Original Date: 11/03/1996
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

The Oak Ridge Y-12 plant has been building, developing and applying a set of Integrated Computer Aided Software Engineering (I-CASE) tools since 1988. These tools were acquired to help reduce long lead times for application development and the high cost of eliminating errors late in development or after the system is in operation. I-CASE is a set of integrated software engineering tools that, depending on the application, can be multi-functional from a single vendor or from multiple vendors with standardized translation mechanisms. The tools reside in a host repository or encyclopedia, and are applied through the developers' workstations using procedures and methods developed by Y-12 personnel. This technology is being applied to internal applications within Y-12 and in the Work- for-Others (WFO) Program.

Numerous applications in the WFO Program have produced substantial results. Many of these involve reverse engineering of existing code for re-use in other applications, accelerating the development process by adapting proven designs. Without the use of I-CASE tools, reverse engineering would be a difficult and tedious manual process. A principal tool has been the Texas Instruments Information Engineering Facility tool which supports the information engineering methodology used at Y-12. Benefits for customers in the WFO Program include: increased productivity; greater user satisfaction; lower maintenance costs and software re-use; better management of resources; and enhanced documentation. Internally, Y-12 has recently begun eight Information Engineering Facility projects. Several are currently in production with most in the business system implementation phases. Extensive training in information engineering methods and tools has been conducted.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.