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REAL WORLD
OBJECTS

PRODUCTIVITY REUSABILITY

DEVELOPMENT
BEFORE

GENERATED THE FACT MODEL
CODE RELIABILITY

FIGURE 49.1 The development before the fact paradigm.

magnificent structures from these tinker toys. Indeed, tinker toys are built from blocks that are architected
to be perpetually reusable, perfectly integratable, and infinitely user-friendly.
One approach that follows this preventative philosophy is development before the fact (DBTF), as
shown in Fig. 49.1. Not yet in the mainstream, it has been used successfully by research and “trail blazer”
organizations and is now being adopted for more commercial use. This technology is described in order
to illustrate, by example, the potential that preventative approaches have.
Where traditional approaches begin the process of developing software after the fact, the DBTF
paradigm is very much about beginnings. It was derived from the combination of steps taken to solve
the problems of traditional systems engineering and software development. DBTF includes a technology,
a language, and a process (or methodology) based on a formal theory.

Language
Once understood, the characteristics of good design can be reused by incorporating them into a language
for defining any system (i.e., not just a software system). One language based on DBTF is a formalism
for representing the mathematics of systems. A system defined with this language has properties that
come along “for the ride” that in essence control its own destiny. Based on a theory (DBTF) that extends
traditional mathematics of systems with a unique concept of control, this formal, but friendly language
has embodied within it a natural representation of the physics of time and space. With this language,
every object is a system-oriented object (SOO), an integration that includes aspects of being function
oriented (including dynamics) and object oriented. Instead of systems being object oriented, objects are
systems oriented. All systems are objects and all objects are systems.
Because of this, many things heretofore not believed possible with traditional methods are possible.
A DBTF system inherently integrates all of its own objects (and all aspects, relationships, and viewpoints
of these objects) and the combinations of functionality, including timing, using these objects; maximizes
its own reliability and flexibility to change (including the change of target requirements, static and
dynamic architectures, and processes and as well reconfiguration in real time); capitalizes on its own
parallelism and traceability; supports its own run-time performance analysis; and maximizes the potential
for its own reuse (providing inherent resource allocation and reuse without need for the designer’s
intervention); and it provides the ability to automate design and development wherever and whenever
possible. Each DBTF system is defined with built-in quality, built-in productivity, and built-in control.
The language—meta-language, really—is the key to DBTF. Its main attribute is to help the designer reduce
the complexity and bring clarity into his thinking process, turning it into the ultimate reusable, which is
wisdom itself. It can be used to define any aspect of any system and integrate it with any other aspect.

©2002 CRC Press LLC