A hypertext system to manage software life cycle documents

A description is given of the DIF documents integration facility, a hypertext system that helps integrate and manage the documents produced and used throughout the life cycle of software projects. it was designed for use in the System Factory, a six-year-old experimental laboratory project at USC to study the development, use, and maintenance of software systems. DIF provides an interface to a hypertext-based information storage structure and to a structured documentation process, A hypertext of software information is built by the software engineers over eight life cycle activities. Salient aspects of DIF include integration of documents within and across several projects, facilities for browsing a hypertext of software documents, support for parallel development of documents, interface to various software-engineering tools, and facilitation of document reuse.<>