Transferring Software Engineering Tool Technology

This book was written primarily for all those DTP users and programmers who want to keep up with the rapid development of electronic publishing, particular those who wish to develop new systems for the output of typefaces. In this volume, various formats are presented, their properties discussed and production requirements analyzed. Appendices provide readers additional information, largely on digital formats for typeface storage.

The primary aim for this book is to gather and collate articles which represent the best and latest thinking in the domain of technology transfer, from research, academia and practice around the world. We envisage that the book will, as a result of this, represent an important source of knowledge in this domain to students (undergraduate and postgraduate), researchers, practitioners and consultants, chiefly in the software engineering and IT/industries, but also in management and other organisational and social disciplines. An important aspect of the book is the role that reflective practitioners (and not just academics) play. They will be involved in the production, and evaluation of contributions, as well as in the design and delivery of conference events, upon which of course, the book will be based.

An effective systems development and design process is far easier to explain than it is to implement. A framework is needed that organizes the life cycle activities that form the process. This framework is Configuration Management (CM). Software Configuration Management discusses the framework from a standards viewpoint, using the original

Covers recent developments in software technology transition. The book includes guidelines on making the transition to software engineering, emphasizing elements and timing. Also covered are the management of change of languages, computer systems, data storage, life cycles and applications.

Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools typically support individual users in the automation of a set of tasks within a software development process. Such tools have helped organizations in their efforts to develop better software within budget and time constraints. However, many organizations are failing to take full advantage of CASE technology as they struggle to make coordinated use of collections of tools, often obtained at different times from different vendors. This book provides an in-depth analysis of the CASE tool integration problem, and describes practical approaches that can be used with current CASE technology to help your organization take greater advantage of integrated CASE.

It. is well known that t.he introduction of a new technology in one organization not always produces the intended benefits (Levine, 1994). In many cases, either the receivers do not reach the intended level of use or simply the technology is rejected because it does not match with the expectations (true or false) and the accepted psychological effort to use it. The case of formal methods is a paradigmatic example of continual failures. The published cases with problems or failures only constitute the visible part of a large iceberg of adoption cases. It. is difficult to get companies to openly express the problems they had; however, from the experience of the author, failure cases are very common and they include any type of company. Many reasons to explain the failures (and in some cases the successes) could be postulated; however, the experiences are not structured enough and it is difficult to extract from them useful guidelines for avoiding future problems. Generally speaking, there is a trend to find the root of the problems in the technol ogy itself and in its adequacy with the preexistent technological context. Technocratic technology transfer models describe the problems in terms of these aspects. Although it is true that those factors limit the probability of success, there is another source of explanations linked to the individuals and working teams and how they perceive the technology.