An entire technology, computer aided software engineering (CASE), has been developed, marketed, and installed to increase productivity and quality in systems development. CASE is broadly defined as the application of computer technology to systems development activities, techniques and methodologies. Despite the potential gains offered by CASE, the technology has not proven to be the "silver bullet" anticipated early in its development. So why has it not been successful? / Current literature suggests that the real power of CASE technology is derived from the repository, where developers can store diagrams, descriptions, specifications, application programs, reusable code, and other working byproducts of systems development. The repository has been described as the "heart" of CASE technology, providing the majority of benefits that can be achieved by the technology. When viewed as managing project team memory, it can be envisioned as playing an important role in key activities that pervade the work of systems development teams such as knowledge acquisition, sharing, and integration. / This dissertation evaluates the importance of the repository and, to a lessor extent, the usage of a methodology in the adoption of CASE technology. It is believed that the benefits offered by the functions of CASE are predicated on a critical mass of knowledge pertinent to information systems development residing within the repository. The greater the depth and breadth of the knowledge domains residing within the repository, the higher the diffusion (spread of CASE throughout an organization) and infusion (comprehensive usage) of CASE technology and subsequently the benefits that can be achieved through the technology. / The research design for the study utilized surveys at two levels of analysis. Regression analysis on responses from 176 organizations strongly supports the proposition that diffusion within an organization is related to the extent of knowledge embedded within the repository. It was also found that systems development methodology's were often changed to support the implementation of CASE within an organization. Responses on 69 projects from organizations using a particular CASE product did not support the relationship between knowledge embeddedness and the infusion of CASE. Discussion of the results are given. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-01, Section: A, page: 0272. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77332 |
| Contributors | Purvis, Russell Lee., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 193 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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