September 09, 2009

New product Soto for ABAP

Architecture Management for SAP Systems

hello2morrow GmbH (Germany) and hello2morrow Inc. (USA), now offer their software analysis tool set Sotoarc/Sotograph also for ABAP and ABAP Objects. This is the first tool for easily checking architectural structures of SAP R3 programs. The new product has been developed jointly with our partner C1 WPS GmbH (Germany). C1 WPS is a specialist for software architecture, software architecture analysis and quality assurance. They provide comprehensive consulting and coaching in the areas of introducing and using Sotoarc and Sotograph (the range of Soto services offered by C1 WPS: http://www.c1-wps.de).

Sotoarc is the software analysis tool for software architects, technical project leads, and quality professionals. Using Sotoarc, they are able to

  • visualize and understand the static structure of an existing software system
  • model a prescribed architecture for the software system graphically
  • detect architecture violations, i.e., deviations of the code structure from the prescribed architecture
  • simulate restructurings of the software system for enhancing the structure without touching the source code
Sotoarc's graphical user interface allows to look at an ABAP software system on a very high abstraction level and to drill down to the concrete source code. With the integrated focusing technique it is possible to analyze the dependency structures even of very large ABAP systems. In Sotoarc, an architecture blueprint can be quickly and simply modeled with graphical means (drag&drop). Also complex architectures with nested modules and layers and with interfaces on different abstraction levels can be defined.

The tool automatically compares the architecture model with the implemented source code. All deviations are directly visible in the GUI on a high abstraction level and can be tracked down to their source code locations via zooming. Sotoarc also supports the user in the planning and simulation of source code restructurings. It is possible to simulate changes of the code structure in the Sotoarc GUI; the effects on the global architecture are immediately shown in the graphical view of the tool.

Sotograph additionally computes a large number of predefined metrics and provides queries for analyzing the system. Also duplicated code blocks and cyclic dependency structures are found. Sotograph can compare different versions of an ABAP system and highlights important modifications. In this way, quality requirements can be monitored continuously and with small effort even for systems that are developed elsewhere. The continuous monitoring and comparison of new versions can be automated via batch scripts.

Sotoarc and Sotograph are also available for systems written in Java, C# or C/C++.

For more information on Sotoarc/Sotograph for ABAP, please contact info@hello2morrow.com (phone: +49-89 548479-41) or sotographie@c1-wps.de (phone: +49 40 51 32 26 82). Evaluation versions are also available from there.