gt@hpfcmgw.HP.COM (George Tatge) (01/05/90)
Below is information on an upcoming (Jan. 30,31) NTU (National Technological University) seminar on CASE integration technologies. To register or get more information, call NTU at (303) 484-0565. Presentors: Anthony Earl - HP labs Read Fleming - Cadre Geoff Lewis - Sun Paul Magelli- AT&T Brian Nejmeh- INSTEP (formerly SPC) Bill Paseman- Atherton Paul Radding- Technology Decisions George Tatge- HP Ian Thomas- HP -------------------------------------------------------------------- INTERNATIONAL CASE ARCHITECTURES AND STANDARDS DESCRIPTION: This interactive, two day course offers a unique opportunity for computer professionals to gain a broad understanding of the current issues in Integrated Computer Aided Software Engineering (I-CASE). This class features a distinguished panel of nine software professionals who are intimatly involved on a daily basis with the definition, design and implementation of Integrated CASE environments and frameworks. You will participate in live panel discussions of the most pressing issues being debated today. In this way, you will not only be able to learn the directions being taken by the real architects of the systems coming your way, but will also be able to provide your input into the process. OBJECTIVES: * Describe the current state of CASE architectures and standards throughout the world. * Examine the "why" of Integrated CASE. * Describe the many technical issues surrounding data integration. * Explore four specific international initiatives in more detail: CFI (U.S.A.)- CAD Frameworks Initiative CIS (U.S.A.)- CASE Integration Services PCTE (Europe)- Portable Common Tools Environment SIGMA (Japan)- Software Industrialized Generator and Maintenance Aids * Describe the many technical issues surrounding control integration. * Examine the politics and economics of CASE integration technologies. * Describe the changing trends in granularity for both software tools and integration frameworks. INTENDED AUDIENCE: 1. Computer professionals who have a need to understand today's issues affecting tomorrow's systems. 2. Managers who must plan computing strategies for the 1990's. 3. Independent software vendors who will need to integrate their software into these new systems. 4. CAD system developers and users. COURSE MATERIALS: There will be no additional materials beyond those provided. -------------------------------------------------------------------- INTERNATIONAL CASE ARCHITECTURES AND STANDARDS Session 1. An International View of CASE Architectures and Standards Presenter- George Tatge Objectives: * To provide the background information and set the stage for the next nine sessions. * To explain the key issues in CASE integration architectures. * To describe the major initiatives around the world. Description: CASE integration is an extremely fast moving area of research with a plethora of approaches from several groups around the world. We attempt to describe the main issues and to give an overview of the approaches taken by these various groups. This information will be the background necessary to understand and place in perspective the remaining nine sessions which deal with some of the more controversial issues. Session 2. IPSE Goals and Requirements (IPSE -> Integrated Project Support Environment) Presenter- Full panel discussion Objectives: * To explain the "why" of CASE integration. * To reveal the requirements for CASE integration against which the proposed solutions must be measured. Description: CASE integration has many very lofty goals and these goals imply an impressive array of requirements. It is necessary to set the context of integration discussions within the actual goals which we are trying to achieve. Diving deep into the technology of CASE integration can often lead us into elegant solutions for which there are no problems. Agreement on the fundamental goals and their associated requirements will allow us to maintain a continuous sanity check on the proposed technologies. Session 3: Data Integration I (Repositories) Presenter- Full panel discussion Objectives: * To understand the concepts of data integration. * To explain the technological problems of data integration. * To discuss the various philosophies and approaches. Description: Data integration represents the most difficult technological challenge in CASE integration. There are still several unsolved problems relating to globally distributed, heterogeneous, fine grain data bases. In addition, most large software tools in use today maintain their own private data bases. This situation provides several lively topics such as: 1) private vs. public data 2) distribution myths and realities. Session 4: PCTE and SIGMA Presenters- Ian Thomas and ? (tape?) Objectives: * To understand the principles and status of PCTE. * To understand the principles and status of SIGMA. Description: PCTE (Portable Common Tool Environment) is the result of a massive European Commission project under the ESPRIT umbrella. It represents one of the most complete efforts to date to deal with data integration. This presentation will explain the scope and the approach taken by PCTE as well as provide a status update. SIGMA (Software Industrialized Generator and Maintenance Aids) is an equally massive Japanese project under the MITI umbrella. It has many unique perspectives on the integration of Software Engineering Environments. As with PCTE, we shall learn of the philosophies and the current status of SIGMA. Session 5: Data Integration II Presenters- full panel Objectives: * Continued from Data Integration I Description: Continuation of session three with focus on: 1) object oriented vs. entity relationship data bases. 2) data vs. meta data support requirements. Session 6: Politics and Economics of Frameworks & Environments Presenters- full panel Objectives: * Explore the costs (upfront and hidden) of framework technology. * Examine the politics affecting adoption of these technologies. Description: Any major advance in information technology is expensive to implement. This session will discuss what is already known of these costs. Implementors/suppliers, tool integrators, environment builders, and end users will all experience different cost/benefit relationships. Global politics plays an undeniable role in the race to move to these next generation systems. The U.S. with its traditional lead in these areas, a newly strengthened and united Europe and a cash rich Japan all vie for leadership as we lay the foundations for computing in the twentyfirst century. Session 7: Control Integration Presenters- full panel Objectives: * To understand the concepts of control integration. * To explain the technological problems of control integration. * To discuss various approaches to control integration. * To discover the importance of control integration to software process management. Description: Control integration is the complement of data integration. In a complex enterprise of numerous, distributed computers, there are always several things happening at once. Control integration is necessary to allow the coordination of these events, both automatically, and user assisted. For historical reasons, it is easier to reach agreement on the modeling and control of events than on the modeling and control of data. For this reason some groups have approached the overall integration business from the initial direction of control integration. Session 8: CIS/CFI Presenters- George Tatge and Paul Magelli Objectives: * To understand the principles and status of CIS * To understand the principles and status of CFI Description: CIS (CASE Integration Services) is an ad hoc industry effort to agree on some base level of framework integration technology. It is composed of systems vendors, tool vendors and end users. This brief presentation will explain a little of its history, its progress to date and its future plans. CFI (CAD Frameworks Initiative) is a large effort by the CAD community to do exactly the same level of integration as is being discussed in the CASE arena. This not for profit organization has over 60 corporate members. This presentation will discuss progress and status as well as point out similarities and differences to the CASE projects. Session 9: Granularity (tools and frameworks) Presenters- full panel Objectives: * To explain the issues revolving around granularity. * To discuss the desirability of tools becoming finer grained. * To discuss the pros and cons of component vs. monolithic frameworks. * To explore the possible impact of data granularity on tool and framework granularity. Description: There are two main issues under discussion here. Software tools have become extremely large entities over the past few years. Many believe that in order to achieve any significant integration, this trend must be reversed. We will hear several different sides of this issue. Frameworks, on the other hand are fairly new and there is little in the way of trends. It is important, however, to expose the arguments surrounding the nature of the framework itself. At one end, there is nothing more than a large set of libraries which may be used, or not as desired. At the other extreme, an entire, monolithic framework is provided in an "all or nothing" sense. Session 10: Summary/Wrapup Presenters- George Tatge/full panel Objectives: * To summarize the key points from the two days. * To wrapup any unresolved issues which were postponed. Description: It is no easy matter to cover this much ground in two short days. We hope to be able to recap the sessions in a concise and useful way as well as cleaning up the issues which necessarily fell through the cracks along the way.
gt@hpfcmgw.HP.COM (George Tatge) (01/14/90)
Just a reminder, this is the last week to sign up for this seminar. gt