6533b820fe1ef96bd12799bf

RESEARCH PRODUCT

CASE tool support for co-operative work in information systems design

subject

description

The need for asynchronous co-operative work in design is shown by many surveys of CASE tool use and research on design. MetaEdit+ is a metaCASE environment that allows multiple simultaneous modellers to work together on designing information systems and also information systems design methods. We describe the automatic locking strategies that enable MetaEdit+ to offer a high level of concurrency whilst guaranteeing consistency, enabling effective co-operative work. In particular we describe a new collection data structure that allows high concurrency of updates even at small sizes, fulfilling the need in CASE for largest growth of design information at the start of a project. Finally, we evaluate MetaEdit+’s collaboration support and performance as teamware, comparing it with several CASE tools.