computing professional - australian computer … · recognising a new paradigm has been that...

PROFESSIONAL

COMPUTINGTHE MAGAZINE OF THE AUSTRALIAN COMPUTER SOCIETY

Oracle SolutionsFEBRUARY 1992

ClientPartnerships

Open Family of Portable

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Comprehensive T echnology

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Quality Information Management Solutions for a Changing World

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Speak upA

NEW year has begun for Professional Computing; for your editor a year of finding for the magazine a position in the industry’s literature which will meet the needs of the various stakeholders.

As companies have responsibilities extending beyond shareholders and employees to include users of their products and services, suppliers and the communities in which they operate, so must this magazine be much more than an occasional communique from the Society to members; it must grow to really serve the stakeholders appropriate to a truly professional body.

There is a spectrum of responsibilities which comes with being a “professional”. Perhaps the first and most basic is to be accepted as able to do a job with competance. Then, not in any ranking, come research into new technologies, teaching, producing and using the tools of the technologies, showing how they can be used, how they can best serve the community and so on.

It follows, that if a body such as the ACS is to be seen as truly professional it should use every means at its command to see that the professionalism it expounds, is effectively used in the community’s interest; that is the national interest.

In an address last year, the Honorable Barry Jones said:

“Recognition of a new paradigm, the development of an information-dependent global economy, in which Australia has the potential to play an increasing role (or faces the risk of a deteriorating one) is essential and long overdue. One reason for the delay in recognising a new paradigm has been that confusion, which I’ve mentioned several times, between IT and information generally.

Information technology is an essential element in the processing of information transactions but we’ve got to stress that they’re not synonymous, information is a far broader concept, emphasising content, not the instrument being used. It is important not to confuse policies encouraging the manufacture and use of hardware/software with the need to develop content, make it readily available, and use it as an instrument to solve personal, national and global problems.

Where is the discussion that brings out and resolves these issues of content and application to solving problems?

Is it to be left to those with vested interests, to those who shout loudest; or should the professionals of the information business set the direction?

Surely the answer is self evident. The Society does participate in many forums but can only present the views drawn from a tiny minority of members; there is no wide discussion even within the Society.

So, can Professional Computing be the forum for a wider expression of views of substance? Letters to the editor have failed as a vehicle; too few are written. Can we get thousand word comments on topics of concern?

For a start: Does information technology widen the gap between the haves and the have nots? Or, small business is said to be the lifeblood of Australian industry. Is it the case that the use of IT in this sector is critically deficient in its contribution to real small business issues? To what extent have technologies such as DBMSs, more efficient implementation approaches, communications and the like really been adopted by Australian IT users?

This magazine should be a voice listened to by politicians and industry. It only needs members to stand up and say something.

Tony Blackmore

PROFESSIONAL

COMPUTINGCONTENTS: FEBRUARY 1992

THE FUTURE FOR OPEN STANDARDS IN CASE: When people discuss open systems in the CASE market, do they mean:• industry standards• hardware vendor supplied portable open systems• truly interconnecting CASE tools from multiple vendors• CASE tools which are open to multiple development hardware platforms, target operational environments, DBMS, TP Monitors, programming languages, foreign languages, legislative constraints• or simply marketing hype?This article discusses the issues. It looks at the relative advantages to the user, and at the required technology advances needed to address the broader open questions. 2

BUILDING TRUSTED SYSTEMS: The ICSE Software Engineering Conference. 9

A SOFTWARE SUCCESS STORY: Aspect Computing’s Case tool, LANSA has nearly 1000 users in over 40 countries around the world. It has proved to be a major success in the worldwide AS/400 CASE arena and is considered a leader in that field. It has won both the AITA Export Product of the Year (1990) and AITA Software Product of the Year (1988). 10

BURNING ISSUES: The PC ’92 ACS conference. 15

GETTING SET FOR THE FUTURE: In early 1989 Victorian food importer and wholesaler Riviana, realised they had a big problem: a computer system which was totally inadequate for the demands which were about to be placed upon it. 16

ACS IN VIEW: The new president in profile. 19

PROFESSIONAL

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ORACLE

COVER:Oracle Corporation’s open family of portable software includes the Oracle database management system; tools for Case, application development and office automation; and application packages for accounting, human resources and manufacturing.

All Oracle software is portable: it runs on mainframes, minicomputers, workstations and PCs. And Oracle software is open: it operates with software from other vendors. Oracle’s open, portable software gives organisations the ability to integrate different computers, different operating systems, different networks — even different database management systems — into a cooperative computing computing and information sharing resource.

Oracle offers its products along with support, education, consulting and systems integration services in 92 countries.

PROFESSIONAL COMPUTING, FEBRUARY 1992 1

CASE

The future for open standards in CASEWhen people discuss open systems in the CASE market, do they mean:• industry standards• hardware vendor- supplied portable open systems• truly interconnecting CASE tools from multiple vendors• CASE tools which are open to multiple development hardware platforms, target operational environments, DBMS, TP Monitors, programming languages, foreign languages, legislative constraints• or simply marketing hype?

This article discusses the issues. It looks at the relative advantages to the user, and at the required technology advances needed to address the broader open questions.

by Richard Barker

THE words open, standards and CASE can conjure up different meanings in people’s minds. Openess seems to be in vogue at the moment. Standards have always seemed impor

tant, except by the people who are subjected to them and CASE is the current panacea with as many definitions of it as there are vendors.

So are open standards for CASE in existence? What might they cover? What objectives would they satisfy? What costs and benefits are associated? Whose open standards on CASE should one follow? And will customers, as opposed to vendors, actually benefit from them?The rationale

Computer Aided Systems (or Software) Engineering is a rapidly emerging set of methods, techniques and technologies which promise to assist in the development of quality and more appropriate systems for industry, for less money and in more effective timescales. An immediately apparent problem is that there are several hundred would-be CASE vendors, with nearly as many different definitions of the best methods, techniques and technologies. If such benefits are to be attained with CASE, then the efforts of these vendors towards meeting industry requirements must be focused in some manner on producing and adhering to agreed industry or international standards.

As in other industries, it is by clearly seeing the consequence of not having standards that we can force their emergence.

If we take an analogy in the form of the construction or building industry can we imagine what would happen without good standards? Their industry relies upon rigorous schematics and conventions for architects plans, wiring diagrams, floor loadings and so on. These must be unambiguously understood by other workers and at least intelligible to their clients.

Standards would include legislative and sensible specifications for strength, pressure, safety and other key properties, along with what must be and what must not be included. Good practice would also be covered, possibly including examples of what has worked elsewhere. These sorts of standards may be useful to safeguard the public and to safeguard against rogue suppliers.

In addition, components and tools need to be to a standard. Obvious examples are brick and pipe sizes, allowed ratios for constituents of plaster, mortar and cement and color coding of wiring.

In the latter example, joining wires colored to different and overlapping standards could at best cause a fuse to blow or at worst cause a major disaster. Notice that in this case, it may be perfectly sensible to have two different color code wiring

standards, but now coexistence is important to get the desired result.

Open standards in the construction industry are there to address the fact that there is not a monopoly supplier. On the contrary, there are a very wide range of suppliers and for that matter many sets of useful standards which have come about over time (eg. imperial measure to metric). Standards also differ from country to country, from state to state, and as technology changes.

Coexistence is therefore vital to ensure that buildings can be constructed and maintained by a range of suppliers. It is important, for example, that when your pump breaks down on your central heating or air conditioning systems, which was installed twenty years ago, the new one can be fitted against the old pipe standard, run by the same electrical power source and deliver the required flow at the correct pressure. Open standards are therefore aimed at coexistence, as opposed to rigid conformance.

Let us remind ourselves about some of the basics of CASE which must be addressed by such standards:

• The application of sound engineering principles to the job of building systems.

• The adoption of a structured systems development method which encompasses the entire life cycle of a system.

• The use of rigorous diagrammatic models to specify requirements, define intended designs and act as a communication vehicle with users, management and systems engineers.

• The use of database and application generators to rapidly produce working code and procedures.

• The use of integrated project control capabilities to control progress and deliverables.

• The use of a multi-user database or repository to hold and co-ordinate this complex inter-related information.

• Workstations to provide highly usable interfaces to the system engineers.

These are complex and interrelated components which need good standards and arguably need open standards. The objectives would therefore include, from the user perception:

• Freedom of choice to use CASE tools, techniques, methods and components from any vendor.

• Freedom of choice to use) workstations and any other hardware from any vendor in any sensible configuration.

• Ability to capitalise on movement of skilled resources across the industry.

• Ability to capitalise on any new or improved standards.

And from the vendor perspective:• Freedom to introduce new tools and compo

nents.• Ability for new players to enter niche markets

and coexist with existing players.International standards

International standards are emerging in the CASE market to cover various concepts.ANSI Information Resource Dictionary System(IRDS) „ .►Continued page 4

2 PROFESSIONAL COMPUTING, FEBRUARY 1992

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Architected for software development in a distributed world, PVCS is the standard by which other products are judged. It’s the acknowledged leader in Software Configuration Management for PCs, workstations and LANs, with over 85,000 users worldwide.

Software Configuration Management is more than just version control. It is the process of identifying, organising and controlling all relevant details concerning the building and modifying of software produced by programming teams, or indeed individual developers.

PVCS is able to control any file, including source code, object files, C and COBOL, documentation, design graphics, and bug reports. So, PVCS extends the benefits of Software Configuration Management to individual developers, or the entire development team - from analysts to technical writers.

Although a nice-to-have ‘extra’ on the mainframe, Software Configuration Management is mandatory in LAN/PC-based environments. Controlling file changes, recovering any module or system at any time with full audit trails, and with security that doesn’t hamper productivity, becomes essential for distributed Configuration Mangement

PVCS is built to exploit LAN-based development with support for DOS, OS/2 and Unix. What’s more, if you’re using the Micro Focus COBOL Workbench, or Microsoft C or COBOL PWB, PVCS is a must for you.

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Problems arise from the vendors’ interpretation of the standard, the accuracy of compliance and the interface they provide.

▼Figure 1

<From page 2

This standard is a combined initiative between the US Government and the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Its purpose was to produce standards for information management. It has four main parts:

• A means of defining the data held in the respo- sitory.

• A standard user interface.• A command interface to manipulate contents

of the repository.• Security and interchange file formats.

ISO IRDSThe International Standards Organization (ISO)

also has an IRDS standard which have been strongly influenced by members from Europe and is broadly similar in its objectives.CDIF CASE Data Interchange Format

This standard is targeted at enabling information to be transferred between different CASE environments. It is trying to produce a meta model that is a superset of all the contributors CASE tools repositories, the aim being to then provide a mapping from this onto a neutral transport format so that information from one CASE tool can be used by another.

More recently this initiative has also started on work to move graphical images between tools with the aim of moving diagrams and the semantic meaning of them.

These international standards are an excellent

Development

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move in the market and will certainly address the issue of aiding education and training. The industry will then be able to identify skilled resources who are qualified against such standards which will help in the open movement of staff within the industry.

They may, however, provide a limited open capability when one considers CASE tools.

It is useful to consider the ANSI SQL standard as an analogy. The SQL definition is now sufficiently strong to enable people trained against it to move from one vendor’s implementation to another, without much difficulty. The problems arise from the vendors’ interpretation of the standard, the accuracy of compliance and the interface they provide.

Some vendors are very good and implement over 99 per cent of the SQL standard. Inevitably the one per cent missing differs from one vendor to another. Strong suppliers will then add useful extensions which they are already endeavoring to add to the standard , typically extensions to provide unique capability or plug a perceived gap in the functionality required in their market. (A good example is the optional inclusion in the Oracle RDBMS of the CONTAINS clause, to an SQL WHERE clause, such that free format text can be accessed at the same time as structured data).

Other vendors only implement small subsets of the standard. This mixed compliance means that tools which attempt to be open must be written against the smallest subset of the standard that is implemented or must exclude certain vendor im

plementations or must be written against a set of different interpretations or interfaces. This is an expensive exercise for any tool vendor to comply with just one international standard.

When such compliance has apparently been achieved, do we get the expected result? Well, the answer is of course ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. The problem then is to do with the semantics of the problem. With the same data and the same standard interface we would expect to get the same result, but this is not always the case. In each case the result is sensible, but based on different assumptions and semantics. And of course the exception handling is invariably different!De-facto open standards

Major vendors in the market finish up creating de-facto standards, because of their market penetration or market strategy. In the CASE area there are several potential de- -facto standards emerging, the most publicized being the IBM AD/Cycle environment along with the Repository Manager. Other potential standards from hardware vendors include the Digital Cohesion and ICL DDS interfaces.

These standards have a major advantage. When published they are unambiguous definitions of the exact interfaces and semantics to which one must comply. Thus any tool wanting to comply does so by using the one, and only one, definitive interface. So we now have freedom of choice to use any CASE tool which complies, or do we?

This form of standard is intended


to provide an enabling technology to different tools, for example to store and retrieve data manipulated by the CASE tool and automatically look after referential integrity constraints. Existing CASE tools, however, may require concepts, structures and semantics, not supported by the standard. Part of the answer is to provide tool extensibility capability to enable the tool to have its extra concepts.

The extensibility capability solves one problem but then causes another, for example two vendors could define extensions for the same concept but in a different way! The task of making the tool compatible structurally and/or semantically, may cause the tool vendors to change their product. Once more, freedom of choice of CASE tools will be impaired as the standard is no longer comprehensive.

The other major problem with de-facto standards is that the user is now constrained to having at least one major component from the hardware supplier. So these open de-facto standards inevitably support an explicit or implicit lock-in policy from the vendor.

Perhaps software suppliers can produce more open de-facto standards? In some senses they can. If we take the Oracle CASE offering as an example we find that its dictionary can work on virtually any strategic hardware platform and its user interface supports character mode, block mode and bit-mapped interfaces to all the major manufacturers terminals, workstations and top-end personal computers. Configurations can be set up to provide a distributed repository capability in a heterogeneous local and/or wide area network. Very shortly its dictionary interface will be published as a standard for use by other vendors and it will provide

extensibility and customisation facilities to support different techniques and methods.

So we see freedom to choose different workstations and other hardware in a heterogeneous configuration, a choice of techniques and methods and the capability for other vendors to co-exist with their tools as in the hardware de-facto standard scenario.

However, this does not yet solve the problem of being dependent on a single supplier. The only real solution out of this dilemma is to enable each and every component in the CASE development environment to be interchangeable. This is where either rigorous, complete and powerful international standards can act across all primary tool interfaces or where a set of different standard interfaces can coexist.

In the meantime at least one niche market product has emerged that addresses transfer and coexistence between different CASE tools. For example, the Exchange product can transfer data to and from Oracle’s CASE tool and many other products, this is an excellent move forward for customers who have acquired different CASE tools over the years as the technology has emerged.Open user interface standards for CASE

Many companies would like to acquire their choice of workstations and top-end personal computers for use with their CASE tools. Such devices provide high resolution screens and considerable memory such that they can support the use of the large scale diagrams often needed by CASE methods. CASE environments need to enable the user to choose which type of device they use.

This sort of freedom of choice gives us a new set^Continued page 6

Open de-facto standards inevitably support an explicit or implicit lock-in policy from the vendor.

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o o

ooX-windows reduces the cost to CASE vendors of complying with many of these standards.

▼Figure 2

<From page 5of problems to solve in open standards. To start with there is the issue of making the CASE software work on the workstation or/and connect through to some host computer on which a shared dictionary may reside. The second issue is one of user interface. If the device chosen was, say, an OS-2 machine running Presentation Manager, an open CASE environment would expect all CASE tools running on it to exhibit the Presentation Manager standard look and feel. The same would be true for Windows, MAC, OSF/Motif and so on.

A large development organization could then use a mixture of workstations against the same set of CASE tools with each exhibiting the host look and feel standard. (A small technical problem to be solved is to enable diagrams drawn on one workstation type to be used on another, possibly going from monochrome to color, changing resolution and working under a different window management standard). To help in this area a very important open standard is supplied by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in collaboration with many hardware and software vendors. This is the ‘X’ windows standard set of interfaces, on top of which a variety of de-facto industry look and feel standards may be created. This excellent standard considerably reduces the

cost to CASE vendors of complying with many of these standards.

Another aspect of user interface standards is the look and semantics of the diagrams themselves. If we take the commonly used dataflow diagram as an example, we can move from Yourdon to SSADM to Information Engineering and find different conventions in use. Open CASE tools should enable the user to select the variant with which they are familiar or customise the supplied dia- grammer such that it looks and behaves like the one they like. The importance of this cannot be over-emphasized as there is often a fervent insistence to use the familiar and the change to some other apparently functionally identical convention can be the cause of a traumatic period.

The customisation would need to cover the shape, size and color of boxes and connectors, which properties are displayed with what length, size and font. More difficult rules would include data integrity constraints, and diagrammatic issues such as “What can connect to what and how?” or “Can boxes overlap or be placed inside others and what does it mean if they do?” And finally, before we leave user interfaces, open standards need also to address output to industry standard plotters, laser and other output devices on industry standard paper sizes (such as letter or A4).

Real World

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Methodology or method supportAn open CASE standard would

need to encompass how organizations could define new concepts or extend existing techniques. This would be used by companies which study and extend methods or by organisations which for some reason need to create hybrid methods.

A more common requirement would be to have open CASE tools which could explicitly support the users chosen method. To do this, two sets of standards are required. The first is a de-facto standard for the techniques used in the method and second a definition of the tasks and deliverables which comprise the recommended way of engineering a system. Very generic tools would then be required which worked against alternative method specific rule bases to enforce the chosen way of working. The rule base would need to enforce inter- -task dependencies, flow of deliverables, constraints which determine when tasks can start or be deemed to be complete and so on. Languages

In the CASE environment open standards could; be applicable to language in several senses.

For international users there is the interesting dimension of the use of the national language or languages. In Canada, for example, perhaps an open CASE environment should enable team members to work in American/Canadian English or Canadian French as they prefer. This is not an easy problem, as standards groups find it very difficult to agree issues and semantics when communicating using one national language, never mind across many.

Most CASE tools have some^Continued page 8


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<From page 6

form of pseudo-code language to define functionality at the implementation, logical, business or some other level. Open standards for CASE should really be produced to define a single common syntax and semantics for such languages, an SQL equivalent. Such a language could not be defined, however, before the industry has standardised on the objects which might be held in a repository and how they might be manipulated by such a language. The benefits of such a standard would, however, be great as they would enable users to define requirements using one CASE tool and generate implementations using say two or three different tools as appropriate. In the meantime a coexistence approach is the best that can be attained.

Implementation language is the third consideration. These languages fall into several categories, which include the selected programming language, database management system, operating system command language and network protocol. Open CASE environments would exhibit the capability to generate code which works correctly against the chosen set of implementation languages. For real benefit, however, an industry open standard would recommend a set of portable target languages such that the user would have the freedom to select their operational environment. At this time such a set would probably include the ‘C’ programming language, the Unix operating system and portable languages such as the Oracle SQL*Forms, SQL*Reportwriter and other fourth generation languages.Other aspectsSo far the subject of open CASE standards has been very broad, as illustrated by the diagram above. Before we leave the subject let us consider one final area — expertise.

Expertise is often provided to users of CASE tools in the form of utilities or on-line rule-based procedures. A truly open CASE environment would allow users the freedom to use one CASE tool which had the best diagrammers and mix that with others which had the best database design utility or a really good application generator. It is into this area that new CASE vendors could bring niche market products which would add value by supplying a highly useful but very specific capability within an integrated open CASE environment.

To achieve this level of open environment the standards would need to clearly define the data which was to be delivered at the completion of different steps in the system development life cycle, utilities could then work against one set of deliverables to translate them into a subsequent set.

The way forwardTo achieve this Utopian concept, of a truly open

CASE environment against internationally ratified standards, many things need to happen.

The international standards bodies need to lift their sights and address this broader question of standards. This is a very difficult task and it may be practical to start off by agreeing the areas to be tackled, the standards for the standards, the objectives to be met and possibly a pragmatic definition of standards coexistence. Perhaps a method and tool could be chosen to help engineer this complex system solution! It could be called Computer Aided Standards Engineering.

Vendors need to work hard to make their CASE offering portable, to adhere to interface standards and to work with highly generic customisable rule- -bases such that they can be made to work with emerging standards and coexist with current standards. This form of flexibility can be aided dramatically by moving to more and more abstract data models in which eventually the model is capable of holding a definition of the methodology and techniques to be used.

And finally the user community must demand the standards which they need and insist that vendors move towards supporting them. In the meantime, independent companies can help by identifying mixes of tools which can be used together to meet the specific functional and open CASE needs of an organisation.What should you choose now?

The answer is inevitably ‘It depends!’It depends upon important questions such as whether or not your organization has strategies in place for specific hardware suppliers, software suppliers, methods, techniques and so on.

If a company has decided to stay big blue then the IBM AD-Cycle open standard looks very attractive. If, however a multi-vendor strategy is in place for hardware, then a portable open CASE standard would be far more attractive. If several methods are in use, then a very flexible or customisable open CASE environment may be best.

Open standards in CASE, if attained, promise unheard of freedoms to the user community, analogous to the freedoms they already benefit from when buying from the construction industry. This is a goal which we must all work towards to enable the computer industry at last to emerge as an acknowledged engineering discipline.Author: Richard Barker is senior vice-president, CASE & Business Applications, Oracle Corporation, responsible for methodology and the development of the company's CASE tools for the worldwide market.

MEETINGS OF THE MINDS“One of the key benefits of ACS membership is access to realistically priced conferences on the topics that all IT practitioners must know about. ACS has the ability to attract speakers that rarely appear in other forums. Not only do you benefit from the knowledge of the speakers but also from the opportunity to extend your personal network and learn from other attendees. I hope to see many members at ACS conferences during this year.”Geoff Dober MACS PCP National President

BRANCH CONFERENCESTasmania February 15-16 Ph 003 34 8100Victoria March 20-22 Ph 034176220Queensland April 3-5 Ph 07 2637864Western Australia April 2-3 Ph 094704878South Australia October 2-4 Ph 082321288New South Wales October Ph 02 2835544PC’92 The Burning Issues Ph 023572600Sydney March 10 Melbourne August 12

i... iPC92

BURNINGISSUES


CONFERENCE

ICSE conference: Building trusted systemsICSE is the most prestigious Software Engineer

ing Conference in the world. The goals of the conference are to present the most current and outstanding theoretical, experimental and practical

work being conducted in software engineering, and to present a view of both the state-of-the-art and

practice of software engineering. The theme for the 1992 conference is “Building

Trusted Systems”. The keynote speakers will address the issue of building software which can be relied upon to safely control life-critical systems. The tutorial and contributed paper sessions ad

dress a wide range of current software engineeringissues.

This year in Melbourne, ICSE will include an international congress, tutorial sessions by interna

tionally recognised researchers and practitioners, a Tools Fair showcasing CASE and other software

development tools, short abstract sessions providing face-to-face interaction between researchers

and practitioners, workshops and “Birds of a Feather” Sessions for groups with special interests.

Many people in the computing industry are performing the functions of Software Engineers with

out being aware of it. The difference between a software engineer and a run-of-the-mill program

mer is that the software engineer uses an engineering (disciplined) approach to the specification,

analysis, design, estimation, implementation, installation, testing, documentation and mainte

nance of software. Important concepts in SE which are emerging as crucial in the 1990’s include pro

grammer productivity, re-useable software components, human/machine interface design, computer

aided software engineering (CASE Tools), formal methods for software specification and verification and software development for emerging hardware

systems such as parallel processors. ICSE represents an opportunity for all professional software

engineers to update their knowledge and focus their efforts to make use of advancing technology.

Keynote speakers are: Professor Dines Bjorner who will speak on:

“Trusted Computing Systems, The ProCos Experience”.

Professor Bjorner is Chairman of the Department of Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark. He graduated with an MScEE from

the Technical University of Denmark in 1962 and a PhD in Computer Science from the Technical University of Denmark in 1969. He has worked extensively as an engineer, research scientist and academic both in Europe and the United States.

He has held a professorship at the Technical University of Denmark since 1976 and has had numer

ous other guest professorships. He was the Scientific Director for Dansk Datamatik Sentre from 1980 through 1988, a Scientific Advisor to CRI Inc 1989

through 1991 and the Director Designate of the United Nations University International Institute of Software Technology from 1991 through 1995.

He has contributed to and edited numerous books, served on an extensive range of editorial boards

and conference committees. He has interests spanning programming methodology, formal description of programming concepts and software engi

neering, and is well known for his work on the Vienna Development Method.

Professor Nancy Leveson, whose topic is: “Moving Toward Safeware: How do we get there

from here?”.Dr Leveson is Professor of Computer Science at

the University of California, Irvine. She has a BA in Mathematics and a PhD in Computer Science

from UCLA. Her research interests are in software safety and reliability, including software hazard

analysis, requirements specifications and analysis, design for safety, and verification of safety. Dr Le

veson is the newly appointed Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, and a

member of the executive committee of ACM Sig- soft, the Board of Directors of the Computing Research Association, and the ACM Committee on

Computers and Public Policy. She consults worldwide for industry and government on safety-critical

systems.Professor Andrew Lister, one of Australia’s

leading researchers speaking on: “Design of Dependable Real-Time Systems”.

Professor Lister graduated with an Honors degree in Mathematics and a Diploma in Computer Science from Cambridge University, England. He

has worked as an academic in England and Australia and is now Professor of Computing Science and

Director of the Key Centre for Software Technology at the University of Queensland. Professor

Lister is well known for his text on operating systems which has sold over 100,000 copies and been

translated into six languages. He has co-authored two other texts and published numerous papers

and reports. His interests include distributed computing, parallel programming and operating sys

tems.

Contact: Conference Manager, 14th International ICSE: The Institution of Engineers, Australia, 11 National Circuit, Barton, ACT 2600. Tel: 06 270

6549; Fax: 06 273 2012.

14thInternational Conference on Software Engineering

(ICSE ’14)

Melbourne May 11-15


CASE

Aspect Computing P/L's Case tool, LANSA has nearly 1000 users in over 40 countries around the world. It has proved to be a major success in the worldwide AS/400 CASE arena and is considered a leader in that field. It has won both the AITA Export Product of the Year (1990) and AITA Software Product of the Year (1988).

A software success storyby Stephen Jackson

THERE is no standard definition of Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE). It serves as a marketing label for methods and techniques that support systems development. One

common definition states that CASE is a “a tool to make the applications systems development professional treat the development process itself as an important application.”

How should an organisation approach CASE? Just as it would any application package; after all, CASE tools represent applications for application developers. Treat it as a means to an end.

Evaluating CASE, requires an understanding of development requirements, requirements are subjective. They are a function of your development environment, not a function of what a CASE tool can offer. After careful evaluation, choose the CASE product that best meets your requirements. What is Lansa?

The original design objective was to provide the IBM S/38 user (now AS/400) with an environment in which high quality, commercial grade application systems could be developed quickly, accurately, and consistently. This objective was then extended to address the circumstances present in the “real world” of commercial computing. It was recognised that systems developed within this environment would change and evolve over time and therefore the product had to support the maintenance, modification, and extension of systems in a fraction of the time and cost normally associated with these tasks.There are few AS/400s that do not have a variety of packages and bespoke systems installed. To be effective Lansa had to coexist and easily interface with both old and new application systems. Of prime consideration was the need to minimise the learning curve for users. Lansa Systems Development life cycle environment consists of:

• An Active Data Dictionary • An Integrated Data Modelling Facility • A Fourth Generation Development and Main

tenance Language (4GL) Templates which provide automatic generation of 4GL programs for either users or programmers.

• An Automatic Screen Painter.• A Powerful Report Writer • A full feature Project Management Facility • Task and Version Control • An electronic mail facility within the Develop

ment Environment• A facility to generate documentation from

within the Lansa Environment • Full Multi Lingual Support • Extensive, easily accessible online HELP text • A complete System Security Function • Multiple CPU/User Environment

The development of LansaThe concept of a CASE tool for the AS/400 was

formed out in the field within an Aspects team working on a custom development for a major client in Sydney in 1986. The original idea for a simple RPG code generator was presented to Aspect management which in turn formed a design team charged with the task of completing a requirements study.

This team drew on the experience gained by Aspect through years of applications development and software engineering and came up with a definition of a tool that was based on the real world of applications development, a practical CASE: tool, one that was far more than a code generator. From the outset Lansa was designed to be a complete, fully integrated environment, one that allowed developers to concentrate on what they were trying to achieve, not how they were going to achieve it. The Lansa development team was formed to prototype the first components of Lansa and to refine the concepts and requirements already defined.

Since Aspect was not reliant on the success of Lansa for its survival the team was able to take the time to get the design right before proceeding to the next phase. The design and development of Lansa has always been driven by the need to “get it right”, to “make it realistic and practical”, and to “work now and in the future.” In late 1987 the first version of Lansa consisting of a Fourth Generation Language and Data Dictionary was distributed to a number of trial sites in Australia to gauge the acceptance and potential for success of the product. The results were overwhelming.

By early 1989 it was obvious that Lansa could compete on the world scene against other CASE tools that were already well established in various parts of the world. The first sale in Europe was achieved purely by word of mouth. The success experienced by this user whose only support was 17,000 kilometres away indicated that the product could indeed be successful on the world market.

Development continued with the addition of a true Conceptual Data Modeller based on the Chen methodology, templating facilities to automate the generation of 4GL code, and screen and report painters. General efficiency tuning was carried out, and the facilities extended within the 4GL, RDML (Rapid Development and Maintenance Language).

Through judicious and substantial use of the fax machine, contacts established with the excellent assistance of the Australian Trade Commissions (AUSTRADE) in the various countries, and minimal international travel, Lansa proliferated. A key feature contributing to the success of Lansa in the international market is its Multi-lingual capability. Lansa is able to concurrently support any number of users using different languages simultaneously with the one program object. Support for Latin languages such as French and German, Right to Left languages such as Hebrew and Arabic, and double byte languages such as Chinese and Japanese is a standard feature.

As the user base has grown and the agent network expanded through Asia, North and South America, and parts of Africa, Aspect has continually listened to its users, incorporating features large


and small as support warranted it in a systematic upgrade procedure.

A three-level support network was established with the final level being the development team itself so that everyone on the Lansa team was aware of developments in the real world.

A development confirming the strength of Lansa has been the emergence of software houses using the product to develop their own proprietary packages . software houses such as IBM, Arthur Andersens, Dun & Bradstreet, and Pansophic have selected Lansa as the standard for their own package development.The future of Lansa

The general move in computing towards unix based systems has gained pace in recent times. Development of a platform independent Lansa environment is underway and will be available on the PC platform and any other platform that supports ANSI standard C and SQL.The components of Lansa

At the heart of the Lansa Environment is the Lansa/Kemel. A number of key components integrate to give Lansa a powerful yet flexible base on which the Total Systems Solution is built.Data modelling

With the Data Modeller users create and manipulate a complete, logical data model with all its constituent elements, entities and relationships, independent of the target database and hardware. Sophisticated data analysis rules ensure proper normalisation of the data model. Lansa then documents the model in a clear, comprehensive format, allowing review and verification as an integral part of the analysis/design process. As the physical database is generated, Lansa allows for differences between it and the logical model. Changes for performance or security reasons can be incorporated into the physical database. Relationship definitions are documented in a format that resembles structured statements or business rules. Lansa also interfaces with other upper CASE tools such as Know- ledgeWare Inc’s IEW/ADW and Excelerator. Active Data Dictionary

The Active Data Dictionary, the very core of Lansa/Kemel, provides complete access to new and existing databases, as well as full support for data integrity, including Referential integrity, and comprehensive security at field, file and environmental levels.Application Templates

A library of Application Templates goes a long way towards automating the production of applications. In addition, users can create their own Templates which are models of standard programs and applications. Select the required Template and perform a question-and-answer dialogue under the

control of Lansa and automatically generates Lan- sa/RDML programs, which can then be customised to exact specifications.Rapid Development and Maintenance Language™ (RDML)

Take a fourth-generation language based on the industry standard SQL. Add the best features of other database languages and factor out the need for formal programming skills such as RPG, COBOL or Control Language and you have RDML. RDML commands can be used to customise the Lansa programs generated by the Application Templates. Even the most complex AS/400™ applications can be produced via the RDML without reverting to lower level languages.Prototyping

Before the design of any application system can be “signed off” as satisfying the user’s requirements, the user should be confident that the “look and feel” of the system is exactly as required. The Prototyping Facility within Lansa gives the developer the ability to quickly and simply create screens, reports and process flows without the underlying data logic definitions required for a fully developed system.Screen and report painters

Lansa will automatically generate suggested or recommended screen and report formats based on the users predefined set of rules. Lansa is in fact preloaded with SAA/CUA compliant formats. Any screen or report format can be customised by a “cut and paste” method. Its ease of use benefits both end user and developers.Extending the Lansa Kernel

A Project Management Methodology that is fully integrated with the process of systems development in the Lansa environment. It provides a comprehensive control mechanism for the three major consideration governing every project: time, money, and quality. Lansa/ProJect consists of:

a) The Online Project Management System;b) The Estimating Database containing empiri

cal evidence obtained from completed Lansa Projects worldwide; and

c) Comprehensive Online Documentation including templates for Quality Plans, Project Reporting, and Change Control.

Using the Electronic Mail facility within Lansa, it is possible to send, receive, save, and forward messages at any time through the use of the Message Window. This enables, for example, notification of changes required to screens during development, or recording of problems detected at the testing phase.

Lansa/Documentor enables the developer to automatically generate the majority of tech-

►Continued page 13

A development confirming the strength of Lansa has been the emergence of software houses using the product to develop their own proprietary packages.

The Australian Computer Society

Office bearersPresident: Alan Underwood. Vice-presidents: Garry Trlnder, Geoff Dober. Immediate past president: John Goddard. National treasurer: Glen Heinrich. Chief executive officer: Ashley Goldsworthy.PO Box 319, Darllnghurst NSW 2010. Telephone (02) 2115855.Fax (02)281 1208.

H Peter Isaacson Publications

(Incorporated in Victoria)

PROFESSIONAL COMPUTINGEditor: Tony Blackmore. Editor-in-chief: Peter Isaacson. Advertising coordinator: Christine Dixon. Subscriptions: Jo Anne Blrtles. Director of the Publications Board: John Hughes.

Subscriptions, orders, editorial, correspondenceProfessional Computing, 45-50 Porter St, Prahran, Victoria, 3181. Telephone (03)520 5555. Telex 30880. Fax (03)510 3489.

AdvertisingNational sales manager: Peter Dwyer.Professional Computing, an official publication of the Australian Computer Society Incorporated, Is published by ACS/PI Publications, 45-50 Porter Street, Prahran, Victoria, 3181.

Opinions expressed by authors in Professional Computing are not necessarily those of the ACS or Peter Isaacson Publications.

While every care will be taken, the publishers cannot accept responsibility for articles and photographs submitted for publication.

The annual subscription is $50.


$pL $3000Did you know that you could win $3000 for the submission of a case study — and you thought that CASE had to do with software engineering, not with

making money.See details below — rush your entries in.

CONDITIONS GOVERNING THE AWARD OF THE ACS CASE STUDY PRIZE

The conditions of this prize/award are asfollows:1. The ACS Case Study Prize/Award will be

awarded for the best submitted case study of an industrial, commercial or administrative computer application.

2. Competition for this prize/award is open to individual members of the Society, and to companies or organisations which are Corresponding Institutions of the Society (including departments within companies)

3. In the case of individuals, a cash prize of $3000 for the 1991 case study will be awarded to the winning entry. In the case of companies, an engraved plaque will be awarded to the winning entry.

4. If in any year no case study of sufficient standard to merit the award of prizes is submitted, the Council of the ACS may suspend the award in that year.

5. If the prize is awarded for a case study submitted in the names of more than one author, the prize is to be divided equally among the authors.

6. The Council will make its decision concerning the award of the prize for the previous year at

its first meeting in any year. Case studies should be submitted in triplicate, so as to reach the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Computer Society, at EO. Box 319, Darlinghurst NSW 2010, normally before the end of the year for which the prize is awarded (i.e. by December 31, 1991). On this occasion the due date for submission has been extended to March 31, 1992.

7. A case study submitted for the A.C.S. Case Study Prize should be concerned with a computer application, and shopuld cover preliminary studies (including a description of the environment of the application), system design, equipment specification, selection and installation (if relevant), and subsequent implementation. It should conclude with a critical summary of possible improvements inthe light of operating experience.

*

8. The editor of the Australian Computer Journal may publish any case study in the Australian Computer Journal if it is considered suitable for publication. Therefore, the submission for the Case Study Prize should be in a form suitable for publication.

Enquiries may be made through the National Office 02 211 5855.


◄From page 11

nical and user documentation for Lansa-based application systems. The developer is prompted for details of the content and format of documentation required. This is then used to extract and compile all related data from within the Lansa environment. The developer then has the option of making the documentation available online, printing the documentation, or exporting the documentation to any of the popular word processors for further tailoring.

Lansa/Report consists of two components, one to provide the systems developer with an assortment of reporting tools, the other an End User Report Writer. The Developers Toolbox gives the developer facilities to write and tailor reports quickly and easily. A library of Reporting templates provides all the standard reporting functions in a ready to use format. The End User Report Writer enables users to access data as and when required without the need to request the developers assistance.

Lansa/GUI allows interactive Lansa-based applications to communicate with Intelligent Workshops as well as Non-Programmable (“dumb”) Terminals. These applications can run within the Windows environment alongside other Windows applications. The same version of any Lansa-based application can be executed within the Windows 3.0 or OS/2 Presentation Manager environment, as well as soon existing Non-Programmable Terminals. Lansa/Designer is the interface between the

Lansa environment and IEW/ADW from Knowledge Ware Inc. Users of IEW and ADW can utilise the facilities within the Planner, Analyst, and Designer Workbench components of IEW/ADW and then use Lansa/Designer as the Construction Workstation for the AS/400 platform. Both Import and Export to and from IEW/ADW and Lansa/Designer are supported.

Lansa/Designer will populate Lansa’s Data Modeller and Active Data Dictionary, and allows for reverse engineering of existing systems from Lansa back to ADW and IEWAuthor: Stephen Jackson is Asia Pacific manager for Aspect.

Lansa/GUI allows interactive Lansa-based applications to communicate with Intelligent Workshops as well asNon-Programmable (“dumb”) Terminals. These applications can run within the Windows environment alongside other Windows applications.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR NOW!CASE ForumThe conference and exhibition for Computer-Aided Software Engineering

Sydney • 23-24-25 JuneThe largest .independent CASE event in the Southern Hemisphere offers a comprehensive programme on tools and methodologies, plus the issues that affect management and users. With a full array of vendors in the free public exhibiton!

CASEForum

Pacific Forum Productions P/LFor information and L-16 Town Hall Houseconference registration, 456 Kent Streetplease contact: Sydney, NSW 2000

Tel.: 02-283-1825 Fax.: 02-283-1123


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many other prospects because it had the best core technology." System Builder called System Architect "truly a price/performance leader."Work in the Windows 3.0 environment, or OS/2 Presentation Manager (call for availability), and count on context-sensitive help.Stay within your budget. At$4,300 System Architect is quite affordable — and it runs on almost any PC.

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CONFERENCE

All fired up for PC92THE Australian Computer Society has joined with Australian Exhibition Services to launch the Personal Computer Show and the ACS PC92 Conferences on 10 March at the Harbour- side Room, Darling Harbour, Sydney and on 12 August, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne.

Personal computers are now embedded in the operation of businesses small to large, from farm to factory floor. Personal computers are central to the development of education from early years to tertiary studies. They are applied in health care, sport, recreation and communications, and used by the very young, by factory workers, professors and chief executives. They are pervasive and vital.

Apart from using local data and processing the personal computer user can access remote systems and through electronic mail communicate throughout the world.

ACS believes there is a need to widen discussion on the uses and abuses of personal computers and welcomes the association with the annual Personal Computer shows in Sydney and Melbourne.

The conference program opens with a “Planning for new Technologies and Applications”. Multimedia presentation technologies will have an impact on teaching, factory control systems, and electronic marketing to name a few. There will be improved user interfaces and the facilities embedded in portable/notebook computers will widen the application opportunities. Obsolescence is an important issue in planning the use of personal computers in a business organisation.

Departmental funds are used to add to the hardware and software. Often these systems which over time become strategic to the corporation are not known to the chief executive officer or MIS manager: We plan a session on Control of the Information Strategy by the CEO. This session will cover other issues such as protection of company information, competitive advantage standards and survival kits.

There are new alliances in the PC world. Apple and IBM — and what is Microsoft planning? Should we wait a few years until all manufacturers’ products converge into one open system? We hope that by March 10 there will be some answers to be included in the session “Convergence of Manufacturers’ Products”.

There are few corporate personal computer users that do not have need to attach to a network at some stage. The session on “Distribution Computing and Network Connectivity”

will consider the impact of the new network technologies.

A session on “The Growth and Price/Performance of Advanced Workstations” has been included to consider the impact of high performance Unix servers and workstations on network configuration.

Personal computers were adopted eagerly by small business and many are now at the stage of replacement and upgrading. For many businesses, the hardware system software and applications that have been built up over a number of years must be replaced in a single operation, intoducing what may be the new concepts of acceptance testing, conversion procedures, parallel running and training. A session on “Upgrading Small Business Applications” will prove of value.

There are related sessions on “Software Theft and Piracy” and “Security”. One emphasis is on the obligations of users to comply with copyright law and will point out areas where a personal computer user may be unknowingly breaking the law. The session will deal with the inherent insecurity of many PC systems and how the PC user may protect critical data.

The personal computer has for years been applied to the delivery of education at primary, secondary and tertiary level, and is increasingly used in industrial training. Yet there continues to be argument even between educators about whether computer-aided learning is effective let alone cost effective. We will find out more about this burning issue in another program of the conference.Contact: PC 92 secretariat, PO Box 787, Potts Point, NSW 2011. Tel: 02 357 2600; Fax: 02 357 2950.

BURNING ISSUES

PC92Burning Issues

Exhibition and Conference

Sydney — 10 March Melbourne — 12 August

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-------

%

<Some of the action at last year’s PC show


CASE

■ ■Riviana for theIN early 1989 Victorian food importer and wholesaler Riviana, realised they had a big problem: a computer system which was totally inadequate for the demands which were about to be placed upon it.

▼Lex Korngold

gets set future

by Lex Korngold

WE were faced with an enormous programming job on our IBM System/36. We had to develop a detailed financial and statistical analysis application,

which we estimated would involve three to four thousand hours of RPG programming, using standard development techniques. With only a three-man programming team, we just didn’t have the resources. The difficulties were compounded by the economic climate, software. It also meant that we couldn’t spend a lot of money on people.

The result of preparing a detailed strategy paper examining the options available revealed that the only answer was for our existing MIS operation to become much more productive. We decided to evaluate System/36 productivity tools. The RPG generators available were not impressive, we were worried at their complexity and the new difficulties they presented. We could see that they would help produce code more quickly, but there was a significant investment to be made in education. If we were to spend six months training someone, there would have to be a 100 per cent lift in productivity immediately, and we were not confident we would achieve an improvement of that magnitude.More power

As a first step towards alleviating the problem, Riviana decided to apply more horsepower, We were just running out of steam on the System/36.

Riviana installed an AS/400 model B30 in September 1989, running all the previous applications in System/36 emulation mode. The machine was later upgraded to a model B35, with increased memory and disk storage. That delayed the day of reckoning, but the productivity problem remained. We had some AS/400 skills, but because we had come from the S/36 environment, they were mainly in the S/36 emulation mode. We soon realised those skills were a little short of what we needed, particularly when faced with a very large project.

Around the middle of 1990 we decided it was time to re-evaluate RPG generators, and to see what was available. This led to the acquisition of AS/SET (AS/400 Software Engi

neering Tool) from SSA Services in October 1990.

AS/SET had been released since we bought the AS/400, and had not been included in previous evaluationss. It had also been developed specifically for the AS/400, not migrated from the S/36 or S/38 like some other products.

Our first impression was that the product would be simple to use, and one that we could spend just a couple of days training on and get people back to at least the same level of productivity they were working at previously. We were wrong; after a couple of days, our programmers were actually more productive than they had been before. In addition, our general Information Systems staff were able to lend a hand. There simply isn’t any slack of unproductive time any more. That was an important factor in our evaluation. It was important to improve the productivity of our programming staff, but we also wanted casual users to be able to do useful work with the system.

Sophisticated usersRiviana’s users have become much more

sophisticated over the years. It’s a bit of paradox really. The more advanced computing technology becomes, the harder it is to keep end users happy. They are exposed to all the buzzwords, and their expectations become higher. They use spreadsheet and word processing packages that are being sold by the millions at a very low price, but we still have to develop and maintain a reliable one-off commercial system at a reasonable cost.

The economies of scale are very different, and it’s hard to balance expectations with what it is possible to deliver. We have been able to get the users more involved, which has helped everybody. The evaluation process involved an extensive benchmarking studyof a short shopping list. We evaluated three products, and got the suppliers to work on producing code for a small simulated application which involved extracting normalised data from the database, and displaying it in an array on the screen in a way that was useful to end users. It was a comparatively innocent data entry, reporting and enquiry application, but one of the products just couldn’t do the job at all.

One of them could do it, but because it couldn’t handle arrays it was more trouble than writing the RPG code from scratch. AS- /SET did the job well, and it was so simple that we were able to do it ourselves almost immediately. We put a lot of emphasis on the simplicity of the product and the ease of training.


IRiviana'sheadquarters

Riviana’s productsMelbourne-based Riviana is a large Austra

lian food importer and wholesaler operating nationally. Representing the New Zealand Dairy Board in Australia, the company covers a wide range of food products. Selling to major food distribution warehouses, food services and related industries, it has a sophisticated network of sale sand distribution facilities throughout the country. Keeping track of the products and their distribution is a big job. The first application developed was a financial and statistical one which analysed sales and marketing figures and tracked the performance of the different products and business units. It involved rewriting some 160 programs. This meant some heavyweight programming. One of the large reporting programs had something like 5000 lines of RPG in it on the System/36. When we rewrote it in AS/SET, it became 1200 statements, which in turn generated about 7000 lines of RPG.

The program turns action diagrams into comment lines, which makes it very easy to maintain and debug the code, and we’ve had to do much of that. The code it produces also has very good error-handing capabilities. Productivity increases

We have been able to accurately measure programmers’ productivity increases. Even though we are only a small shop, we have always kept time sheets on all our programming jobs. We’ve found that a typical large job has fallen from 40 to as few as 12 hours of programming time, and that medium-sized jobs have fallen from 24 hours to eight or less. Small jobs that involve not much more than cloning another program and changing a few parameters used to take about eight hours, and they now take only two or three.

In terms of pure coding, we are two or three times more efficient. Other areas are even better. Some file maintenance and inquiry tasks that used to take two or three days to program

can now be generated in five to ten minutes. If you’re sensible, there’s a lot of those sorts of savings. AS/SET has some built-in formatting features. If you don’t try to change them for the sake of having something that looks just like what you had before, you can save a lot of time. We haven’t been able to measure improvements in maintenance and testing, but overall we are much more productive. At a conservative estimate, I’d say the entire department is 20 to 30 per cent more productive than it used to be.

One interesting aspect of Riviana’s experience is that the more experienced someone is with RPG, the longer it seems to take them to get to speed. It may be a case of teaching an old dog new tricks, programmers get used to one way of doing things. We expect that productivity will continue to improve in future, as we get more familiar with the way the program works.

We have gained two other productivity improvements apart from reduced development time. We have been isolated from RPG’s problems. RPG is not an easy language to use, and good RPG programmers are difficult to find. The new system forces us to implement standards and brings a consistency to how our programs are written and designed. It demands a certain level of discipline, which is a good thing. Riviana has always been a disciplined MIS shop, though we have never used a formal systems development methodology.

We are very standards-oriented around our database and its design. The AS/SET architecture and the flexibility of its data modelling facility are the perfect complement to this approach. A lot of our design work was done before we got the system, but we intend to make use of the data modelling capability a lot more extensively in future.Author: Lex Korngold is MIS manager for Victorian food importer and wholesaler Riviana Australia Pty Ltd.

In terms of pure coding, we are two or three times more efficient. Other areas are even better. Some file maintenance and inquiry tasks that used to take two or three days to program can now be generated in five to ten minutes.


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ACS IN VIEW

Profile of the PresidentGEOFF Dober is the ACS National President for the next two years. He is a Member, past-Chair- man and current Committee Member of the Victorian Branch.

Geoff, bom in Victoria in 1945, was educated at Carey Grammar. On the completion of an Economics degree at Monash University in 1966, he undertook the Programmer-in-Training course conducted by the Commonwealth Government while working for the Department of Supply.

His career progressed rapidly as he worked through the positions of analyst and senior analyst at CRA, Information and Systems Manager for Hammersley Iron, and Manager, Group Computing Services for CRA. In 1983 he was appointed to his current position of General Manager Information Services for Carlton and United Breweries (CUB).

Geoff became an ACS member in 1971 for the three reasons that he now uses to encourage other IT professionals, especially those just commencing their careers, to join. Firstly, he believes that the networking opportunities offered through his involvement with ACS enable him to extend his personal network throughout Australia and overseas.

Courage (UK), being among the first users of new technologies such as database, fibre optics, and artificial intelligence techniques in production scheduling. He has fond memories of the process control system he managed for the iron ore pellet plant and indurator at Hamersley Iron in the remote location of Dampier, Western Australia in 1976 when the equipment and software for such applications were in their infancy.

Geoff s interests outside the IT area include restoring old houses, drinking red wine and CUB beer, reading, coaching basketball, the music of Vivaldi and others, Fitzroy Football Club, his wife and two sons, not necessarily in that order!

The ACS has benefitted from Geoff’s commercial experience with business planning, and the implementation of such plans. As Victorian Branch Chairman he introduced the concept of a branch business plan and extended that to a National Business plan. He was primarily responsible for a major re-structure of ACS which will hopefully result in more effective management, the development and administration of the PCP scheme and the introduction of paid professional staff into Branch offices. He was the inaugural National Marketing Director in 1990 and National Vice- President in 1990 and 1991.

Geoff Dober

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Secondly, he believes most strongly that IT requires professional principles and rigorously applied professional standards if organisations are to realise IT’s potential benefits. For this to happen, the IT profession needs an infrastructure that ACS provides. Activities such as course accreditation and re-accreditation, membership processing, the organisation and administration of conferences, seminars, workshops and meetings, the preparation and distribution of journals and bulletins, the provision of advice to government and industry bodies, the promotion and enforcing of an IT code of ethics, can not be possible unless IT professionals are prepared to fund such activities through their membership subscriptions. Geoff believes that the support of such activities is fundamental if IT practitioners want to be considered as professionals.

Thirdly, he keeps up-to-date by attending ACS Conferences, seminar and meeting and participates in the Practising Computer Professional (PCP) scheme. Geoff is also a contributor at ACS activities which try wherever possible to have practitioners sharing their current work experiences. Geoff has outlined how CUB is implementing distributed processing, artificial intelligence, executive information systems, IT strategy planning and cross- disciplinary teams knowledge with his peers but also takes the opportunity to learn from the other speakers.

Geoff sees the major challenges facing the IT industry as surviving the recession and developing and exporting Australian services and software which he believes are world class. He divides the challenges facing ACS into two categories. The first, and most important, set of challenges relate to the ACS position in the market. He wants ACS to be seen as a relevant, vibrant and important part of the IT industry with a key role in developing IT policies in Australia. He wants to see all IT practitioners regard ACS membership as part of being an IT professional.

The second set of challenges relates to the internal operation of ACS. He wants to see ACS become result oriented, not analysis oriented. He wants to see significant improvement in the areas in which ACS is currently suffering from lack of profile, particularly in technical matter. He wants to ensure that ACS implements the business plan that it now has, updates it frequently and positions itself as the most relevant professional IT body in Australia. The most important of the challenges in this second set is to ensure that ACS concentrates on the first set of challenges.

Geofflooks forward to his two years as President and wants to hear the views of any members on the direction that ACS is taking. Address your comments to him at the National ACS office, PO Box 319, Darlinghurst 2010.

GeofFs career highlights include managing the implementation of his strategic IT plans for billion dollar companies — Hamersley Iron, CUB and

• This profile of the President is the first in a series of “Who's Who in ACS” articles that will appear on a regular basis.


ACS IN VIEW

1991 Membership survey results

MANY thanks to all of you who answered the 1991 membership survey distributed in August. We only received two or three totally vitriolic responses and thoroughly en

joyed some of the comments from our more witty members. We were overwhelmed with responses. We expected around 1000 but were delighted to receive close to 2000.

Obviously it is a waste of time to do a survey, wallow in the analysis of it but do absolutely nothing. This is not our intention. We plan to be extremely responsive to your feedback, but as you can imagine some changes will take longer than others.Membership cards

A significant number of you want membership cards and we are investigating the options for providing a quality, reasonably priced one. We will keep you posted on our progress. If any of you have good ideas on the best option we would be delighted to hear from you. A sufficiently high number wanted a bank affinity card but we have discovered that we do not have the critical mass necessary for a bank to be interested. Perhaps if we continue our current membership growth then it will not be long before we are large enough to warrant more interest from the banks. Changes to billing

The survey response showed that members wanted a variety of options when we change to cycle billing rather than the current January 1 billing date. You wouldn’t believe it but ... we will need to make some changes to the constitution to allow for changes (and build in future flexibility. Sometimes it seems that our constitution is rather like an old Assembler program!!)

Once we are able to offer you some flexibility we will move those who wish, to a mid-year billing date. Others who wish will remain on a January 1 date and, of course, all new members will be billed on the anniversary of their joining. This will spread the load of processing membership renewals but, much more importantly, it will make it easier to market ACS membership evenly throughout the year. At the moment we are conscious of the change to half fee at mid year and avoid marketing in the times when potential members perceive the fee to be unfair. Non-ACS use of mailing list

Almost half of those members responding were happy to make their contact details available for non-ACS use. Naturally we would vet the use. We will be asking you to indicate if you want your details provided to others and flag your membership record accordingly. Anyone wanting to buy some names from us would be required to provide our mailing house with copies of what

they want mailed to our members. We would charge all costs of the mailing to our client as well as a fee for the provision of targetted names.

We cannot start this until after our next subscription round so that we know which of you are interested in such mailings.Professional liability

388 members responded to this portion of the survey, the majority being sole traders, consultants or employees of small to medium-sized firms. Only a handful listed the premiums they are paying for any current policy but it is clear that less expensive cover could be provided through an ACS supported scheme. There was significant interest shown by members to make an ACS scheme feasible, and a detailed proposal was sought, has been received and is now being evaluated. We should have more news on this item next month.What you want more of

The most “wanted more of’ item on the list was “seeking employer recognition of ACS membership status.” Next most wanted was “advising Government on IT matters” and almost tying for third position were “Marketing ACS membership” and “Setting technical standards”.What you read

The listed publications in the order in which you say you read them are:

Professional ComputingACS Branch Bulletin/newsletterACJAustralian on Tuesday Computerworld Computing (now defunct)PCWFinancial Review on Monday So, that is good news for Professional Comput

ing. Advertisers, please take note!There was a wealth of information contained

in your responses and we do thank all those who answered. We will keep you informed of actions resulting from the survey through these pages.Inaugural ‘Exemplary Employer Award’

ACS has recognised Simsion Bowles & Associates as an exemplary employer. This inaugural award is given in recognition of the commitment of Simsion Bowles & Associates to the ongoing professional development of their staff.

Simsion Bowles & Associates employ 18 IT professionals all of whom are ACS members and all of whom will achieve PCP status during 1992. The Exemplary Employer Award recognises those employers of five or more IT professionals of whom 80 per cent are Practising Computer Professionals (PCPs).

The Exemplary Employer Award was accepted by Geoff Bowles from Simsion Bowles. “We believe that the PCP scheme deserves employer support. When companies are hiring contractors and consultants PCP status provides an objective measure of commitment to professional development.” he said. “There is an expectation when one pays consulting rates that the skills provided are up to date and the people are true professionals.”


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