Our highly integrated enterprise framework for developing business applications.

• Why IOP
• IOP in technical jargon

The basis of every project in IOP is a model. First, we choose the right language or format to describe the model. There are different modeling languages and depths to choose from depending on infrastructures (programming language, target environment, database) and skillsets.

IOP follows the Model Driven Architecture (MDA) approach of the OMG, especially for modeling the static and dynamic parts of an application.

• The static part of the application – the entity objects in the various business domains – is modeled using UML class diagrams. This supports concepts such as inheritance, composition, aggregation and behavior. The static model is translated using generators into the corresponding target formats, especially Java, usually also into a database language (SQL).
• The dynamic part of the application – the workflows – is represented in XPDL. Here, too, generators translate the modeling format into a target format to be used at runtime.

Thus, both modeling methods consist of a design portion and a runtime portion. The design portion is necessary only during generation, whereas the runtime portion is relied on during execution of the actual application.

Development process

Similar to modeling, the development process must also conform to the existing infrastructure and given skillsets. IOP allows the involvement of developers with different skills and interests according to their abilities.

For example, the process can be divided into analysis, design and implementation, or perhaps framework development versus application development. Framework development means expanding the basic IOP functions as well as linking/supporting external systems to/through IOP, including, for instance, specific drivers (such as web services), a special content management system or modeling tools.

The development process starts with the creation of a static and dynamic model in the corresponding modeling languages, UML and XPDL.

To obtain early feedback from end users and avoid mistakes, the storyboard, i.e. a visual representation of the user interface, is an essential part of the initial phase of a project.

The basic architecture of IOP then allows the assignment of skills or teams to individual building blocks, such as interface design, workflow and component development, integration of external systems (devices/drivers) and the optimization of queries (generic as well as manually created).

The IOP development process requires no specific process model but rather is integrated into existing models.