Architecture for Intelligent Assistance in Software Development

摘要

The authors define an architecture for a software engineering environment that behaves as an intelligent assistant. This architecture consists of two key aspects, an objectbase and a model of the software development process. The objectbase is adapted from other research, but the model is unique in that it consists primarily of rules that define the preconditions and multiple postconditions of software development tools. Metarules define forward and backward chaining among the rules. The most significant contribution is opportunistic processing, whereby the environment automatically performs software development activities at some time between when their preconditions are satisfied and when their postconditions are required. Further, this model defines strategies that guide the assistant in choosing an appropriate point for carrying out each activity. (Author)