ProcGraph: a procedure-oriented graphical notation for process-control software specification

This paper presents a procedure-centric approach to process-control software specification. A high-level, domain-specific specification notation called ProcGraph was developed, based on three types of diagrams that describe the modelled system using a domain-oriented hierarchical structure of interdependent procedural control entities and state-transition diagrams. The state-transition diagrams describe the behaviour of the procedural control entities. The processing content of the states is defined by sequential programs. In order to illustrate the presented models and notation, some segments of a real process-control application that deals with the drying process in the production of titanium dioxide are presented.     

Evaluating a graphical notation for modeling collaborative learning activities: A family of experiments

It is increasingly common to use languages and notations, mainly of a graphical nature, to assist in the design and specification of learning systems. There are several proposals, although few of them support the modeling of collaborative tasks. In this paper, we identify the main features to be considered for modeling this kind of activities and we propose the use of the CIAN notation for this purpose. In this work, we also try to empirically analyze the quality (in particular the understandability) of that notation. To this end, three empirical studies have been conducted. In these experiments we used several sources of information: subjective perception of the designers, their profiles and their performance on a set of understandability exercises, as well as the physical evidence provided by an eye tracker device. The results obtained denote positive perceptions about the use of the CIAN notation for modeling collaborative learning activities.     

A graphical notation for describing system implementation

It is suggested that many important concepts in computer system implementation are more difficult to describe and understand than would be the case were there a suitable graphical notation available. Such a notation, which consists of five elements and two forms for composing these elements, is introduced. It is then used to illustrate some basic techniques in the implementation of programming languages.     

Evaluating software development objectively

By employing the Orthogonal Defect Classification scheme, the authors are able to support management with a firm handle on technical decision making. Through the extensive capture and analysis of defect semantics, one can obtain information on project management, test effectiveness, reliability, quality, and customer usage. The article describes three real-life case studies, and demonstrates the applicability of their techniques,     

Program design methodologies and the software development process

This research examined program design methodologies which claim to improve the design process by providing strategies to programmers for structuring solutions to computer problems. In this experiment, professional programmers were provided with the specifications for each of three non-trivial problems and asked to produce pseudo-code for each specification according to the principles of a particular design methodology. The measures collected were the time to design and code, percent complete, and complexity, as measured by several metrics. These data were used to develop profiles of the solutions produced by different methodologies and to develop comparisons among the various methodologies. These differences are discussed in light of their impact on the comprehensibility, reliability, and maintainability of the programs produced.     

GDDT—A graphical design and documentation tool for software development

This paper describes “The Graphical Design and Documentation Tool” (GDDT), a general purpose support system for design and documentation. Self documentation and ease of use are presented as important criteria for such tools. Interactive graphics is introduced as a methodology for creating and maintaining hierarchical representations. The graphical representations of various requirements specification techniques and design tools are supported by an extended network model which supports hierarchical decomposition of structures. GDDT is proposed as a general purpose design tool which supports the most common logical constructions of both requirements specification and design methodologies and yet has a high level human interface which makes it easy to learn and use.     

Development methodologies for scientific software

Approaches to the development of scientific application software have matured over the past two decades and now constitute identifiable methodologies. Three software development methodologies are described, compared, and contrasted from the viewpoint of development effort, continued maintenance, and subsequent extension. Pertinent software aspects of the POLO-FINITE system are described to provide an example of the software virtual machine approach to solve database, memory management, and processing module integration problems. Finally, possible extensions of the virtual machine concept are discussed as a means to further advance software development methodologies.     

The object-oriented structured design notation for software designrepresentation

The development of a notation that supports key software structure concepts and design principles, is discussed. The notation should let designers represent modules, interfaces, hidden information, concurrency, message passing, invocation of operations and overall program structure in a comprehensive way. The authors examine three categories of approach to architectural design: object-oriented design, functional decomposition, and data structure design. They present their design notation, called object-oriented structured design (OOSD) which achieves the above-stated goal. They discuss classes in OOSD, its handling of asynchronous processes, and its design methods and rules. Automated support for OOSD is considered     

Bayesian graphical models for software testing

This paper describes a new approach to the problem of software testing. The approach is based on Bayesian graphical models and presents formal mechanisms for the logical structuring of the software testing problem, the probabilistic and statistical treatment of the uncertainties to be addressed, the test design and analysis process, and the incorporation and implication of test results. Once constructed, the models produced are dynamic representations of the software testing problem. They may be used to drive test design, answer what-if questions, and provide decision support to managers and testers. The models capture the knowledge of the software tester for further use. Experiences of the approach in case studies are briefly discussed     

Scaling for agility: A reference model for hybrid traditional-agile software development methodologies

The adoption of agility at a large scale often requires the integration of agile and non-agile development elements for architecting a hybrid adaptive methodology. The challenge is ”which elements or components (agile or non-agile) are relevant to develop the context-aware hybrid adaptive methodology reference architecture?” This paper addresses this important challenge and develops a hybrid adaptive methodology reference architecture model using a qualitative constructive empirical research approach. In this way, we have uncovered the agility, abstraction, business value, business policy, rules, legal, context and facility elements or components that have not been explicitly modelled or discussed in International Standards (IS) such as the ISO/IEC 24744 metamodel. It is anticipated that a context-aware hybrid adaptive methodology can be architected by using the proposed context-aware hybrid adaptive methodology reference architecture elements for a particular situation when using a situational method engineering approach.     

Adapting methodologies for doing software right

There is nothing so important to the IT professional charged with developing software as delivering a project that meets user requirements and is on time and on budget. In reality, most projects fail in one or more of these areas. This is why having the appropriate project methodology can help. Project methodologies have been around for ages, taken different guises, and had different support in the enterprise. The paper discusses the importance of using software methodologies and some common misconceptions     

Lean Cuisine+: an executable graphical notation for describing direct manipulation interfaces

The paper describes an executable semi-formal graphical notation, Lean Cuisine+, for describing the underlying behaviour of event-based direct manipulation interfaces, and outlines a methodology for constructing Lean Cuisine+ specifications. Lean Cuisine+ is a multilayered notation, and is a development of the meneme model of Lean Cuisine. A motivation of the research stems from the need for tools and techniques to facilitate high-level interface design. The research supports and brings together a number of views concerning the requirements of notations at this level. These are that a notation should be semi-formal, graphical, executable, and object-based, and that to be most effective it should be targeted at a specific category of interaction. The Lean Cuisine+ notation meets all these criteria, the underlying meneme model matching closely with the selection-based nature of direct manipulation interfaces.     

An approach for concurrent evaluation of technical and social aspects of software development methodologies

The paper presents an approach for evaluation of software development methodologies (SDM) that considers the aspects of a SDM’s social adoption and technical efficiency. It builds on existing evaluation models used in the field of SDM. Case study approach was used to validate the model in four software development organisations. In all four cases the management confirmed that the model provided valuable new insights into adoption and efficiency of the companies’ SDM.     

Accommodating mesodata into conceptual modelling methodologies

Mesodata modelling is a recently developed approach for enhancing a data model’s capabilities by providing for more advanced semantics to be associated with the domain of an attribute. Mesodata supplies both an inter-value structure to the domain and a set of operations applicable to that structure that may be used to facilitate additional functionality in a database. We argue that conceptual modelling methodologies would be semantically richer if they were able to express the semantics of complex data types for attribute domains. This paper investigates the accommodation of mesodata into the entity-relationship and object role modelling, presenting the Mesodata Entity-Relationship (MDER) model and Mesodata Object Role Modelling (MDORM), which show how the mesodata concept can be incorporated into conceptual modelling methodologies to include the semantics of complex-domain structures.     

Comparison of a textual versus a graphical notation for the maintainability of MDE domain models: an empirical pilot study

Models are a useful tool to increase the developer’s productivity and satisfaction when performing maintenance tasks. However, in order to maximise these advantages, the right selection of notations must be made. Unfortunately, the software engineering field lacks a body of empirical evidence that supports such selection. A suboptimal decision in this regard may have negative consequences over the maintenance process. The aim of the study was to compare a textual and a graphical notation with respect to the efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction of junior software developers while performing analysability and modifiability tasks on two different applications. We have carried out a quasi-experiment with 86 third-year students of the Computer Engineering degree at the University of Alicante. Subjects were randomly classified into two groups, and each group performed 20 maintenance tasks with a textual and a graphical notation. We measured and compared the efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction of subjects assigned to each treatment. The analysed data show that only the actual analysability coverage (AACov) and the actual modifiability efficiency (AMEffc) are affected by the type of notation used, regardless of the application. In both cases, subjects using the textual notation performed significantly better, although the effect size was low to moderate (AACov \(\eta ^2=0.106\), AMEffc \(\eta ^2=0.187\)). This is a pilot study, and it has been conducted to enhance the design of future studies in this area. Thus, it should be replicated to extend our conclusions to other subject profiles, different textual and graphical notations, and application types.     

A software tool for the construction and maintenance of structured analysis notation

This paper describes a portable software tool used for the processing and maintenance of data flow diagrams which form the basis of structured analysis techniques. The tool itself is based on the idea that data flow diagrams can be modelled by means of semantic nets and can be manipulated by a semantic net processor. A major feature of the tool is the facilities it provides for the maintenance programmer.     

Dialogue modelling of graphical user interfaces with a production system

In systems development it is essential for a piece of software to be able effectively to incorporate the requirements of the particular task domain that it is intended to address. This paper describes an approach that uses dialogue modelling to carry the requirements derived from task analysis through to the implementation phase of development. A notation based on production systems is used to develop an abstract specification of user and system behaviour which can subsequently be used as the basis for the implementation. The requirements for a computer-based tool are also discussed, with particular attention being given to ways in which the communication and reasoning about such a dialogue design can be supported.     

Linguistic extension of abstract machine modelling to aid software development

The traditional use of abstract machine models is to provide a conceptual framework for software design and to aid portability and machine independence. Access to the abstract machine model from the higher-level system on which it is based provides a powerful tool for software development. This paper describes a technique in which the higher-level system is interfaced to the underlying abstract machine, thus allowing use of the higher-level system to analyse and debug its own implementation. The application of this technique in the implementation of SL5 is given as an example. Experience with the use of the facility and a discussion of basic design considerations are included.