Knowledge intensive software engineering tools

Most software engineering tools use a shallow representation of software objects and manipulate this representation using procedural methods. This approach allows one to get off to a fast start and quickly provides a tool that delivers benefits. However, a point will be reached where more knowledge-intensive approaches will be needed to achieve significantly higher levels of capability. The authors suggest that the software engineering tools of the future will have to rely on: deep representation to capture a sufficiently large part of knowledge about programming in general and particular programs; inspection methods to deal with complexity; and intelligent assistance.<>