Balancing Process-Centric and Data-Centric Software Development

In software development, it pays to balance process-centric and data-centric viewpoints. Process-centric emphasizes system logic and can prevent unstructured (spaghetti) code. Data-centric emphasizes how the system ingests, transforms and stores data. It reduces redundancy, complexity, and errors. The right development tools lock in a blended approach. Unified Modeling Language (UML) focuses sharply on process modeling; IBM Rational's Rhapsody is the premiere UML tool. A key data-centric tool is McObject's eXtremeDB embedded database, which integrates as a plug-in for Rhapsody. This white paper uses Rhapsody and eXtremeDB to illustrate the blended approach, with practical examples for improving embedded software development project results.