This paper describes the analysis of software tools which, in any way, support the development of Enterprise Java Beans. Based on our predefined criteria, and a brief test time, the following tools have been selected for the analysis.

• Advantage Joe 3.0
• Rational XDE
• JBuilder 7
• Forte for Java 4 Enterprise Edition
• Together Control Center 6.0

During the analysis of these products, Advantage Joe excluded, we discovered that the programmer must have a very wide knowledge of EJB programming himself. These programs often require detailed knowledge of the EJB technology that would be sufficient for writing EJB code with a simple editor without the help of such a tool. However, due to the fact that these tools offer a lot of useful input masks, and generate a lot of code by themselves, it is still advised to use them. It reduces the chance of failures in the code, thus speeding up the development. These tools do not hide the complexity of the EJB-specification. This results in a very short learning period for the user, so he can start work productively almost from the start. Advantage Joe pursues another approach. It is called Component-Based-Development. It is not required to know every detail of EJB. Unfortunately this leads to a longer training time for this product, but the results are worth it. Advantage Joe gathers more information from the user created models and diagrams, to generate very usable code, and not just the plain EJB construct. The analysis shows, that none of the tested products are perfect. Each tool has to deal with weaknesses. JBuilder for example does have problems with relationships, a feature that is very important for Entity-Beans. Together?s reverse engineering function does not work very well, and Forte simply lacks any chance to show the EJBs in a diagram. Rational XDE, the newest product of all surprisingly has only few weak spots. Only the automatic deployment function could be improved in further releases.