Tool integration in lifecycle support environments

Two pragmatic requirements are placed on lifecycle support environments: (1) one must be able to integrate existing tools into the environment, and (2) the environment must possess an open-ended architecture. The approach must therefore consider the large number of tools that support various phases of a lifecycle. The diversity of such tools makes them hard to integrate into an environment such that they can operate in a coordinated manner and can communicate with each other. This paper provides a possible approach to the tool integration problem in which the environment architecture and user interface issues are also taken into account. It is shown herein that such an approach leads to a very general and powerful technique of integrating tools. Apart from being able to handle evolution both in the environment and in tools, the approach allows the enforcement of policies on tool invocation and on tool operation. * The author currently is on leave of absence from Ohio State University.