Traditional Issues ¶
Although there are various factors that cause discrepancies between design, implementation, and verification, the following issues are generally identified.
- Difficulty in checking the quality of design and implementation in large scale development.
- The relationship between the model on the tool and the software that actually works is weak.
- The design model is ideal, but there is no way to verify consistency with the implementation.
- Design information is not updated even though the design and implementation are completely different.
- Unable to ascertain the comprehensiveness of verification for the entire system.
- The end is not in sight due to the repetition of ad-hoc verification.
- There are systems that work, but the design details are unknown.
These are caused by the gradual loss of access to design information during the process of design, implementation, and verification.
In particular, if there is no feedback from verification to design in the implementation and verification process, where complex issues tend to arise, a gap between design and implementation is likely to occur.
Solution ¶
Ensuring consistency between design, implementation, and verification is one of the most important aspects of continuous software delivery.
With traditional methods, there is little direct relationship between design and implementation, and as a result, it is often unnoticed when deviations occur.
In recent years, test-driven development has become widespread in the software development field, and consistency between implementation and verification is now ensured.
EAUNIT provides a means to reflect the verification results in the design, thus constituting a feedback loop that can ensure consistency between design, implementation, and verification.
EAUNIT operates as a plug-in for Enterprise Architect, a model-based design tool that can organize the logic of design objects in a variety of representations.
The verification results output from the verification process are fed back to the design tool, and the integrated information is used to observe the system, enabling multifaceted decisions.