软件可测性度量研究

为研究软件可测性，从数据处理过程中信息掩盖这一新的角度对软件可测性度量进行研究，提出了一种基线模型用以描写输入、处理和输出之间的关系，并在此基础上提出了一套基线度量指标，用以度量信息处理过程中的信息掩盖程度，揭示软件的可测性；基线模型中3条基线度量定理的发现，进一步揭示了信息掩盖程度与基本处理片和过程临时元的定量关系；两种度量模型的比较显示了基线度量模型的合理性。     

Dynamic coupling measurement for object-oriented software

The relationships between coupling and external quality factors of object-oriented software have been studied extensively for the past few years. For example, several studies have identified clear empirical relationships between class-level coupling and class fault-proneness. A common way to define and measure coupling is through structural properties and static code analysis. However, because of polymorphism, dynamic binding, and the common presence of unused ("dead") code in commercial software, the resulting coupling measures are imprecise as they do not perfectly reflect the actual coupling taking place among classes at runtime. For example, when using static analysis to measure coupling, it is difficult and sometimes impossible to determine what actual methods can be invoked from a client class if those methods are overridden in the subclasses of the server classes. Coupling measurement has traditionally been performed using static code analysis, because most of the existing work was done on nonobject oriented code and because dynamic code analysis is more expensive and complex to perform. For modern software systems, however, this focus on static analysis can be problematic because although dynamic binding existed before the advent of object-orientation, its usage has increased significantly in the last decade. We describe how coupling can be defined and precisely measured based on dynamic analysis of systems. We refer to this type of coupling as dynamic coupling. An empirical evaluation of the proposed dynamic coupling measures is reported in which we study the relationship of these measures with the change proneness of classes. Data from maintenance releases of a large Java system are used for this purpose. Preliminary results suggest that some dynamic coupling measures are significant indicators of change proneness and that they complement existing coupling measures based on static analysis.     

Salespoint: A Java framework for teaching object-oriented software development

Teaching systematic object-oriented software development to undergraduate students is difficult: Students need to develop a lot of complex skills. These include technical skills in object-oriented software development, but also social skills—for example, how to collaborate with other developers as part of a team working towards a large and complex software system. To acquire these skills, students need hands-on development experiences—for example, through team-oriented project courses. Designing such project courses is a challenge in itself: They must be both sufficiently challenging and achievable within the limited time available. In our special situation (large numbers of students supervised by small numbers of staff) an important further requirement is scalability: Different projects should be easily comparable while allowing for different tasks for different teams to reduce the risk of plagiarism. The solution that in our experience satisfies all these requirements is to use an application framework for an everyday application domain—for example, the business domain.Since 1997, we have been using Salespoint, a Java-based framework for creating business applications, that has been jointly developed and maintained in Dresden and Munich. In this paper, we briefly recollect the educational background and aims of the courses and present in some detail Salespoint (and its most recent revision, Salespoint2010): central notions like catalogs and stocks, the functionality it offers to users (application control, data management, and much more), a technical overview of its architecture, an example application built with Salespoint, and some lessons learned so far.     

Semantic metrics for software testability

Software faults that infrequently affect output cause problems in most software and are dangerous in safety-critical systems. When a software fault causes frequent software failures, testing is likely to reveal the fault before the software is released; when the fault “hides” from testing, the hidden fault can cause disaster after the software is installed. During the design of safety-critical software, we can isolate certain subfunctions of the software that tend to hide faults. A simple metric, derivable from semantic information found in software specifications, indicates software subfunctions that tend to hide faults. The metric is the domain/range ratio (DRR): the ratio of the cardinality of the possible inputs to the cardinality of the possible outputs. By isolating modules that implement a high DRR function during design, we can produce programs that are less likely to hide faults during testing. The DRR is available early in the software lifecycle; when code has been produced, the potential for hidden faults can be further explored using empirical methods. Using the DRR during design and empirical methods during execution, we can better plan and implement strategies for enhancing testability. For certain specifications, testability considerations can help produce modules that require less additional testing when assumptions change about the distribution of inputs. Such modules are good candidates for software reuse.     

A framework for distributing object-oriented designs

In response to the increasing demand of information processing, the object-oriented and client-server paradigms are becoming more pervasive. While implementation solutions integrating these two paradigms are widespread, there is minimal evidence that the merging of these two concepts has been considered at the design level. Specifically, object-oriented designs remain sequential in essence, and their mapping to a given distributed object-oriented programming language is left to the creativity and/or expertise of software engineers. In this paper, we propose a quantitative approach and a supporting tool to assist the designer in the distribution process. The metrics presented provide an easy way, but still consistent and reliable, to gauge the distribution suitability of various object-oriented design entities. Published online: 29 August 2002     

一种优化的面向对象软件复杂性度量方法

首先结合面向对象技术特性,对面向对象软件类级别的CK度量方法和系统级别的MOOD度量方法进行了分析,并就CK度量提出了优化的度量方法OCK。然后结合OCK度量和MOOD度量的优点提出了较优化的面向对象软件复杂性度量方法OSCM。OSCM度量可以有效地弥补CK度量和MOOD度量的不足,优化度量结果。     

Towards a framework for software measurement validation

In this paper we propose a framework for validating software measurement. We start by defining a measurement structure model that identifies the elementary component of measures and the measurement process, and then consider five other models involved in measurement: unit definition models, instrumentation models, attribute relationship models, measurement protocols and entity population models. We consider a number of measures from the viewpoint of our measurement validation framework and identify a number of shortcomings; in particular we identify a number of problems with the construction of function points. We also compare our view of measurement validation with ideas presented by other researchers and identify a number of areas of disagreement. Finally, we suggest several rules that practitioners and researchers can use to avoid measurement problems, including the use of measurement vectors rather than artificially contrived scalars     

A new reusability metric for object-oriented software

Software Quality Journal - Software reuse is big business. Managers of software houses know that reuse can bring financial rewards to their company, so long as effective reuse procedures are in...     

A non-invasive object-oriented tool for software testing

A non-invasive approach for capture and playback (C&P) can be a very useful tool for testing applications endowed of a graphic user interface in local and/or distributed environments, and in general for testing applications without modifying their run-time environment. In the software lifecycle, the phases ofC&P are performed after the application design. Since these are close to the delivery deadline, the time needed for application testing is considered as a high, and frequently unacceptable, cost. In this paper, a new approach for non-invasiveC&P testing techniques is proposed. This is strongly based on the object-oriented paradigm at both hardware and software levels. In particular, a new board for image grabbing and pattern matching, and a new object-oriented language for specifying the tests have been defined. The main goals of this new approach are (i) the reduction of testing time by supporting the reuse of tests (coded by using a specific language) at each level of abstraction, and (ii) the anticipation of the capture-phase of testing with the system design.     

Communications software design for testability: specification transformations and testability measures

To deal with the increased complexity related to the testing of communications software, we propose the integration and application of finite state machine based specification transformations and testability measures early in the communications software development process. Based on this integration, the testability of a given design is estimated and appropriate specification transformations are defined and applied iteratively to enhance the testability of the product implementation.     

软件测试性设计综述

软件测试性设计分为四类：设计时应当遵循的测试性设计原则,通过改变设计或代码提高软件测试性的专用测试性设计技术,为软件增加专门测试结构的结构化测试性设计技术和在软件开发全周期考虑软件测试的测试性设计综合技术。软件测试性设计方法借用了很多硬件测试性设计思想,但在许多方面还能进一步发展。     

A framework for the design and verification of software measurement methods

At the core of any engineering discipline is the use of measures, based on ISO standards or on widely recognized conventions, for the development and analysis of the artifacts produced by engineers. In the software domain, many alternatives have been proposed to measure the same attributes, but there is no consensus on a framework for how to analyze or choose among these measures. Furthermore, there is often not even a consensus on the characteristics of the attributes to be measured.In this paper, a framework is proposed for a software measurement life cycle with a particular focus on the design phase of a software measure. The framework includes definitions of the verification criteria that can be used to understand the stages of software measurement design. This framework also integrates the different perspectives of existing measurement approaches. In addition to inputs from the software measurement literature the framework integrates the concepts and vocabulary of metrology. This metrological approach provides a clear definition of the concepts, as well as the activities and products, related to measurement. The aim is to give an integrated view, involving the practical side and the theoretical side, as well as the basic underlying concepts of measurement.     

Design for testability in hardware software systems

Clearly, in today's complex systems, hardware and software approaches to DFT must work together to achieve a successful overall solution. The authors investigate existing and new concepts that may lead to a single design for test strategy in the future     

A framework for object migration in object-oriented databases

This article presents a framework developed for accomodating various object migrations in ‘statically-typed’ object databases. Requirements for supporting object migrations are stipulated, and a conceptual model for describing and facilitating different kinds of migrations is described. Associated issues of controlling such migrations are then addressed, along with an initial investigation on the interence of implied migration paths and the completeness of migration operators. Some guidelines are then given to help users conduct migrations more effectively. An implementation prototype on top of an object-oriented database system was built, which embodies full support of all migration types specified in the migration model.     

Maintaining object-oriented software

The maintenance requirements of object-oriented software, including the ability to make changes easily and an in-depth understanding of the software's structure and behavior, are discussed. The problems encountered by a maintainer trying to understand object-oriented software by reading and statically analyzing it are described. The problems caused by dynamic binding, polymorphism, and cooperating object classes in object-oriented software maintenance are reviewed     

Compiler support for object-oriented real-time software

The suitability of compile-time code analysis and rearrangement to improve the predictability of object-oriented software in dynamic real-time environments is discussed. The techniques combine the abstraction of object-oriented software design with the power of static, compiler-based code analysis to develop and enhance the predictability of real-time software. They also counteract the effects of unpredictable delays caused by the arrival, servicing, and execution of dynamic tasks, and give the application latitude to react to delays caused by hardware, external events, and the loading of communication media     

A context-based object-oriented application framework for discrete event simulation

Applying object-oriented programming (OOP) to construct simulation programs has gained momentum in the research community. Major research efforts involved with object-oriented paradigm adopted in discrete-event simulation are reviewed in this paper, along with a simulation application framework proposed which provides special reusability mechanisms. This object-oriented simulation framework consists of three object elements, that is, model, service and scheduler. The relations and interactions among these elements are also demonstrated. In addition, the abstraction of a model under such a framework is reached by a special concept and implementation, referred to as the simulation context. Each simulation context is used to model a component sub-system, e.g. the control or physical flows of a manufacturing system. A practical system, CSIMT+ +, is also developed to validate the feasibility of such a simulation application framework. Furthermore, various forms of application models based on this framework are also illustrated.