Engineering databases, tools, and management: an integration framework

The authors define their approach to meeting the requirements for EISs (engineering information systems). They describe the notion of a framework of specifications and support services that make interoperable hetergeneous software tools and servers and data repositories to produce EISs. The framework is, essentially a ´glue´ for making incompatible components interoperate. It is independent of the actual components it glues together. The authors contend that a generic glue system is preferable to specific services to glue together an organization´s particular software and data for two reasons: First, it is reusable for any number of organizations, as long as it includes mechanisms for tailoring the results to the requirements of each organization. Second, it automatically provides for extensibility of the resulting systems.<>