According to Dan Stang, a research analyst at Datapro, as much as 75 to 85 percent of software development is spent on reengineering. As a result, new product development is left with minimal time and budget resources while its value and growth stagnate. To compound an organization's software problems, development's delivery schedule is often unpredictable and at the mercy of individual developers. Developers tend to work in seclusion and are often forced to fend for themselves as opposed to acting as integrated team members. If objections are raised, developers merely move on to the next position or project in the next company.
Management has little or no control and many processes are manual in nature.
These problems are common in most software development environments. For years executives have been investing in information systems for other areas of their business, often paying hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars, to secure the management of their key assets. The time has come for software development to take advantage of the same theory and practice that it has created for its corporate siblings. At the heart of any information system is a central database that stores code entities, as well as capturing and recording their interrelationships. In order for a DIS to be effective, all elements of the software must be registered in a database and the relationships between these elements must be captured.