CORDIS Archive : 22933 DEADA

ESPRIT PROJECT - 22933 DEADA
Development Environment for DBS Applications Based on the Document Approach

Keywords: RTD project.
Technical - distributed heterogenous DB, DBMS, interoperability.
Sector - IT industry, public administration.

The primary objective of DEADA (ESPRIT 22933) is the production of a development environment for DBS applications based on the document centred approach and OO paradigms, covering the design, the construction and the operational phases, and dealing with challenges posed by open systems, performance, and interoperability of distributed heterogeneous DB systems.

This DEADA's development environment will be the end result of the project, and it will be composed of the appropriate componentware for each of the software process phases :

Coverage of the Application Design Phase, by approaching the definition of business requirements, the definition of document objects and the implied workflow circuits, and the definition of data model;
Coverage of the Construction Phase, by developing a set of tools to implement : the OO document approach, security and audits rules enforcement, maintenance of information, easy integration with legacy systems, fully integration with the design, and workflow management;
Coverage of the Construction Phase, by developing a set of components to perform monitoring in a distributed environment, to visualise the system behaviour, and to perform system administration.

The technical approach is the development of a set of IT components interoperating on different platforms, DBMSs, and networks. The architectural model to be followed will be a client/server one.

In order to meet the objectives, the consortium includes:

two representative users such as SOLLAC (metallurgy group) and IMAS (Barcelona City Council health-care organisation) aiming at downsizing their applications through client/server models. Both are huge companies with strong IS needs and will be in charge of providing user requirements and developing applications pilots with the DEADA technology.
Centro de Cálculo de Sabadell (CSS, a leading software engineering company located in Spain) as main industrial supplier. CSS must update its basic DB application development software in order to cope with new technologies and to meet the demand of its 12,000 customers.
O2 Technology (O2 T) as a developing SME mainly responsible for the document oriented TP monitor, providing technology in the OODB Management,
University of Lancaster as a research partner mainly in charge of a requirements analyser.

The business impact of using this integrated environment is represented by a significant increase in software development productivity, quality of the final product and end-user satisfaction, and a major decrease of the maintenance costs. Other impacts of DEADA will be a lower time-to-market and payback-period of company products, and a greater adaptation of developers to changes. DEADA will offer interesting opportunities to new markets and products and it will benefit both the EU software developing community and the end users having a medium to large IS infrastructure.

The technology will be marketed in the EU by the CCS group. DEADA will be of great value for CCS since it will allow CCS to enter the rightsizing market, and will deliver competitive advantage to its core business, i.e. the DB applications market. Moreover, the involvement of EU users in the project and the foreseen commercial agreement with O2 represent additional assets. DEADA will disseminate its results through workshops, the publication of papers, and the organisation of a partner network.

Contact Point

Mr. Joan Canal
CCS
S-Avdsa. Castell de Barberá, 22-24
E-08210 Barcelona
tel + 34 3 718 16 99
fax + 34 3 718 34 51
E-mail: jcanal@bcn.ccs.es