A structured approach to the evaluation and selection of CASE tools

Abstract

This paper illustrates an evaluation and selection methodology for CASE software or CASE tools. The methodology' incorporates three stages 1) CASE software acreenin~2) CASE tool evaluation; and, 3) assurance of final CASE software selection. Initially, developing a short list through screening of commercial CASE ptuducta determines whether appropriate tools exist and narrows the field of available CASE software products for detailed conaideralion. The second stage determines which of the remaining products (the finalists) beat meets the needs of the organization, from both functional and technical perspectives.Tle final stage compares user requitvmenta with the features of the selecied CASE software by defining how these requirements will be satisfied by building system application with the selected prrxluct. The methodology also conaidera the pmsaibility that, at any stage of the process, no single CASE product is suitable and that a combination of products must be utilized.

Framework for evaluation and selection of the software packages: A hybrid knowledge based system approach

“…Methodology is not intended as rigid structure, it is intended as guideline or aid that can be adapted according to requirements of the individual organization. On the basis of review of literature we have developed a generic stage based methodology for selection of the software packages which comprises six stages as follows: Jarkee and Vassiliou (1985) Database query language Yes No Yes Reimann and Waren (1985) DSS software Yes No No Shtub et al (1988) Operations management software Yes No Yes Toshtzar (1988) Computer software Yes No Yes Blanc and Jelassi (1989) DSS software Yes Yes Yes Arditi and Singh (1991) Software in constructing accounting Yes No No Blanc and Korn (1992) CASE tools Yes Yes No Stylianou et al (1992) Expert system shell Yes Yes No Plessis (1993) CASE tool Yes No Yes Chau (1995) Software in small businesses Yes No No Hlupic and Paul (1996) Manufacturing simulation software Yes Yes No Kontio et al (1996) COTS selection Yes Yes Yes Kiper et al (1997) Visual programming language Yes No Yes Nikoukaran et al (1998) Simulation software Yes No No Collier et al (1999) Data mining software Yes Yes Yes Lai et al (1999) Multimedia authoring system Yes No Yes Ossadnik and Lange (1999) AHP software Yes No Yes Illa et al (2000) ERP Yes Yes No Patel and Hlupic (2002) Knowledge management tool Yes Yes No Tewoldeberhan et al (2002) Discrete-event simulation Yes Yes Yes Adhikari et al (2004) International accounting software Yes No No Colombo and Francalanci (2004) CRM packages Yes Yes Yes Cochran and Chen (2005) Object oriented simulation software Yes No Yes Ngai and Chan (2005) Knowledge management tools Yes No Yes Kitchenham (1996) Software engineering methods and tools Yes Yes Yes Ochs et al (2001) COTS Assessment and Selection Yes Yes Yes 1. Requirement definition: The first and most important phase in software selection process is to identify functional and non functional requirements of the software.…”

“…• evaluation and selection of specific software products such as CASE tool (Blanc and Korn, 1992;Plessis, 1993), simulation software (Cochran and Chen, 2005;Hlupic and Paul, 1996;Nikoukaran et al, 1998;Tewoldeberhan et al, 2002), DSS software (Blanc and Jelassi, 1989;Reimann and Waren, 1985), AHP software (Ossadnik and Lange, 1999), knowledge management tool (Ngai and Chan, 2005;Patel and Hlupic, 2002), data mining software (Collier et al, 1999), visual programming language (Kiper et al, 1997), ERP package (Illa et al, 2000), CRM package (Colombo and Francalanci, 2004), expert system shell (Stylianou et al, 1992), and operations management software (Shtub et al, 1988) • methodology for software selection (Blanc and Korn, 1992;Hlupic and Paul, 1996) • criteria for software selection (Arditi and Singh, 1991;Chau, 1995;Reed, 1982;Reimann and Waren, 1985;Stylianou et al, 1992) • automated systems/tools that assist decision makers in various activities involved in evaluating and selecting software packages (Bandini et al, 2001;Grau et al, 2004;Hlupic and Mann, 1995;Kathuria et al, 1999;Mohamed et al, 2004;Vlahavas et al, 1999) • evaluation of single software attribute, quality or some quality sub-attributes, for a software product (Franch and Carvallo, 2003) • an empirical study aimed at comparing two tool supported requirements prioritization methods AHP and case-based ranking (CBRank). The comparison is based on three measures: the ease of use, the time consumption, and accuracy.…”

Evaluating and selecting software packages: A review

“…concentrate on evaluation and selection of specific software products such as CASE tools [6,38,53], simulation software [10,19,[44][45][46]66], DSS software [7,55], AHP software [49], knowledge management tools [47,50], data mining software [11], visual programming languages [26], ERP packages [21], CRM packages [12], expert system shells [64], and operations management software [61] describe automated systems/tools that assist decision makers in various activities involved in software evaluation and selection [4,17,20,23,39,70] describe only criteria for software selection [3,9,54,55,64], and methodology for software selection [2,6,19] relate to the evaluation of a single software attribute, quality or some quality sub-attribute, for a software product [15,16].…”

Recommendation-Based Component Selection for Component-Based Systems

“…A methodology depicts the sequence of steps that can be pursued in order to attain a solution. Methodology generalized the way towards reaching the solution, but should not be rigid [23]. Depending upon the preference of decision-maker and organizational requirements, a methodology can be customized.…”