Evaluation of object oriented database support for software engineering environments

Software engineering environments (SEEs) are complex systems. In most cases they consist of multiple cooperating tools that operate on a shared database holding the system under development. To make these environments more flexible and their development somewhat easier, there is a growing interest in platform technology that provides the common facilities on which the tools can be based. Object-oriented database systems were introduced, among others, to address the data storage needs of complex application domains such as software engineering tools and environments. Besides new (object-oriented) data models they provide functionality such as versioning or long transactions, which could make them suitable candidates for a platform. This paper discusses a strategy for the evaluation of object-oriented databases as a platform for software engineering environments. A key element is the introduction of a generic environment model consisting of orthogonal services. Each software engineering environment can be viewed as a particular instance of this model. The services form the basis for a list of requirements for supporting technology. Translating the requirements into test cases and mapping these to actual systems allows validation of the suitability of these systems. Some experiences with using the approach in practice are discussed