< programming > A decentralised approach to software development which, instead of adopting a monolithic representation and centralised control, models development in terms of collaboration between autonomous partial systems.
Software development usually involves people with different goals, expertise, and backgrounds, and the use of a wide range of formalisms, tools, and environments. As information is exchanged between participants, dependencies may be established between information created by them. Multiple perspective software development may be mapped into the transaction model which can be used to prevent uncoordinated access to interdependent information causing inconsistency.
[Fox Wai-Leung Poon]
(1995-12-14)