Assessing the potentials of CASE-tools in software process improvement: a benchmarking study

CASE tools have been thought as one of the most important means for implementing the derived quality programs. Two basic questions should be answered to find the right CASE tool: what attributes the CASE tools should exhibit and how the existing tools can be ranked according to their capability to support the quality program goals. We propose our solution based on the concept of software benchmarking. First, we summarise the QR method, and then we report on how it was applied in CASE tools assessment. Next we derive appropriate benchmark sets for CASE tools on the base of the CMM, the standard ISO 9000 and the MBNQA-criteria. We propose and implement a framework for CASE tools evaluation and selection.