Systems Engineering Tool for Software Requirements Management and RAD

Immediate Benefits Download Free Demo

Reduce your systems engineering staffing needs by man-months
Produce logical models without any additional effort beyond entering requirements
Jump-start your software design process earlier than you ever thought possible
Expose inconsistencies and ambiguity among your system requirements
Avoid conflicting interpretations of your system specifications
Enforce the creation of build-able and testable requirements for sell-off

RAD from the Source...your System Requirements

There are several products available today that speed-up preliminary design, detailed design, and code generation, but very few that actually try to speed-up the analysis process beyond the integration of slick drawing packages with other CASE tools. And yet the systems analysis phase typically takes as long as the implementation phase—if not longer—on most software development projects! Consider the following diagram from Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World by Satzinger, Jackson, and Burd. Notice the duration of the systems analysis phase.

With Leap SE, you can shorten both the analysis phase and the overall duration of your project.

Leap SE is more than a requirements repository. It’s a CASE tool with benefits “immediately realized”—particularly by your software development team, which can get an immediate head start on design. For Extreme Programming (XP) and Agile development methodologies, Leap SE enables both object and data models to grow with every saved requirement, and with every new release.

Avoid Being a "Challenged" IT Project

According to the Standish Group’s CHAOS report—a study of 8,380 IT projects, it was found that more than half of the IT projects studied were “challenged”. That is, they were delivered with reduced functionality, over-budget, or beyond the estimated schedule. The top three contributing factors cited:

The importance of crafting quality requirements cannot be overstated. As Karl Wiegers writes in Software Testing and Quality Engineering magazine: “The path to quality software begins with excellent requirements. Slighting the processes of requirements development and management is a common cause of software project frustration and failure.” (January/February 2000)

Requirements Engineering for Project Success

Requirements engineering during the systems analysis phase is so critical, and yet remains the weak link of so many software development projects. Tools like DOORS© and Agile™ are great for configuration management, and can certainly help organize and track your system requirements, but they are not designed to accelerate the analysis process. They are not RAD tools.

Leap SE enables systems engineers to “leap over” a substantial part of the systems analysis effort. When the customer is dissatisfied, when the schedule is slipping, and when lawyers are on-call, systems engineers stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Program Management sweating on the front lines. And nobody enjoys work during those trying times.

So after years of grammatical analysis and research firmly rooted in UML, Leap Systems developed a sophisticated methodology (called Deterministic Phraseology, or DP) for translating natural English sentences into a single, unified object model of the target software system. Output takes the form of class header files and SQL for producing entity-relationship diagrams (ERDs).

A Practical Design Philosophy

Focusing on what hasn’t been done, Leap Systems set about creating an application that would implement the DP methodology while maximizing user productivity. From the onset, an easy-to-use interface was considered a cornerstone of Leap SE’s design philosophy. Requirement composition, we felt, should be as easy as typing in a sentence, and there should be little if any constraints on freedom of expression. To that end, 21 templates were developed along with a Requirement Builder. A scratch pad is provided with every template, as well as a preview area and labeled fields for quick tabbing and typing. For even faster composition, saved requirements can be used as pre-populated templates for new requirements that follow much the same wording.

Based on analysis, roughly 94% of all system requirements should be suitable accommodated by Leap SE’s 21 templates. For that tricky 6%, however, there is the Requirement Builder, a powerful resource that provides full access to the flexibility of DP.

What Kind of Models are Produced?

Leap SE turns English sentences into an object model that is relationally maintained. From this object model database, your system object model is generated in the form of C++ header files. This does not mean your project needs to use the C++ language. Header file output is merely a format that Leap SE uses to render your system object model. Header files should be readily understood by your software engineering team and can be easily imported into other CASE tools. For instance, you can import your header files directly into a reverse engineering CASE tool, such as Rational^© Analyzer, and immediately begin printing class diagrams!

In addition to object model output, Leap SE also provides data model output (new in Leap SE 2.0). Output is rendered in the form of an SQL file that can be run in MS Access (or another RDBMS) to instantly create all the tables and relationships defined by your system requirements, complete with referential integrity constraints. From Entity-relationship diagrams can then be printed for a graphical illustration of your system data model.

Why Re-invent the Wheel?

Why develop a homegrown RDBMS, or flat-file database management system, when virtually every systems development organization today has Oracle, Microsoft Access, DB/2, or some other RDBMS readily available? This question was posed by our development staff early on. Turning natural English into both UML and a relational model seemed daunting enough. So after careful deliberation, the designers of Leap SE decided to use ODBC to ensure interoperability with different RDBMS products. Microsoft Access was chosen as Leaps SE’s initial database file format after research revealed that Access had the largest installed base worldwide. Depending on customer demand, interoperability with other products, such as Oracle, will be supported in future releases. Please sign our guest book and let us know what you would like to see in the next version of Leap SE.

Why is Leap SE so Competitively Priced?

By relying on the querying and reporting features of an established RDBMS, such as Microsoft Access, Leap Systems is able to pass the savings on to you. Download our free demo and take your own personal tour of Leap SE, or watch the introductory video. Visit our pricing page for licensing information, or contact us at techsupport@leapse.com.


Leap SE	Systems Engineering, Business Rules and RAD

Contact: sales@leapse.com	Requirements Central Template Navigators Templates Requirement Builder Pricing Home
*-------------------------------------------* Leap SE is a CASE tool that turns system requirements directly into object models for software development. More than a Requirements Management application, Leap SE shortens the systems development lifecycle and accelerates rapid application development (RAD). *-------------------------------------------* PAGE MAP RAD from the Source...your System Requirements Avoid Being a "Challenged" IT Project Requirements Engineering for Project Success *Designed by Systems Engineers for* Systems Engineers A Practical Design Philosophy What Kind of Models are Produced? Why Re-invent the Wheel? Why is Leap SE so Competitively Priced? FAQ Forum "What percentage of your program is spent on systems analysis?" Award Winning Software**	Immediate Benefits Download Free Demo Reduce your systems engineering staffing needs by man-months Produce logical models without any additional effort beyond entering requirements Jump-start your software design process earlier than you ever thought possible Expose inconsistencies and ambiguity among your system requirements Avoid conflicting interpretations of your system specifications Enforce the creation of build-able and testable requirements for sell-off RAD from the Source...your System Requirements There are several products available today that speed-up preliminary design, detailed design, and code generation, but very few that actually try to speed-up the analysis process beyond the integration of slick drawing packages with other CASE tools. And yet the systems analysis phase typically takes as long as the implementation phase—if not longer—on most software development projects! Consider the following diagram from Systems Analysis and Design in a Changing World by Satzinger, Jackson, and Burd. Notice the duration of the systems analysis phase. With Leap SE, you can shorten both the analysis phase *and* the overall duration of your project. Leap SE is more than a requirements repository. It’s a CASE tool with benefits “immediately realized”—particularly by your software development team, which can get an immediate head start on design. For Extreme Programming (XP) and Agile development methodologies, Leap SE enables both object and data models to grow with every saved requirement, and with every new release. Home Back to Top Avoid Being a "Challenged" IT Project According to the Standish Group’s CHAOS report—a study of 8,380 IT projects, it was found that more than half of the IT projects studied were “challenged”. That is, they were delivered with reduced functionality, over-budget, or beyond the estimated schedule. The top three contributing factors cited: lack of user involvement (12.8%) incomplete requirements (12.3%) changing requirements (11.8%). The importance of crafting quality requirements cannot be overstated. As Karl Wiegers writes in Software Testing and Quality Engineering magazine: “The path to quality software begins with excellent requirements. Slighting the processes of requirements development and management is a common cause of software project frustration and failure.” (January/February 2000) Home Back to Top Requirements Engineering for Project Success Requirements engineering during the systems analysis phase is so critical, and yet remains the weak link of so many software development projects. Tools like DOORS© and Agile™ are great for configuration management, and can certainly help organize and track your system requirements, but they are not designed to accelerate the analysis process. They are not RAD tools. Home Back to Top Designed by Systems Engineers for Systems Engineers Leap SE enables systems engineers to “leap over” a substantial part of the systems analysis effort. When the customer is dissatisfied, when the schedule is slipping, and when lawyers are on-call, systems engineers stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Program Management sweating on the front lines. And nobody enjoys work during those trying times. So after years of grammatical analysis and research firmly rooted in UML, Leap Systems developed a sophisticated methodology (called Deterministic Phraseology, or DP) for translating natural English sentences into a single, unified object model of the target software system. Output takes the form of class header files and SQL for producing entity-relationship diagrams (ERDs). Home Back to Top A Practical Design Philosophy Focusing on what hasn’t been done, Leap Systems set about creating an application that would implement the DP methodology while maximizing user productivity. From the onset, an easy-to-use interface was considered a cornerstone of Leap SE’s design philosophy. Requirement composition, we felt, should be as easy as typing in a sentence, and there should be little if any constraints on freedom of expression. To that end, 21 templates were developed along with a Requirement Builder. A scratch pad is provided with every template, as well as a preview area and labeled fields for quick tabbing and typing. For even faster composition, saved requirements can be used as pre-populated templates for new requirements that follow much the same wording. Based on analysis, roughly 94% of all system requirements should be suitable accommodated by Leap SE’s 21 templates. For that tricky 6%, however, there is the Requirement Builder, a powerful resource that provides full access to the flexibility of DP. Home Back to Top What Kind of Models are Produced? Leap SE turns English sentences into an object model that is relationally maintained. From this object model database, your system object model is generated in the form of C++ header files. This does not mean your project needs to use the C++ language. Header file output is merely a format that Leap SE uses to render your system object model. Header files should be readily understood by your software engineering team and can be easily imported into other CASE tools. For instance, you can import your header files directly into a reverse engineering CASE tool, such as Rational^© Analyzer, and immediately begin printing class diagrams! In addition to object model output, Leap SE also provides data model output (new in Leap SE 2.0). Output is rendered in the form of an SQL file that can be run in MS Access (or another RDBMS) to instantly create all the tables and relationships defined by your system requirements, complete with referential integrity constraints. From Entity-relationship diagrams can then be printed for a graphical illustration of your system data model. Home Back to Top Why Re-invent the Wheel? Why develop a homegrown RDBMS, or flat-file database management system, when virtually every systems development organization today has Oracle, Microsoft Access, DB/2, or some other RDBMS readily available? This question was posed by our development staff early on. Turning natural English into both UML and a relational model seemed daunting enough. So after careful deliberation, the designers of Leap SE decided to use ODBC to ensure interoperability with different RDBMS products. Microsoft Access was chosen as Leaps SE’s initial database file format after research revealed that Access had the largest installed base worldwide. Depending on customer demand, interoperability with other products, such as Oracle, will be supported in future releases. Please sign our guest book and let us know what you would like to see in the next version of Leap SE. Home Back to Top Why is Leap SE so Competitively Priced? By relying on the querying and reporting features of an established RDBMS, such as Microsoft Access, Leap Systems is able to pass the savings on to you. Download our free demo and take your own personal tour of Leap SE, or watch the introductory video. Visit our pricing page for licensing information, or contact us at techsupport@leapse.com. At Leap Systems, we're committed to making your project a success. Home Back to Top
*Leap SE. . . rapid application development from the source.*	*"Capture your business rules and software requirements with Leap SE—the CASE tool that allows you to automatically generate object models and “leap over” systems engineering."*
Copyright © 2007, Leap Systems.	For product information and sales: sales@leapse.com

Systems Engineering, Business Rules and RAD

Leap SE is a CASE tool that turns system requirements directly into object models for software development. More than a Requirements Management application, Leap SE shortens the systems development lifecycle and accelerates rapid application development (RAD).