NATURAL PROCESS Extends NATURAL to Operations Center

SOUTHWEST
continued from page 31
Demo of AUTO-MATE Plus CASE
Tool
Elise Rabalais and Roger Learmouth
presented LBMS' CASE package,
AUTO-MATE PLUS.
A bridge is available from LBMS
that allows the user to take data
from PREDICT 2.2 to AUTO-
MATE-PLUS for creating the sys-
tem design, and send the data back
to PREDICT 2.2 to update
documentation.
Open Forum
The last order of business was an
open forum where general business
was discussed.
NORTHWEST REGION
Bill Andersen,
Washington State,
Presents On
"Integrated
Systems"
Loretta Eaves
Paul Bregger
The September 18th meeting of the
Northwest Region was attended by
34 members from 18 organizations
and featured a presentation on
IRMsoft (a software development
package), a talk on "Integrated Sys-
tems" by Bill Anderson, and "A
Case for CASE" from the Washing-
ton State University.
The first topic was presented by
Alan Shue from IRM Associates.
IRMsoft is a software development
tool developed entirely in
NATURAL for Washington State
Data Processing Service Center. The
methodology it uses is consistent
with James Martin's strategic data
planning.
Alan gave us an overview of busi-
ness modelling, data modelling
using information resource man-
agement (IRM) techniques, and a
data driven approach to integrated
system's design. The software
package interfaces with PREDICT
for ease of use in development. In
response to questions concerning
IRMsoft's availability, Alan said
SC1 may make it available or mar-
ket it, but no specific plans have
been made. Current status is
"Under Development."
The IRMsoft demo had to be post-
poned due to TP technical prob-
lems. Using overheads instead,
Alan demonstrated menu handling,
screen standards, and function key
definitions for menu navigation ac-
cording to the business model
hierarchy. Direct access to the pro-
cedure level, online & batch report-
ing, and report selection criteria
were also among the features
discussed.
After lunch, the IRMsoft online
demo proceeded. Program structure
and stacks were built "on the fly"
within the business model as the
start of application design. Demon-
strated features included:
create functions, process, activ-
ity, procedure
execute procedure
view entities
a list entity for select
create entity
create relationship
define cardinalities
display all relationships asso-
ciated with an entity
create logical data group
create data element attributed
to LDG
display entities
display data elements
0 link to PREDICT for data ele-
ment information
"SAG Time" began with Account
Manager Jerry Kinder introducing
Greg Balder, a potential customer.
Jerry also encouraged attendance at
the Miami conference for informa-
tion on ADABAS 5 and other new
products.
Jerry announced that NET-PASS (a
VTAM front end session manager)
is discounted 20% until November.
A flier is available describing the
product. Bill Linker, scheduled to
return from Alaska on Monday, will
be available to meet with individ-
uals interested in NATURAL
ELITE, an online tutorial with au-
thoring capability.
After a break, Program Coordinator
Steve Baker discussed some infor-
mation on training options. Steve
noted that 80 people attended the
free training on ADABAS given by
Software AG and hosted at Weyer-
haeuser. Thanks were extended to
both organizations.
Steve Bradley, secretary for Execu-
tive Committee, asked for volun-
teers for position of User Survey
Coordinator. Duties to include:
Survey composition
Distribution
Analysis of results
Presentation to executive
committee
For more information, or if in-
terested in volunteering for this
task, attendees should contact:
Carlo Scagnelli-Executive
Committee President
A few announcements concerning
the International Conference fol-
lowed. It is to have seven consecu-
tive tracks, including a manage-
ment track. There will be no key-
note speaker for the technical track.
Bill Anderson, Washington State
Department of Labor and Indus-
tries, began a talk on the subject of
"Integrated Systems." He argued
that applications should be built to
be shared, and to utilize shared
data. To do so requires strategic
plans, the employment of 4GL's,
and use of data dependencies and
precedences to do application
planning. Standards for hardware
and software, programming,
screens, skeleton programs and
prototypes should all be in place.
Bill outlined the important features
of integrated systems, and pre-
sented counter-arguments to those
objections likely to be raised when
considering integrated systems de-
velopment. Finally, he outlined his
organization's strategy and
approach.
Dave Wells of WSU presented "A
Case for CASE (Computer Assisted
Systems1 Software Engineering)".
Dave showed us some of the tools
that WSU programmerslanalysts
have on their PC workstations to
enhance productivity. These in-
clude BRACKETS, STRUCTURES1
PC, GEMDRAW, XEDIT, NATURAL
CONNECTION, and MENUS. Col-
lectively, they represent a progres-
sive automation of the software de-
velopment process. This automa-
tion has not be especially expen-
sive. Some suggestions offered
included: