Software development apparatus with regulated user access

A software system development apparatus hosted by a host organization, comprising:

• a processor;
• a computer-readable medium operatively coupled to the processor;
• a system design tool program stored on the computer-readable medium that, when executed by the processor, is operable to:
• grant access to user computers inside and outside the host organization, wherein the user computers are remote from the software system development apparatus;
• store, in accordance with the Reusable Asset Specification (RAS), a collection of reusable software components in a catalog in the system design tool program;
• generate, in response to commands from one of the user computers, a real-time embedded control software system by selecting one or more software components
• wherein the real-time embedded control software system is generated on the processor of the host organization without any software components being downloaded to the user computers from the host organization;
• wherein the system design tool program is configured to be able to select software components from the collection of reusable software components stored in the catalog;
• and
• wherein the reusable software components stored in the catalog are available for selection by systems outside the host organization;
• and
• regulate user access to at least one aspect of the system design tool program according to one or more authorization categories of users of the system design tool program.

A method of developing a software system, comprising;

• granting access to a system design tool program, stored by a host organization, to user computers inside and outside the host organization, wherein the user computers are remote from a software system development apparatus on which the system design tool program is stored, the system design tool program including a catalog which stores a collection of reusable software components in accordance with Reusable Asset Specification (RAS);
• accessing the system design tool program under one of two or more authorization categories of users of the system design tool program, the authorization categories regulating user access to:
• a collection of reusable software components, and
• one or more features of the system design tool program;
• using the system design tool program to access and select one or more reusable software components from a collection of reusable software components stored in accordance with RAS inside the catalog and outside the host organization;
• and
• generating, in response to commands from one of the user computers, an embedded control software system utilizing the one or more software components selected from the collection stored inside the catalog and outside the host organization without downloading any software components to the user computers from the host organization.