This is a manager's guide to understanding Integrated Development Environments.  Because the IDE is a development tool, the decision about whether or not to use one, and which one to use is most often left to individual developers.  This may not be the best choice, since most developers will not be aware of the many productivity gains available through the selection of a full set of features.

Too often, organizations that create software view modeling as a form of documentation that is performed, if time permits, to represent existing software.  This view is simply not justifiable for any non-trivial application.  The human mind is far better at visualizing software structure through graphical means than through textual representations. When properly used, today's breed of modeling tools provide checks and conceptual enforcements that can prevent many architecture and design defects from ever making it to the code.

Splint is a powerful static analysis tool with a long and prestigious history.  It can analyze any ANSI / ISO C application for a myriad of safety issues, like so many other "Lint" tools.  But Splint has capabilities that go far beyond the others through the addition of design annotations.  When these are considered, Splint can be used as a gateway tool into the mysterious world of formal methods.