Johannes Sametinger: DOgMA: A Tool for the DOcumentation & MAintenance of Software Systems, Verband der wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaften Österreichs (VWGÖ), ISBN 3-85369-868-9, Wien 1992.
It is very often necessary to correct faults in software systems, make them usable in changed environments, or improve their quality (e.g., performance). This activity is called software maintenance and is usually done by people other than those who developed a software system. Software maintenance requires detailed documentation and the possibility to attain an overview of the system structure, the interaction of the various components, and the effects of changes.
This report describes the results of a research project in the area of documentation and maintenance whose main focus was to combine state-of-the-art methodologies in a new tool (DOgMA) to improve the support of documentation and maintenance activities. Additional goals were to identify major problems in the field, to determine possible improvements, to investigate how these improvements are supported by tools, to summarize deficiencies of existing tools, and to ameliorate these deficiencies in the design of a new tool.
After a short discussion of the role of documentation and maintenance in the software life cycle, a detailed compilation and definition of terms used is given. Subsequently an outline of the state of the art is described and evaluated. Based on these perceptions, requirements on a documentation and maintenance tool were developed along with concepts for their solution. The resulting tool, DOgMA, serves as a contribution to the improvement of the documentation and maintenance process. A comparison with similar tools and an examination to what extent the goals have been achieved concludes the report.
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