Facilities to assist end-users in the process of systems analysis with computer-aided software engineering tools

The author explores some issues concerning the role that interdisciplinary groups may play in the use of computer-aided software engineering (CASE) technologies, by presenting a view of what CASE support for end-users might be. He discusses the place of these facilities in the development cycle. An experimental tool is reviewed that allows individual users to formulate elements of a problem and to describe some preliminary information requirements prior to and during the formal analysis process. A contribution of this preanalysis stage to the development process is to capture the terms of reference and original perceptions about the system from the users. The five components of the prototype, the supervisor, the dictionary, the analyzer, the human-computer interface standards, and the dialog manager, are outlined