Shared data management mechanism for distributed software development based on a reflective object-oriented model

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a new object-oriented mechanism to manage shared data in distributed software development with following features. 1. Workspace Manager Object and Artifact Object manage the range of responsibility for a software engineer's task and control data sharing. 2. Autonomous Mediator Object supports negotiation relevant to the modification of shared data and coordination for the negotiation. 3. Each object has a meta-object. By the mechanism, it is possible to dynamically select available actions based on a variety of situations. In the software development environment having these features, a software engineer can work having the only knowledge about the range of responsibility for his task and the relationships with other engineers who share data with him. In addition, the environment provides a mechanism to change policies flexibly in a cooperative work style for data sharing and modification of shared data.