The need to develop or integrate large systems or applications into complex "systems of systems" is evident in multiple problem domains. Yet industry testimonials describe multi-million-dollar expenditures for software systems integration that remain unsuccessful. Media continues to promote surrounding internet connectivity, application development environments, middleware technologies, and standards (such as, eXtensible Markup Language - XML). Despite the promotions, difficulties developing and integrating large systems and applications increase due to heightened expectations for new capabilities, in an industry where technology choices constantly expand. Current approaches to software development and integration are costly, time consuming, and frequently yield suboptimal results. This paper describes an application development and systems integration framework that overcomes several problems that continue to plague the industry.
