This presentation discusses object-oriented databases, their position with respect to relational systems, and how to combine the best of both worlds.
Won Kim is the author or editor of several books on O-O databases , chairman of the ACM Special Interest Group on Management of Data, Editor-in-Chief of ACM Transactions on Database Systems and an ACM fellow. Dr Won Kim is the president of UniSQL Inc. and was previously director of the O-O and Distributed System Laboratory at the Microelectronics and Computer Corporation (MCC) where he was the chief architect of the Orion object-oriented database system.
This tutorial presents a general view of the O-O software life cycle. The design process can be viewed as a composition of "corporate objects" (modeling entities from the problem domain) and "technical objects" (modeling entities from the computer configuration, i.e. the means domain). This process is performed under the control of requirement scripts, a generalization of use cases, and follows generic composition patterns or frameworks. The general organization of the life cycle is defined and the following type of models identified: strategic, requirement, domain analysis, design, technical, test, metrics, formal specification, implementation, etc. Although these object-based models seems to emphasize seamlessness important incompatibilities exist between them. To capture their similarities, differences and various relationships the core formalism of sNets is introduced. Translation examples of conventional object formalisms into sNets are presented, showing how it builds up the kernel of an experimental environment, the OSMOSIS meta CASE. The tutorial starts with a brief description of O-O methods (OMT, OBJECTORY, FUSION, SYNTROPY, etc.) and concludes on how a metamodeling approach can be used to provide an initial ontology of O-O software concepts.
Jean Bezivin is professor of Computer Science at the University of Nantes (France). He participated in the launching of the ECOOP and the TOOLS conferences. He is currently leading a Master Program entirely devoted to O-O technology at the University of Nantes. His present research interests deal with software engineering, concurrency, simulation and object models.
Many of the problems with software project management can be attributed to poor design - not only of the product being developed, but of the project itself as well. This tutorial examines the current practices of software product development, with an eye toward system design (where the project is the system), and identifies key ingredients which combine to help make development projects more successful.
Roger F. Osmond is a management and technology consultant specializing in object technology issues. He is founder of Amalasoft, an object- oriented software products and services company in Littleton, MA. Prior to founding Amalasoft, he spent many years in industry developing software and managing development projects.
A broad spectrum of organizations are facing the challenge of moving toward object-oriented technology with their own culture, know-how and past software engineering practices. Consultancy is an effective way to smooth the O-O migration and steer the development process in the right direction. The presentation stresses who an O-O consultant is: a technical leader, an ever- ready advisor, a risk reductor and a diplomatic evangelist.
Jean-Marc Nerson is Managing Director of Societe des Outils du Logiciel (Paris) and consults on large scale O-O projects worldwide with Fortune 500 companies. He co-authored with Kim Walden ``Seamless O-O Software Architecture: The Analysis & Design of Reliable Systems' (Prentice-Hall, 1995)
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