (or version of a collection of objects)
from a repository. Once a version has been checked into a Software
BackPlane repository, it is permanently in the database.
How Software BackPlane Manages Changes
--------------------------------------
Version management also helps engineers keep track of changes and
is very useful to configuration managers for reproducing baselines.
The Software BackPlane branching facility enables a user to create
an identical version of an existing database object with a unique
suffix attached to its name to distinguish it from the original.
The user of the branch thus has access to the same data as in the
original version but can only change the branch version. Branching
is useful in parallel development efforts, testing, bug fixes,
inspections, or simultaneous independent work on a version.
The audit history feature of Software BackPlane provides a permanent
record of all changes made to objects in the database.
How Software BackPlane Lets You Customize Environments
------------------------------------------------------
Software BackPlane has a number of features that can help you
customize your environment. Context management, versioning, and
access control, which are standard repository services, enable
you to set up various safeguards for objects in the database.
Access control lets you use establish protection according to
the job functions and work groups in your organization. You
can also specify which operations can be performed on a specific
data object and the nature of those operations.
The Atherton profile initialization file lets you specify
certain environmental characteristics for using Software
BackPlane, such as a user's editor of choice.
Through Software BackPlane type refinement, you can create new
database object types (based on existing types of objects) to fit
special data needs in your environment.
Through message/method refinement, you can create or change
the behavior of objects in the environment. You need only
add small changes to an existing method and can reuse most
of the code already in place.
Tool integration lets you integrate your own tools or tools
from third party vendors into Software BackPlane so that they
are directly accessible from the user interface. No source
code modification is necessary.
Through work flow control, you can define procedures for users
accessing the database and/or using tools in Software BackPlane,
according to the policies of your organization.
How Software BackPlane Helps Configuration Managers
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Software BackPlane has powerful features for building and
reproducing configurations, and for obtaining their bills-of-
materials. To protect objects in the database, the user
interface contains a formalized check-in and check-out process.
There is also an audit trail feature that records transactions
in the database.
How Software BackPlane Helps Control the Software Development
Process
-------------------------------------------------------------
With Software BackPlane, you have powerful facilities to help you
bring your software development environment under control:
o a customizable environment
o secure data repositories
o version management
o audit history
o project tracking
o common user interfaces over multiple hardware platforms
o tool integration facilities
o work flow control
And after your environment is under control, you can use Software
BackPlane to look for ways to make the process even more efficient.
For more information, you can respond to this email message directly
or reach us at
Atherton Technology
1333 Bordeaux Drive
Sunnyvale, CA. 94089
Tele: 408 734-9822
Fax: 408 744-1607
Attention: Sales Dept.