[Sigia-l] CASE Tools (was Word HTML - money were my mouth is (was When Should a Manual be Web-based?))

[Chris Chandler]

"John O'Donovan" wrote:

> Chris,
>
> In danger of subverting the discussion at a tangent, but you should really
> consider using a CASE tool to generate your specification documentation from
> requirements, analysis, data schems and wireframes etc. - especially if you
> are writing a lot of specifications.


I'll see your subversion and raise: isn't that a bit like saying that I should be using a CMS for managing content on my
web site? Here's one random quote:

"Unfortunately, for some software developers CASE has become a four-letter word. One obvious reason for this is some
CASE tool vendors exaggerate the capabilities of their products. In other cases, the wrong CASE tool was chosen for the
project, or there was little understanding of how the use of CASE tools affects software productivity schedules."

More seriously -- over the last two years I've mostly been an independent consultant/contractor, with virtually no (ok,
zero) influence on the tools being used on the projects I've worked on. Does it make sense to use a CASE tool if your
developers aren't? If so, is there an open source tool that you would recommend for us on a consultants budget? If so,
can I make the documents produced windows -- friendly?

(I did work last year for a company that was standardizing on Rational for their developers, but the price of the
requirements package was pretty substantial and they weren't planning on purchasing it for a while.

I'd be very interested to hear what CASE tool you use and recommend, and from any other IA's out there using CASE tools
to create/manage requirements.

-cc