The example of sorts. Sorts are a good example of successful components. The function is well understood, it can be readily isolated from other processes in a system, and the use of proprietary technology is so effective that no one would consider writing one from scratch.
Purpose built as a component. OverheadCAM is designed to be a component in a larger system such as an ERP or GL. (It can be packaged for use as a simple stand-alone system, if desired.) This well-behaved component has some important characteristics.
The business view. From a business point of view, cost allocation is a function that is well defined and well understood. Further, it can be readily separated from other processes. There is no point in entangling it with anything else.
The technical view. From a technical point of view, OverheadCAM's design has several advantages. First, it is easy to integrate, largely because it is a batch component with few connections to the rest of the containing system. It is programmed in vanilla standard C. It has no GUI of its own which means that a user is not confronted with different screens and data definitions. It does not use an RDB. It use no platform-specific APIs -- all use of OS services such as I/O are via Standard C constructs.
The user view.In every way a user will see OverheadCAM as a part of the containing system. Since OverheadCAM is a background calculation engine, it communicates only with the containing system. If any data is required beyond what is already in the containing system, it will be collected by that system. To repeat, OverheadCAM has no GUI of its own. This means that a user is not confronted with different screens and data definitions.
Integration. OverheadCAM is designed to be a part of a larger system that passes it the allocation data and then uses the results. In particular, the containing system communicates with OverheadCAM entirely by sequential files. This works well with a batch component. The interface is easy to understood and to use. It is safe since neither system can touch the other's tables. It is easily tested just by providing sequential files of cases: no special test apparatus is required.
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