Knowledge in software life cycle

Nowadays, knowledge about design and implementation models of current version of software system and also knowledge about application domain of software system are important for software engineering processes related to design, management, maintenance and modification of software system. Utilization of proper knowledge can streamline and speed up each phase of software system life cycle and increase quality of outcome software and length of its operation. This paper briefly analyzes types of knowledge which could be utilized in software development and maintenance process and the ways how they can be acquired and stored. Proposed model-driven maintenance is based on utilization of knowledge acquired from abstract models of software system, which could be used as easy readable and understandable source of essential knowledge for maintenance process. The paper also analyzes the need of representing the knowledge about application domain in form of ontologies and the possibilities of using OMG specification of ontology definition metamodel as a basis for development of these ontologies.