Model-Based Development: Applications

Introduction

History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.

—James Joyce

Four decades ago a program of a million lines was regarded as huge, reserved for only the most massive mainframe systems in the bowels of the Department of Defense (DoD¹). It was routinely estimated that to build such programs would require 1,000 engineers working for a decade. Today most of the applications on a PC are well over a million lines, and many are in the 10 million range. Moreover, they are expected to be built in a couple of years or less. So programs are growing ever larger while clients expect them to be developed with less effort.

In today’s high-tech society rapid obsolescence is routine, and the economic model of the firm emphasizes growth ...