Expert workstation for information systems development

Explicit abstraction levels are used to organize decision making in information system analysis and design. These levels partition the concerns of a system analyst/designer at particular points in time. A methodology for the information system analysis/design is seen as a series of multiple systems specifications on different description levels. An ongoing investigation of a set of formalized techniques that support the production of such description levels for an information system is presented. New methodologies can be created and new analysis/design styles can be developed by providing appropriately chosen sets of transformation rules governing the transitions between the levels. To test these ideas, the authors are in the process of developing a prototype of an expert workstation for analysis/design of information systems. The workstation is being used to experiment with different methodologies for information system analysis and design. The goal is to propose the generic methodology, and to identify the relationships between generic analysis/design activities, to develop a taxonomy of information systems applications, to build reusable skeletal systems for applications in each class, and to develop a library of design cases.<>