DOCKET: program comprehension-in-the-large

Abstract

With the growing awareness of the importance of software maintenance, has come a re-evaluation of software maintenance tools. Such tools range from source code analysers to semi-intelligent tools which seek to reconstruct systems designs and specification documents from source code. However, it is clear that relying solely upon source code as the basis for reverse engineering has many problems. This paper proposes the need for program comprehension-in-the-large and describes the work of the Esprit DOCKET project which seeks to provide such a support capability. The DOCKET project has developed a prototype environment to support the development of a system model linking user-oriented, business aspects of a system, to operational code using a variety of knowledge source inputs: code, documents and user expertise. The aim is to provide a coherent model to form the basis for system and program understanding and to support the software change and evolution process.<>