UNIFIED METHODOLOGY AND TOOLSET

The Navy develops some of the largest, most complex information processing systems in the word. To facilitate system analysis and development, CASE tools are often used. However, a significant limitation of current CASE tool methods is the capturing of just a few perspectives of a system under development while ignoring other relevant information. Each mehtod supported by the tools also tends to be very different and incomplete, covering only one specific view of the system. The Unified Methodology and Toolset (UMT), an innovative solution to this problem, combines the many differents views of a system into a single, consistent information model. The UMT captures different system perspectives by combining a set of methods into a single methodological framework. The framework categorizes the methods to determine the kinds of information collected or omitted. Comprising the framework are a small number of generalized representations modelling the system under development. By storing the information in a centralized database, information ommitted by one method is obtained through other methods. Each peice of information is stored only once within the framework, thus maintaining consistency between methods. Phase I will document the requirements and design of the UMT, demonstrate feasibility, and prototype risk areas.