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Introduction
General
Software development projects are typically staffed by a large number of software engineers, each working simultaneously on different parts of the same system. This requires careful coordination and version control of the different parts of the system. Normally, stable (well-defined) versions of a system are stored in a central storage area (in this chapter named the original area) accessible for each user. The original area is typically either:
- A directory containing different versions of the system managed by a version or revision control system, e.g. RCS, CM SYNERGY or ClearCase.
- An ordered set of directories, where each directory represents one version of the system and contains the information that has changed as compared to the previous version. For example, version 1 of the system PBX may be stored in the directory PBX-1 which contains version 1 of all parts of the system PBX. Version 2 of the system PBX is then stored in the directory PBX-2 which contains only the parts of the system that has changed in comparison to PBX-1.
In addition, each project member may have his own work area where he temporarily stores the parts of the system he is currently working on. Furthermore, a project may also use a reference area which contains one or more packages of information that are shared between different projects.
This way of working is supported by the Organizer tool. It allows the members of a project to work independently, but in a coordinated and structured way. In particular, the tool supports:
- Individual customization of the user environment.
- Easy visualization of the SDL system's contents, in terms of SDL packages and diagrams, Message Sequence Charts and physical files.
- Updating of versions from each individual user's work area to the shared original area.
- Copying of SDL diagrams and Message Sequence Charts between different storage areas.
Improved Support
To facilitate the management of more complex projects, the SDL Suite can be integrated to control systems that are used to manage versions and revisions. Example of such systems are RCS, CM SYNERGY and ClearCase. The Organizer can easily be customized in order to extend the menus commands with support for "check-in", "check-out" and "update" operations. The extensions are defined in textual files that contain the definitions of the names of the menus and commands, what operations they will call in the control system, what objects are the subject of the operation, etc.
The rest of this chapter is organized as follows:
- Diagram Binding describes the principles for how diagrams and other documents are connected to files.
- How to Manage the Diagrams in a Project describes how the tools can be used to manage the SDL diagrams in a project environment.
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