Re: Case Tools

In article <jdennisCw126L.6qz@netcom.com>, jdennis@netcom.com (John Dennis) writes: |> |> My company is a small company quickly turning into a large one. We have |> no case tool or methodolgy in place. Our current "case tool" is ERWin |> and MS-Word. Not pretty! We are looking at IDE's Software through Pictures. |> I was wondering if: |> |> 1) anyone has had postive or negative experience with this |> case tool? and |> |> 2) if there was some other case tool that we might consider? |> |> Specs: |> |> * We use ORACLE, SYBASE and INFORMIX (Erwin supports all of these) |> |> * We use several front-end tools like SQL-Windows, |> Powerbuilder and Motif. |> I have used StP on two projects. It was selected because it was one of the few CASE tools at the time that ran on the boxes we were developing on (VAX/VMS and SGI), and it supported all the phases of analysis and design. Though we were a beta site on the first project (VMS), always a painful experience, we were able to accomplish our goal of doing software and database design and generate contract deliverable design documents using StP. The latter issue is something that has become a key issue for me when evaluating CASE tools. So many these days provide good interfaces, support a wide range of notations, have repositories for DFD's, ERD's, structure charts, etc., for checking, generates SQL code (for all/most of major DBMS products) and data structure code, and more. But I find many CASE tools require that once I have done all that work in designing my database, I go to another tool to capture/export that information to generate my design document. StP has/had a documentation subsystem with it's own scripting language so we could generate custom design documents. And their Tech Support was pretty helpful in using that less-than-intuitive language. IMHO, StP is a good CASE tool. It's been a couple of years since I used it and I'm sure it has changed since I used it. One thing I was asking about, that they indicated was in the works, was for them to move away from their proprietary database/repository and use an SQL-based database. I don't know if that ever came about, but if it did, lucky you. FYI, if you are also considering PC-based tools, you might want to take a look a System Architect by Popkin Software. I was evaluating PC tools last year and was pretty impressed with what I saw. It was the only one I found on PC's that didn't require me to use a word processor for my design document. Again, their Tech Support staff was very helpful during my evaluation process in developing a quick script to generate a database design document from their respository -- I wanted to make sure I could do it before I recommended the product for purchase. It could. Teresa Larson +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+ | Teresa A. Larson - Hughes STX Corporation | | NASA/GSFC Code 933.0 voice: (301) 286-7867 | | Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 fax: (301) 286-1777 | | Teresa.Larson@gsfc.nasa.gov | +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+ Standard disclaimer ...