Automated Enterprise Software Development

Abstract

The preferred embodiment provides a system and method for automatically generating enterprise software applications with minimal level of manual coding. The preferred embodiment provide a graphical design tool that models an application using Unified Model Language (UML), validate the UML model, and automatically generate deployable application. The preferred embodiment also provides a framework of libraries that the target application can be build from.

1 . A method for generating a software application using a computer system, comprising the steps of:
 (a) modeling business processes in a graphical design tool  410  implemented in said computer system;   (b) creating, in said computer system, at least one UML model to formalize the business processes modeled in step (a) by using one or more state diagrams to represent the modeled business processes, and one or more class diagrams to represent data models and to represent predetermined business rules that are applied to the modeled business processes;   (c) validating, in said computer system, the at least one UML model  420  by detecting syntax errors using a predetermined syntax, to validate either said one or more state diagrams or said one or more class diagrams, or a combination of said one or more state diagrams and said one or more class diagrams; and   (d) transforming, in said computer system, said at least one UML model validated in step (c) into metadata that are used to generate functional and non-functional aspects of the software application.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the transforming step includes generating the software application  430 . 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the generated software application is combined with pre-existing libraries  440 . 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the generated software application is combined with manually written code  450 . 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the metadata comprise at least one of application code, constraint models, automata files, and documentation. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the generated application includes a predefined set of functional requirements. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the generated application includes a predefined set of non-functional requirements. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7  wherein the predefined set of non functional requirements includes at least one of security management, load balancing, transaction management, user interfaces, and a skeleton on which to build algorithms. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the generating step includes adding manually written code to the generated application. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising deploying the target application by means of a deployment tool  490 . 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the syntax includes Stereotypes ( ) for classes (composite, constrainable, entity, macro, viewable), states (loadable), fields (ASP, code, same as, sequence, transient, unique), and relations (code, list, map, set, transient, unique). 
     
     
         12 . A method for generating a software application using a computer system, comprising the steps of:
 (a) modeling business processes in a graphical design tool  410  implemented in said computer system;   (b) creating, in said computer system, at least one UML model to formalize the business processes modeled in step (a) by using state diagrams to represent the modeled business processes, and class diagrams to represent data models and to represent predetermined rules that are applied to the modeled business processes;   (c) validating, in said computer system, the at least one UML model  420  by detecting syntax errors using a predetermined syntax, to validate said state diagrams, said class diagrams, or a combination of said state diagrams and said class diagrams; and   (d) generating said software application  430  such that said software application can be deployed to a server by transforming the validated UML models into source code, combining the transformed code with pre-existing libraries, and configuration files.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein step (d) comprises transforming the validated UML model into metadata that are used to generate functional and non-functional aspects of the software application.