Tokyo--Sep 17--Kyodo JBN/AsiaNet Catena Corporation The Institute of Computer Based Software Methodology and Technology Catena Corporation and The Institute of Computer Based Software Methodology and Technology today announced the launch of an international research project to advance a scientific diffusion of the Institute's revolutionary software development methodology, Lyee. The Lyee International Scientific Joint Research Project is a three-year project led by Dr. Hamido Fujita, a professor of Software and Information Science at Iwate Prefectural University. Formally inaugurated on June 1 this year, the project's initiators have now assembled a team of 33 researchers from 12 countries who will work together to further evaluate and conduct research on Lyee. Lyee - standing for 'governmentaL methodologY for softwarE providencE' - was developed in Japan by Fumio Negoro, president of the Tokyo-based Catena Group's The Institute of Computer Based Software Methodology and Technology. The development method is already realizing significant software productivity improvements in the Japanese market. Catena Corporation and the Institute are joint sponsors of the project which aims to popularize Lyee on a worldwide level. The two companies firmly believe that Lyee will provide a radical solution to the problems currently constraining the development of software worldwide. Outline of the Joint Project 1. Background Until now, computer software developers throughout the world have generally relied upon development methodologies like Data-Oriented Approach (DOA), or Object-Oriented Approach (OOA), packages such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and tools such as Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE). In addition, an array of different software languages has been developed and used. However, none of these methodologies, packages, tools and languages has proven especially effective for improving the development productivity of information systems. The problems might be solved by those approaches, but often other problems are produced. As a result, software productivity peaked in 1975 and it has dropped every year since. Yet, over the same quarter-century society's demand for software has grown exponentially, and though many companies have invested heavily in time and financial resources trying to satisfy our ever-increasing demand for new and better software solutions, development remains frustratingly slow. "Traditionally, software development has revolved around how quickly and cheaply products can be squeezed out, and to that end many different methods of doing so were born," notes Lyee inventor, Fumio Negoro. "However, such methods never amounted to anything more than tools to process minor problems at hand," he observes. The stalemates in software development are being felt not only in the software industry but also in science. Both science and industry have progressed only by adopting an analytical approach to problem solving, analyzing the processes involved in developing detailed software and then examining ways to improve each of those processes. Overall, a general approach of thinking about ways to revolutionize the software has not been adopted. Lyee, utilizing a word-based program structure known as 'signification vector' that was created by Negoro, easily and flexibly matches user requirements allowing, for example, automatic production to be carried out down to the lowest reaches of a manufacturing process. Being faster, cheaper and more precise, this revolutionary methodology is already realizing significant increases in efficiency in Japanese businesses, and is attracting great attention from researchers in Japan and overseas as a solution to the current problems affecting the world software industry. 2. Project Objectives Drawing upon the cooperation of researchers throughout the world, over the coming three years the International Scientific Joint Research Project will focus on the development-based technology software, Lyee, and on Lyee theory. By researching Lyee theory, improving and expanding development-based software, comparing existing development methods, expanding areas of application, and by creating development tools, the joint research project aims to establish and expand a new software development method for the 21st century that should solve the problems inhibiting the wider application of computer software throughout the world. In 2002, a workshop will be held to announce the intermediate research results and the final research report will be presented at an international symposium to be held in 2003. About Catena Corp. Catena Corporation, established in Tokyo in January 1968, is a computer service company that not only deals in the infrastructure of computing environments including hardware, software, databases, and networks, but also offers integral information services in the business, educational, and personal computer markets. Employing 1,300 people and generating sales of 77 billion yen for its business year ended March 2000, Catena provides PC sales and related services, system solutions service, operation service for corporate users, packaged software development services, and sales and distribution services with the skills and expertise to solve a broad range of problems. About Lyee Lyee, (governmentaL methodologY for softwarE providencE) is a method for the automatic generation of programs from a universal user model. It aims at achieving automatic agreement between the user's intentions and the source program. For this purpose, Lyee uses a philosophical hypothesis called a consciousness model, and formalizes it into a three-dimensional space model, finally yielding a word-based program structure called signification vector. For more information about the Lyee research project, please contact: Mr. Shoji Emori, Catena Corporation Tel: 813-3615-3218 Fax: 813-3615-9060 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.catena.co.jp Mr. Hideo Yagihashi, Institute of Computer based Software Methodology and Technology Tel: 813-3473-6531 Fax: 813-3473-3387 E-mail: [email protected] URL: http://www.Lyee.co.jp SOURCE: Catena Corporation