Component-Based Software (September 1995)

Design Maintenance System

Sponsor: Semantic Designs, Inc.

• Project Performance Period: 12/1/1995 - 11/30/1998
• Total project (est.): $2,130,934.00
• Requested ATP funds: $1,980,934.00

At least half of the $160 billion spent annually on software engineering in the United States goes into maintaining, or upgrading, existing software. This is largely a labor-intensive, invent-as-you-go exercise with little theory and virtually no standard tools for carrying out the tasks. Moreover, most of the critical knowledge about the problems and solutions that programmers used to write earlier versions of software is not passed on to designers or maintainers of subsequent versions. If successful, efforts to realize a more automated and more formal method of programming in which reusable software components are mechanically assembled into software products according to set protocols (as well as human judgments) provides a door to a new era of less inexpensive, less error-prone, and higher quality software maintenance. To realize this vision, Semantic Designs proposes to develop a Design Maintenance System (DMS), in which the software components and the programming reasoning behind their assembly into a complete software program are recorded in a formal design, and tools enable designers to incrementally revise that design, producing subsequent versions of software with incrementally enhanced features and capabilities. Since the quality and credibility of national defense, engineering design, commercial products, and services all depend upon up-to-date software, improved methods of software maintenance can have a wide-ranging positive impact on the U.S. economy. Web page: http://www.semdesigns.com

For project information:

Dr. Christopher Pidgeon, (512) 250-1018
info@semdesigns.com

ATP Project Manager

Barbara Cuthill, (301) 975-3273
barbara.cuthill@nist.gov