Rapid Development with Oracle CASE(R): A Workshop Approach - Softcover

Billings, Chris; Billings, Maria

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0201633442 ISBN 13: 9780201633443

Publisher: Addison-Wesley, 1993

Synopsis

Take the "fastpath" to understanding CASE products and maximizing their utility and benefits!
Here is a book that combines the power of CASE (Computer-Aided Systems Engineering) with the benefits of expert consulting, all effectively formatted to achieve rapid results in a workshop environment. Information Systems (IS) professionals can see how CASE Workshops are used to provide a fast, hands-on approach to mastering CASE applications.
Join the authors as they apply CASE to a ten-day workshop project - building a sample information system for "Karl's Vineyard and Winery." Learn how sophisticated CASE tools such as CASE Designer and CASE Dictionary are applied to large-scale IS projects. Part methods tutorial, part project management advisor, part CASE reference cheat-sheet, Rapid Development with Oracle CASE puts the essentials into the hands of any reader about to embark on a pilot CASE project.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

This is a book about means-both manual and computerized-for managing the increasingly complex process of developing application software, especially in an ORACLE environment. Such methods and tools are generically classified under the heading of CASE: Computer-Aided systems (or Software) Engineering. CASE tools are now available in a perplexing array of shapes and sizes, and the term 'CASE' has become one of the primary buzz-words in the world of information systems (IS) development. These last two facts point to a third: that the IS industry is trying to cope with totally unprecedented rates of change in both hardware and software technology as well as in the ever more sophisticated ways that organizations choose to apply those advances. As a result, the effective use of CASE methods and tools to optimize the benefits of these changes has become critical.

Oracle Corporation is now the third largest software company in the world. This remarkable feat has been accomplished in part because Oracle chose, many years ago, to develop a relational database management system (RDBMS) that would operate on virtually every significant hardware platform in the world. And they have succeeded.

Many large organizations now find themselves with computer systems from a variety of manufacturers, all containing their own databases and, usually, their own data formats that are practically inaccessible to one another. Oracle's RDBMS and connectivity tools integrate those different systems and make their collective data accessible to users across the entire enterprise. Additionally, Oracle provides state-of-the-art application development tools for optimizing the use of this integrated information, now combined as the Cooperative Development Environment (CDE).

Taking into account Oracle's achievements in mastering the labyrinthine complexities of data and process integration, it's no surprise that their CASE tools are of a corresponding quality. In face, Oracle's CASE is so powerful and so comprehensive that these attributes actually lead to a peculiar problem.

Organizations often acquire integrated CASE toolsets with dreams of streamlined, centrally controlled IS development based on accurate models of data and processes along with automatic, repository driven systems generation. Then they discover how much expertise is required right at the outset-that they need analysts who understand the methods behind the tools and can form a strategy for their proper use. As a result, CASE tools are frequently underutilized, mishandled, or simply left on the shelf. Worse, the truly remarkable benefits of CASE are lost and systems continue to go into production below standard.

As CASE consultants, we've been observing this unfortunate scenario for some time. Oracle Corporation's CASE*Workshop concept was the basis upon which we began formulating our own workshop approach-specifically with the aim of providing a rapid technology transfer to clients, along with a working application that could spur interest in and commitment to more extensive use of CASE by their organization.

To do this, we needed to carry the workshop idea a step further. Rather than using standardized system specifications as a basis on which to apply the methods and tools, we wanted to speak with the client beforehand and select a functional area of their enterprise that could be taken from analysis through implementation, ideally in the course of a two-week workshop. Besides allowing participants to work with Oracle's CASE tools in a framework of familiar processes and information requirements, this method would also deliver a sample database and application specific to their needs.

This book is a result of developing and refining the CASE workshop concept. It can be used by consultants as a model for carrying out their own workshops. But perhaps more importantly, it can serve as a fastpath tour through Oracle's CASE tools, showing step by step what actually has to be done to get the most out of these products. We sincerely hope that the book proves as useful for others to read as it has been for us to think about and to write.

We are very grateful to Renee Taylor for her investment of valuable time and support to our project. We would also like to thank our technical editors, especially Liz Johnson and Vicki Morris, both from the Oracle CASE USA staff, for their highly professional contributions, which have significantly added to the quality of this book.

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From the Back Cover:

0201633442B04062001

About this edition

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0201633442
• ISBN 13: 9780201633443
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 129