Process-sensitive software engineering environments: an object-oriented view

An object-oriented model is proposed, designed as a collection of layered components, for process-sensitive software engineering environments (PSEEs). In the model, three types of object (process objects, entity objects and service objects) are identified to abstract and reflect the behaviour in different aspects of a PSEE. An overview of object interaction patterns, which reflects and captures the relationships between these types of object, is presented. To support software development process distribution and concurrency effectively, we introduce the actor (concurrent object) concept into process objects and entity objects, which allows transparent message passing between objects without concern for location and synchronisation