As we move toward the 21st century, the techniques, tools, technologies, and subject matter of applications development are changing radically. Globalization of the work place is impacting IS development as well, by pressuring organizations to strive for competitive advantage through automation, among other methods. Strategic IS, reusable designs, downsizing, right-sizing, multimedia databases, and reusable code are all discussed in the same breath. Methodologies are being successfully coupled to computer-aided software engineering environments (CASE); yet object-oriented methodologies, which are being touted as the panacea for all problems, have not yet been fully automated ... or even fully articulated. Few if any tools, methods or techniques address the needs of artificial intelligence and expert system development, which are currently driven by the program language being used for development. New technologies for true distribution of processing are maturing, and integration across hardware and software platforms is the major IS concern in multiple industries.

The goal of this book, then, is to discuss project planning, project life cycles, methodologies, technologies, techniques, tools, languages, testing, ancillary technologies (e.g., database), and computer-aided software engineering (CASE). For each topic, alternatives, benefits and disadvantages are discussed.