When software is being created by distributed teams of software
engineers, it is necessary to manage the
work-flow, processes, and artefacts which are involved in the
engineering process. The GENESIS project aims to address some of the
technical issues involved by providing a software system to support
distributed development. One of the parts of the system will be known
as OSCAR, a repository for managing distributed artefacts. Artefacts
can be process models, software components, design documents, or any
other kind of entity associated with the software engineering
process. OSCAR will be designed as a light-weight distributed system,
managing the storage and access to a distributed repository of
artefacts.
This paper presents and discusses the requirements for OSCAR, and
suggests a possible architecture for a software system which will meet
those requirements. OSCAR will be a reliable and light-weight
distributed system, managing both artefacts and meta-data
corresponding to the artefacts. Users of OSCAR will be able to access
the distributed repository through a local interface, using the
searching and indexing capabilities of the system to locate and
retrieve components. OSCAR must be able to store and retrieve both
artefacts and meta-data efficiently. It must be possible for OSCAR to
inter-operate with existing artefact management systems (such as CVS)
and to collect metrics about the contents of and accesses to the
repository.
The next stage in the GENESIS project is to complete the requirements
for the whole of the system (in addition to the OSCAR sub-system) and
then to design the software. The software will initially be developed
in a traditional closed-source fashion until the first release is
finished. After the first release, the GENESIS software will become
open source, and will be developed accordingly
