When software engineers begin the development of a software system, they begin with an initial blueprint of the system. As a project matures, modules in the system are either deleted, exploded (functionality is distributed into two or more new modules), imploded (functionality of two or more modules is combined into a single module) or added (functionality was not present in the earlier system). Until now, there has been no systematic approach to keep track of a module's developmental history. However, it has been partially traced by including a date in the module's description, but this neither provides insight into the ancestry of the modules nor insight into the module's explosion history. To begin the support of this capability of tracking modules according to their lineage, Design Tracker (DT) will provide the following capabilities:
The sequences of adding, deleting, exploding and imploding will continue until the system designer has completed the design. These are the designer's choices and DT will record them. Once these events are recorded, DT is also able to uniquely identify sets of modules.
We, the Design Metrics Research Team, believe that if we can record designers melding and shaping their designs and subsequently analyze this process, that a whole new wealth of information will occur for design.
Status: Prototype and engine completed. Designing interface.