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Overview and Purpose
Some readers may not desire to read all of the technology
descriptions or may not have
a specific technology in mind when visiting this Web site. Instead
a reader might be concerned about or interested in a particular
software quality measure, a phase of the development process, or
an operational function.
With this in mind, we created two taxonomies that serve as
directories into the technology descriptions. This method is
an effective way to lead readers to a set of possible technologies
that address their software problem area. Each software technology
description has been categorized into the following two
taxonomies:
- Application. This taxonomy categorizes technologies
by how they might be used in operational systems. A technology
can fall into one of two major categories. It can be used to
support an operational system or it can be used in an operational
system.
- Quality Measures. This taxonomy categorizes technologies
by the software quality characteristics or attributes that they
influence, such as maintainability, expandability, reliability,
trustworthiness, robustness, and cost of ownership.
The taxonomies serve other purposes as well. A taxonomy implies a
hierarchical relationship of terms which are used for classifying
items in a particular domain. It is this hierarchical relationship
that we wanted to capture for the reader with the hope that each
taxonomy would provide stand-alone utility. Additionally, this
relationship of terms gives the reader an idea of alternative
categories in which to look for technology descriptions.
General Taxonomy Structure
Both taxonomies are structured in a similar manner. Each term or
category in a taxonomy has an index number. For the Application
Taxonomy, the index numbers begin with AP; for the Quality Measures
Taxonomy, the index numbers begin with QM. As mentioned before, a
taxonomy is a hierarchical relationship. A category can be broken down
into one or more subcategories with the subcategories beginning a new
level in the hierarchy. Subcategories are indexed starting with the
number 1. For example, index numbers that are subcategories to the
first, or root level (AP or QM) would look like AP.2, QM.1, or QM.3.
Subcategories to AP.2, QM.1, or QM.3 would have index numbers like
AP.2.4, QM.1.1, or QM.3.2, respectively; subcategories to these
would have index numbers like AP.2.4.3, QM.1.1.2, or QM.3.2.1,
respectively, and so on.
Some categories have hyphenated subcategories. These subcategories
are terms that we feel are worth noting and help further define
what type of technology descriptions the reader may find under
the parent category. However, they are not sufficiently different from
their parent category or in some cases from each other to warrant
an index number.
Technology descriptions can be classified into more than one
category, and these categories are usually three to four levels
deep in the taxonomy.
Using the Taxonomies
When readers find a term within one of the taxonomies that leads
them to a list of technology descriptions, they may want to examine
the graphical representations of the taxonomies as well. By examining
these, readers can identify other possible categories to look under
that are related to their original term. For example, if a reader is
concerned about reliability, the reader would look at one of the
Quality Measures representations and notice that "correctness" and
"completeness" are closely related to reliability. The reader could
then look for technology descriptions under those categories. This
method may give the reader a more complete solution set for their
particular problem context.
Note: Within the technology descriptions, some software
technologies that are mentioned or referenced do not yet have
corresponding descriptions. However, we still indexed these into the
Application Taxonomy. When these descriptions are written and more
information is gathered, the categories into which these technologies
are indexed may change. Thus technologies may appear in this
taxonomy without corresponding URLs.
The Software
Engineering Institute (SEI) is a federally funded research and
development center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense
and operated by Carnegie Mellon University.
Copyright
2007
by Carnegie Mellon University
Terms of Use
URL: http://www.sei.cmu.edu/str/taxonomies/about_tax.html
Last Modified: 11 January 2007
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