Mission critical real-time application

From a user's perspective, the team at Landis & Gyr were struck by the precision and the amount of detail the Kennedy Carter tool required. Landis & Gyr also made extensive use of Kennedy Carter's product to simulate the execution of the application. The simulator uses the analysis captured in the modelling tool database and executes the application. "To give you some idea of how robust and mission critical the project is, we're using batteries within the customer display terminal that have a lifetime of several years. This system has to go in and work from day one, and not be touched again for years to come." "We needed a method that supported object orientation and real-time applications.The key goal was to find a rigorous method that enforced consistency between the design of the system and the code generated from that design."

Project Management

By its very nature, executable modelling involves tracking any anomalies that occur anywhere in the system back to the analysis stage. This loop continues until everything is correct. Matt Hamblin explains: "This process is, by its nature, recursive and this can be very unnerving for a project manager used to managing a traditional software project. We're looking to Kennedy Carter for some further advice and consultancy here."

Conclusions

There can be no doubt that Landis & Gyr see the adoption of executable modelling techniques and of Kennedy Carter as strategic. From practical experience gained from the North American project, Landis & Gyr have redefined their business model around the methodology itself. Mark Lewis concludes. "We see our future being dependent on the robustness of the products we create today and good software development is the cornerstone of that strategy."