WARP : speeding up the software development process
José Filipe Barbosa de Carvalho · 2008
Nowadays business operations happen very fast and they are really complex, so almost every organization supports its activities using information systems and other technological instruments. Because sometimes there are no final products that fit their needs, it is common that companies are enrolled in software development activities. The complexity and abstract character of software implies new challenges for these enterprises. The success of software development process is determined by several factors, for example the value created by the product, technical difficulties, team skills or communication between stakeholders. If the organization adopts an organized process, choosing the correct methodologies and tools to support it, we can speed up it and, at the same time improve its quality. This project is all about improving the software development process, looking for three activities that improve communication: business modeling, object-relational mapping and prototyping user interfaces. Business modeling is a complex activity, involving the knowledge of problem domain and some technological background. However their common outputs, texts and visual diagrams, are usually informal and ambiguous. WARP solution proposes developing formal and executable business models, using an object-oriented programming language. These models are testable and can be reused in following development stages. Most of business entities have a long life, requiring that their knowledge and data must be safely saved. Object-relational mapping software helps the developer in the implementation of persistency concerns, decreasing the effort to connect relational schemas and objects. Prototyping user interfaces provides earlier discussion with clients about concrete things, which would detect fails on requirements or on system design. Moreover, nowadays there are methods for automatic generation of user interfaces from models, which increase significantly the developer’s productivity. The WARP project studies current techniques and tools associated with these three activities, choosing an approach to be integrated in current software development processes. Finally this approach is applied in the development of Equipment Database, a product that solves a Qimonda’s specific problem, to evaluate its applicability in real projects.