Modeling concurrency in rule-based development environments

The problem of cooperative work in the software development domain is explored, and a solution that combines object-oriented programming with rule-based modeling is proposed. The solution divides the problem into three components: how to detect potential conflicts between developers´ concurrent activities, how to specify the consistency requirements of a project, and how to use the consistency specification to resolve potential conflicts. The focus is on the first component; the other two are merely sketched. The solution exploits recent advances in object-oriented databases, extended transaction models, and computer-supported cooperative work, all of which provide clues as to how to support cooperation while guaranteeing data consistency.<>