Although the idea of automating software development is by no
means new, it only really caught on in the mid-80s when computerised tools for
creating pictorial and text descriptions of information systems and storing and
manipulating them started to appear. This new technology was promptly named
CASE
(Computer-Aided/Assisted Systems/Software
Engineering), and the tools were accordingly called CASE tools.
To gain the full benefit of using CASE technology, it is
crucial to adopt a design method
, a tool that fully
supports it, and to follow the method as closely as possible. This way the
design documents get a standard appearance and content and are easy for other
developers, managers, and end users to understand. Also, maintenance becomes a
lot easier. This is true whether you use CASE for business modelling, for
supporting a structured method or for some object-oriented method.