CASE-Computer Aided Software Engineering has been one of the silver bullets. Lets look at the point slides from a presentation from late 1987 and see what can be learned relative to contemporary :
UpperCASE for Planning & Analysis
-Strategy Formulation Templates
-Business Area Analysis Diagrams
-Responsibility Matrix generators
-Process Simulation – GPSS, SIMAN, Dynamo, Flowcharter, etc
UpperCASE for Design
-ER Modeling and Diagramming
-Prototyper for Menus, Input Screens, Control Dialogs, and Reports
-State Transition/Process modeling
-Reconciler: Requirements to PLans to Plan Changes
LowerCASE for Build/Code/Test
-Visual Designer for menus, tooolbars, data screens
-Visual Report/Chart Designer and Code generator
-Database Query & Browser tool
-IDE-Integrated Development for Edit/Interpret/Debug
-Decision Tree Generator
-Fast linker and deploy tool
OperCase for Introduction and Implementation
-Automated Test routines and process for module and integration tests
-Helpfile Generator
-Auto Flowcharter and System diagrammer
OperCASE for System Maintenance
-Profiler for Pergormanvce Tuning
-Automated test Routine harness
-Help Desk Chronicle of bugs /defects/changes
-Re-engineering tools: Code to flowchart, schemas to ER Diagram