UpperCASE Tool

Definition

UpperCASE Tool

a Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) software tool that supports the software development activities upstream from implementation

Classification

As illustrated in the preceding figure, UpperCASE Tool is part of the following inheritance hierarchy:

• Type: Concrete
• Superclass: Tool
• Subclasses:
  • Metrics Tools (design and progress metrics)
  • Requirements Management Tools (e.g., CaliberRM, DOORS, Requisite Pro)
  • Drawing Tools (e.g., Visio)
  • Database Design Tools
  • Software Modeling Tools (e.g., Rose)
  • Design Documentation Tools (e.g., Javadoc)
  • Forward Engineering Tools (Code Generators)

Responsibilities

The typical responsibilities of an UpperCASE Tool are to support the following tasks:

• Requirements Engineering:
  • Application Visioning
  • Requirements Reuse
  • Requirements Identification
  • Requirements Analysis
  • Requirements Specification
• Architecting:
  • Architecture Reuse
  • Architectural Patterns Selection
  • Logical Architecture Production
  • Physical Architecture Production
  • Architectural Mechanism Production
  • Architecture Prototyping
  • Architecture Documentation
  • Architecture Integrity Assurance
• Design:
  • Design Production
  • Design Refactoring
  • Design Reuse
  • Design Documentation

Guidelines

• For forward and reverse engineering, it is useful to have the upperCASE and lowerCASE tools are integrated.
• The distinction between upperCASE and lowerCASE tools can blur when you consider Javadoc and tools that automatically generate software source code form design models.