InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
November 10, 1997
Component Modeling With Riverton's How
Tool links business rules to applicationsBy Rich Levin
How 1.2 integrates with Sybase's forthcoming PowerBuilder 6.0 rapid-development tool and provides a "use-case builder" that programming teams use to describe business processes in a straightforward manner. The use-cases become hyperlinked front ends to distributed application components, which form the basis for fully functional PowerBuilder applications.
Use-cases are a common means for IT shops to document how users actually work. However, until now they were decoupled from the code-buil
ding tools.
"All that you really have [in the use-case builder] is text," says Sandy Barletta, a system architect with SBT Accounting Systems in San Rafael, Calif. "But now [Riverton's] use-case is part of the tool and hyperlinks are actually objects backing the words up."
Introducing simple English as the basis for an application foundation has obvious communication benefits but presents some development wrinkles. "When writing a use-case, you interview users and jot down how they do their job, or what functionality they need," says Sufian Abu, lead technical consultant with First Bank Systems Inc. in St. Paul, Minn. "Then you go through the case. Nouns become classes, and verbs become methods or business rules."
Developers using How say they find greater opportunities for component reuse by locating redundant business processes in use-case scenarios, as opposed to using object browsers to find code snippets.
"I can create requirements patterns, which are reusable requirements," Abu explains.
"When users want to apply certain kinds of common rules-say, adding an employee or customer-that's all generic, and we can link it to the same rule that was used to add an employee in another use-case, all in plain English."
How includes a business application framework, OpenFrame, that lets developers build applications that automatically partition themselves into presentation, business logic, and data-access tiers.
Analysts say How is a practical solution for PowerBuilder developers. "They really spent the time to understand how developers and business users need to interact," says Liz Barnett, a VP with Giga Information Group in Stamford, Conn. "The perspective is very different."
Riverton says future releases of How will add support for Visual Basic and Java code generation. Sybase will bundle a light version of How with the forthcoming PowerBuilder 6.0. A beta version of the new 1.2 release is available for download by registered PowerBuilder 6.0 beta users through the PowerBuilder 6.0 Devel
oper
Resources page
.
Riverton's How 1.2 will be available this month, and will be priced at $2,495.
omeday, development teams will work with business managers to hammer out application requirements in plain English. Gone will be talk of objects, architectures, models, and data fields. Riverton Software Corp. is moving in this direction. The company recently announced How 1.2, a significant upgrade of its component modeling solution for PowerBuilder.
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