A process for consolidating and reusing design knowledge

• Published in: Proceedings of 1993 15th International Conference on Software Engineering pp. 231 - 242
• Main Authors: Arango, G., Shoen, E., Pettengill, R.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE Comput. Soc. Press 1993
• Subjects: Costs; Design engineering; Documentation; Information analysis; Knowledge management; Paper technology; Power engineering computing; Product design; Software systems
• ISBN: 9780818637001; 0818637005
• ISSN: 0270-5257
• DOI: 10.1109/ICSE.1993.346040

Significant improvements in design quality and productivity are possible when designers operate in a domain-specific information workspace with low-cost access to relevant application, design, and technology information. The authors present a validated process for constructing such workspaces to support product family design and evolution. The process involves three related efforts: techniques to consolidate critical analysis and design information from different projects and different engineering sites called domain analysis; online representation of the information in structured form called technology books; and methods and tools to reuse information. Each area is described, with the focus being on technology books. Technology books are object-oriented databases whose objects capture typed information about analyses, designs, and code in a variety of notations. Relations with well-defined semantics link objects; these can be used to navigate through the technology book, and to reason about the information it contains.< >