Process Model for Round-trip Engineering with Relational Database

Abstract

Iterative and incremental development of client/server database systems requires a round-trip engineering support, in particular in a design-implementation cycle. This paper identifies some more difficult round-trip engineering scenarios and defines processes needed to handle those scenarios. The processes conform to the current state-of-the-practice in forward and reverse engineering with relational databases. The paper identifies limitations of a tool-driven round-trip engineering. The limitations can be linked to three reasons: (1) the inability of a CASE/4GL tool to always generate correct incremental code after schema has been changed, (2) the need for a CASE/4GL to understand the reverse-engineered procedural parts written (or modified) in the implementation phase, (3) the requirement that a database content (extension) be re-instated at the end of each design-implementation cycle. Technical limitations introduce a risk that design models and a database implementation become misaligned and the design-implementation cycle cannot be continued for iterative and incremental software production. Project managers need a process model to impose necessary rigour on design and programming teams to alleviate technical restrictions. The paper defines a project management strategy that enforces appropriate automated and manual processes on database development teams.