Computer-aided software engineering, which is abbreviated as CASE, refers to tools employed in the development of information systems (Rock, 1990). In other words, these tools are used to engineer efficient and maintainable software products. First, to use CASE tools effectively, it is paramount to assemble all the necessary tools. Second, it is essential to have a decent layout that necessitates easy access to and use of those tools. Third, handling CASE tools requires a skilled person. CASE tools fall under two distinct categories: upper and lower.
Those which are found in the upper category include specification, requirement, design, and planning. On the other hand, those which fall under the lower category are integration, implementation, and maintenance (Maxim, 2010).
CASE tools are anchored on various building blocks. The first building block is the integration framework. These are advanced tools that enhance communication between CASE tools. Portability services form the second building block. In this case, integration framework and CASE tools are made to be portable meaning they are compatible with various hardware and operating systems. Operating systems, hardware platforms, and environmental architecture form the third, fourth, and fifth building blocks. Operating systems allow for object and database management while the fifth building block necessitates hardware and systems support (Maxim, 2010). On a broader scale, the nomenclature of CASE tools cuts across various components such as business systems planning, support, and project management. Others include framework, programming, re-engineering, simulation tools, as well as integration, testing, analysis, and design (Rock-Evans, 1990).
The current project seeks to improve the registration process of students. A closer look at the above tools shows that the current project will be dependent on both, upper and lower CASE tools. The specification will be of significant importance because students will be expected to log in to their accounts using unique usernames and passwords. In addition, the integration will be of essential help. It will be useful to integrate data from various sources or databases if the registration system has to work efficiently. In addition, the system has to be flexible to allow for easy maintenance, re-engineering, and most importantly, implementation.
Other tools, like support, will be of an added advantage. Should the end-users (students) of the registration system require assistance, the system must offer alternatives promptly. Support services such as retrieval of login data or change of personal information should be easily accessible. The inclusion of these tools will ensure that the time cycle is reduced and, at the same time, enhances the quality of the system. Another approach that is worth mentioning is system validation. This can be done in four steps. First, there must be reviews of the requirements. This allows for manual evaluation of system requirements. Second, prototyping must be employed. This approach employs executable models of the system to analyze requirements. Third, it will be essential to utilize test-case generation. This strategy necessitates the generation of tests requirements. Finally, automated consistency analysis must be employed to evaluate how consistent the system is and, at the same time, offer suggestions for improvement.
To ensure that students are enrolled in the correct classrooms, controls such as students’ admission numbers and the generation of unique student registration codes will be required. Students will be expected to enter a unique code sent to their phone numbers and e-mail addresses to validate their identity. Furthermore, it will be important to employ various security controls to reduce misuse of the system. For instance, students will have only three chances of logging in within 24 hours; if all the three have been used in a day, the student will be asked to log in again in 24 hours. In addition, the registration system will only be functional at a stated period. Upon the expiry of the registration window, the system will become non-functional.
To make the system user friendly, particularly to non-specialized users such as interns, it would be necessary to provide avenues for sharing system data, allow easy access to important tools of the system, necessitate traceable changes to various items in the system, and install version control, as well as, overall configuration management. It will also be helpful to create an automated support system that allows for easy integration of SCI’s and CASE tools into a uniform breakdown structure (Maxim, 2010).
In summary, this report has defined CASE tools and discussed their relevance to the current project, which aims at developing a registration system. As noted earlier, CASE tools are employed in the development of information systems. They occur in two categories: upper and lower. The current project seeks to improve the registration process of students. A closer look at the above tools indicates that the current project will be dependent on both upper and lower CASE tools. Since there are interns attached to the project, it would be necessary to provide avenues for sharing not only system data and allowing easy access to important tools of the system, but also necessitating traceable changes to various items in the system and configuration management.
References
Maxim, B. R. (2010). CASE Tools. Dearborn, Michigan: University of Dearborn Michigan Press.
Rock-Evans, R. (1990). Case Analyst Workbenches: A Detailed Product Evaluation. Ovum, London: ACM Digital Library.