Improving information system development and evolution using a rule-based paradigm

Abstract

The problems inherent in the task of developing and maintaining information systems have received wide coverage. The need for more comprehensive approaches to system development has never been so great. The paper is concerned with the problems of developing and enhancing large, data-intensive, transaction-oriented systems (Business Information Systems). The essential problem with these systems is their inflexibility to change, compounded by the fact that most contemporary software processes fail to adequately address the specific problem of system evolution. The paper argues that the development of information systems requires the adoption of a new paradigm which recognises the explicit separation of organisational policy from programming code. This paradigm is regarded as an extension of contemporary practices which treat data and interfaces as being separate from application programs. A rule-based development environment, known as RUBRIC, is described, which serves as the means of achieving the objectives of this new paradigm.