CASE tools
1980s…
Upper CASE tools: support for the analysis and design
Lower CASE tools: support for construction and maintenance
Nowadays…
Integrated CASE tools:
Offer extensive life cycle coverage
CASE tools: Automated Diagram
Support
 Checks for syntactic correctness
 Data dictionary support
 Checks for consistency and completeness
 Navigation to linked diagrams
 Layering
 Requirements traceability
 Automatic report generation
 System simulation
 Performance analysis
CASE tools: Software
construction and maintenance
 Code generators
…Generate code from the design model…
Think of the advantages!
…may also generate database schemata…
 Maintenance tools
 Reverse Engineering
 Analysis of program code
CASE tools: Advantages
 Help standardization of notations and diagrams
 Help communication between development team members
 Automatically check the quality of the A&D models
 Reduction of time and effort
 Enhance reuse of models or models’ components
CASE tools: Disadvantages
• Limitations in flexibility of documentation
• May lead to restriction to the tool’s capabilities
• Major danger: completeness and syntactic correctness
does NOT mean compliance with requirements
• Costs associated with the use of the tool: purchase +
training
UML: History and
Brief Summary (1/2)
Adoption of the OO paradigm … problematic
Emergence of UML as a methods’ unification approach
UML: An OMG standard since 1997…
Under way to become an ISO standard!
UML notation: a melding of graphical notations
from various sources.
+ other concepts…
UML: History and
Brief Summary (2/2)
UML: A method or a notation?
Modeling method: techniques + guidelines + notations 
roadmap for the development of a model
Primarily a notation
However, there are attempts to describe OO methods
or methodological frameworks that would be able to employ UML.
1. The Rational Unified Process
2. The Object-oriented Process, Environment and Notation (OPEN)