Selection of third party software in Off-The-Shelf-based software development—An interview study with industrial practitioners

The success of software development using third party components highly depends on the ability to select a suitable component for the intended application. The evidence shows that there is limited knowledge about current industrial OTS selection practices. As a result, there is often a gap between theory and practice, and the proposed methods for supporting selection are rarely adopted in the industrial practice. This paper's goal is to investigate the actual industrial practice of component selection in order to provide an initial empirical basis that allows the reconciliation of research and industrial endeavors. The study consisted of semi-structured interviews with 23 employees from 20 different software-intensive companies that mostly develop web information system applications. It provides qualitative information that help to further understand these practices, and emphasize some aspects that have been overlooked by researchers. For instance, although the literature claims that component repositories are important for locating reusable components; these are hardly used in industrial practice. Instead, other resources that have not received considerable attention are used with this aim. Practices and potential market niches for software-intensive companies have been also identified. The results are valuable from both the research and the industrial perspectives as they provide a basis for formulating well-substantiated hypotheses and more effective improvement strategies.     

Quality aspects for component‐based systems: A metrics based approach

In component‐based development, software systems are built by assembling components already developed and prepared for integration. To estimate the quality of components, complexity, reusability, dependability, and maintainability are the key aspects. The quality of an individual component influences the quality of the overall system. Therefore, there is a strong need to select the best quality component, both from functional and nonfunctional aspects. The present paper produces a critical analysis of metrics for various quality aspects for components and component‐based systems. These aspects include four main quality factors: complexity, dependency, reusability, and maintainability. A systematic study is applied to find as much literature as possible. A total of 49 papers were found suitable after a defined search criteria. The analysis provided in this paper has a different objective as we focused on efficiency and practical ability of the proposed approach in the selected papers. The various key attributes from these two are defined. Each paper is evaluated based on the various key parameters viz. metrics definition, implementation technique, validation, usability, data source, comparative analysis, practicability, and extendibility. The paper critically examines various quality aspects and their metrics for component‐based systems. In some papers, authors have also compared the results with other techniques. For characteristics like complexity and dependency, most of the proposed metrics are analytical. Soft computing and evolutionary approaches are either not being used or much less explored so far for these aspects, which may be the future concern for the researchers. In addition, hybrid approaches like neuro‐fuzzy, neuro‐genetic, etc., may also be examined for evaluation of these aspects. However, to conclude that one particular technique is better than others may not be appropriate. It may be true for one characteristic by considering different set of inputs and dataset but may not be true for the same with different inputs. The intension in the proposed work is to give a score for each metric proposed by the researchers based on the selected parameters, but certainly not to criticize any research contribution by authors. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Software quality prediction using fuzzy integration: a case study

Given the complexity of many contemporary software systems, it is often difficult to gauge the overall quality of their underlying software components. A potential technique to automatically evaluate such qualitative attributes is to use software metrics as quantitative predictors. In this case study, an aggregation technique based on fuzzy integration is presented that combines the predicted qualitative assessments from multiple classifiers. Multiple linear classifiers are presented with randomly selected subsets of automatically generated software metrics describing components from a sophisticated biomedical data analysis system. The external reference test is a software developer’s thorough assessment of complexity, maintainability, and usability, which is used to assign corresponding quality class labels to each system component. The aggregated qualitative predictions using fuzzy integration are shown to be superior to the predictions from the respective best single classifiers.     

Integration framework for simulations and SCADA systems

Stricter requirements on the quality of industrial plant operation together with environmental limits and decreasing energy consumption bring more complex automation systems. The intelligent control techniques, which are based on approaches from diverse disciplines including statistics, artificial intelligence or signal processing, have been widely used during the last years and their benefits have been proved. They cannot be developed and tested without simulation models and access to online and historical data. This article proposes a platform for the integration of simulations and industrial SCADA systems supporting complex data access and simulation code re-use.The idea of the presented framework is to connect simulations, data sources, optimizers, other calculations and SCADA systems into one integrated environment seamlessly. A technical level of the framework provides integration of stakeholders and a semantic level captures engineering knowledge in inter-mapped ontologies and configures the technical level, which is often called model-driven configuration. The semantic level utilizes a formal model implemented as set of ontologies. The major contribution of the article are the layered model of the integration architecture and formulation of the integration requirements in the industrial automation domain. The proposed solution has been implemented and tested on a software prototype level. It is demonstrated on two use-cases covering both design and integration of simulation models from the industrial perspective. The proposed architecture is intended to be as general as possible, however it has been tested on signal-oriented simulators only. It is the main limitation of this contribution and it should be addressed in upcoming work.     

面向测试的构件系统模型及测试用例生成方法

随着面向构件的软件开发方法的广泛应用,构件系统的描述和测试成为保证软件质量的关键所在。由于构件系统的复杂性和开发方法的特殊性,用传统方法对构件系统进行集成测试往往面对很多困难。提出了一种改进的面向测试的构件描述模型,称为TCSM,它着重对构件系统中的构件间的交互和约束进行了动态描述,为构件系统集成测试阶段的功能测试和边界测试等提供了大量可用信息。在此基础上,进一步提出一种把TCSM转换成测试模型的方法,以UML协作图模型为原型,实现了构件系统从描述模型到测试模型的自动转换。最后,实现了一种在所产生的测试模型上自动生成测试用例的算法。TCSM更好地描述了构件的交互行为信息,进一步实现了系统的自动化测试,减少了通常需要在构件系统搭建完成后,针对测试对系统手工建立测试模型的工作,提高了构件系统开发的效率和可靠性。     

Analysis and testing of black‐box component‐based systems by inferring partial models

From experience in component‐based software engineering, it is known that the integration of high‐quality components may not yield high‐quality software systems. It is difficult to evaluate all possible interactions between the components in the system to uncover inter‐component misfunctions. The problem is even harder when the components are used without source code, specifications or formal models. Such components are called black boxes in literature. This paper presents an iterative approach of combining model learning and testing techniques for the formal analysis of a system of black‐box components. In the approach, individual components in the system are learned as finite state machines that (partially) model the behavioural structure of the components. The learned models are then used to derive tests for refining the partial models and/or finding integration faults in the system. The approach has been applied on case studies that have produced encouraging results. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Informative PLS score-loading plots for process understanding and monitoring

Principal component regression (PCR) based on principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares regression (PLSR) are well known projection methods for analysis of multivariate data. They result in scores and loadings that may be visualized in a score-loading plot (biplot) and used for process monitoring. The difficulty with this is that often more than two principal or PLS components have to be used, resulting in a need to monitor more than one such plot. However, it has recently been shown that for a scalar response variable all PLSR/PCR models can be compressed into equivalent PLSR models with two components only. After a summary of the underlying theory, the present paper shows how such two-component PLS (2PLS) models can be utilized in informative score-loading biplots for process understanding and monitoring. The possible utilization of known projection model monitoring statistics and variable contribution plots is also discussed, and a new method for visualization of contributions directly in the biplot is presented. An industrial data example is included.     

基于刻面描述的构件查询匹配模型及算法研究

在软件复用研究不断深入的情况下，软件构件库的管理研究得到了产业界与学术界越来越多的重视．作为构件库管理的两个核心技术，构件的表示与检索技术已经成为研究热点，其中基于刻面描述的构件相关应用得到了广泛研究，针对构件查询的特点，结合模式分析中的树匹配思想，提出了新颖的构件树路径包含匹配模型及其相应的构件查询匹配算法，该算法可以在保持构件查准率的前提下，有效提高构件的查全率，算法的时间复杂度和空间复杂度是线性的，实验表明具有良好的查询效率．     

基于软件体系结构的可复用构件制作和组装

软件复用和基于构件的软件开发是软件工程化开发和工业化生产的必然趋势,可复用构件的制作和集成组装是其中涉及的两个重要活动.首先分析了现有的构件集成方式所存在的不足,引出了基于体系结构的构件集成;接着对几种不同的体系结构类型进行比较,阐述了它们对构件集成的影响;然后提出了支持接口连接式和插头插座式体系结构类型的构件模型以及基于体系结构的构件集成组装框架,并给出了构件的制作和组装过程;最后对工作进行总结,并指出了进一步的研究方向.     

Testing software components for integration: a survey of issues and techniques

Component‐based development has emerged as a system engineering approach that promises rapid software development with fewer resources. Yet, improved reuse and reduced cost benefits from software components can only be achieved in practice if the components provide reliable services, thereby rendering component analysis and testing a key activity. This paper discusses various issues that can arise in component testing by the component user at the stage of its integration within the target system. The crucial problem is the lack of information for analysis and testing of externally developed components. Several testing techniques for component integration have recently been proposed. These techniques are surveyed here and classified according to a proposed set of relevant attributes. The paper thus provides a comprehensive overview which can be useful as introductory reading for newcomers in this research field, as well as to stimulate further investigation. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Component Specifications for Robotics Integration

Robotics researchers have been unable to capitalize easily on existing software components to speed up their development efforts and maximize their system's capabilities. A component-based approach for building the software for robotics systems can provide reuse and sharing abilities to the research community. The software engineering community has been studying reuse techniques for three decades. We present several results from those efforts that are applicable to the robotics software integration problem. We describe how to specify a software component so that a potential user may understand its capabilities and facilitate its application to his or her system. At the National Institute of Standards and Technology, we have developed a three-stage, component-specification approach. We illustrate this approach for a component that is relevant to robotics.     

System requirements-OSS components: matching and mismatch resolution practices – an empirical study

Developing systems by integrating Open Source Software (OSS) is increasingly gaining importance in the software industry. Although the literature claims that this approach highly impacts Requirements Engineering (RE) practices, there is a lack of empirical evidence to demonstrate this statement. To explore and understand problems and challenges of current system requirement–OSS component matching and mismatches resolution practices in software development projects that integrate one or more OSS components into their software products. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with 25 respondents that have performed RE activities in software development projects that integrate OSS components in 25 different software development companies in Spain, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. The study uncovers 15 observations regarding system requirements-OSS components matching and mismatch resolution practices used in industrial projects that integrate OSS components. The assessed projects focused mainly on pre-release stages of software applications that integrate OSS components in an opportunistic way. The results also provide details of a set of previously unexplored scenarios when solving system requirement–OSS component mismatches; and clarify some challenges and related problems. For instance, although licensing issues and the potential changes in OSS components by their corresponding communities and/or changes in system requirements have been greatly discussed in the RE literature as problems for OSS component integration, they did not appear to be relevant in our assessed projects. Instead, practitioners highlighted the problem of getting suitable OSS component documentation/information.     

An industrial study on the importance of software component documentation: A system integrator?s perspective

Component integration is widely recognized as a process which plays a central role in overall Component Based System (CBS) development. A system integrator focuses on assembling existing components, developed by different parties, to build a software system. The integration process usually involves adapting existing component interfaces and writing new functions to handle the mismatches between stakeholder needs and available component features. The lack of detailed component documentation has been a key area of concern in CBS development due to its profound impact on the integration phase of a CBS development life cycle. In this paper, we report results of an industrial survey conducted among system integrators to understand role of component documentation in the CBS integration phase. The survey investigates whether the presence of component documentation helps a system integrator and its correlations with typical CBS integration success factors. The result reinforces current perceptions of the significance of component documentation in CBS integration. However, the lack of comprehensive component documentation presents a potential risk for a system integrator during integration effort estimation and testing processes.     

An exploratory architecture using data and knowledge to close the loop between design and Maintenance from a product quality perspective

Products for personalization require frequent dynamic interactions at all stages of the entire lifecycle. Based on this, the researchers have been studying closed-loop product lifecycle management. However, most of them often focus on the strategic and conceptual levels and ignore the technical details of implementation. From a product quality perspective, a three-tier architecture using data and knowledge to close the loop between design, operation, and maintenance (O&M) is proposed to deal with this problem. FMECA automation enabled by industrial knowledge graph and construction of Bayesian network for failure propagation is introduced in detail to enhance efficient integration of design and maintenance phases. A proof-of-concept simulation based on an electromechanical actuator validates the applicability and efficiency of the proposed method, showing a closed-loop optimization of design and O&M services. This article potentially enables manufacturers to implement the linkage of design and O&M service business.     

Resource sharing among real-time components under multiprocessor clustered scheduling

In this paper we propose a general synchronization protocol for resource sharing among independently-developed real-time applications (components) on multi-core platforms. This protocol is a generalization of a previously proposed synchronization protocol (MSOS). In our proposed protocol, each component is statically allocated on a dedicated subset of processors (called cluster). A component has its own internal scheduler by which its tasks are scheduled. In this paper we focus on multiprocessor global fixed-priority preemptive scheduling algorithms to be used to schedule the tasks inside each component. Sharing the local resources is handled by the Priority Inheritance Protocol (PIP). For sharing the global resources (inter-component resource sharing) we have studied usage of FIFO and Round-Robin queues for access the resources across the components and usage of FIFO and prioritized queues inside the components. We have derived schedulability analysis for the different queue handling alternatives and compared their performance by using experimental evaluations. Finally, we have shown that the integration phase can be formulated in the form of a nonlinear integer programming problem where solution techniques in this domain can be used to minimize the total number of processors required to guarantee the schedulability of all components. As a proof of concept we have only provided the formulation for FIFO queues.     

A Model-based Integration and Testing Method to Reduce System Development Effort

New methods and techniques are needed to reduce the very costly integration and test effort (in terms of lead time, costs, resources) in the development of high-tech multi-disciplinary systems. To facilitate this effort reduction, we propose a method called model-based integration. This method allows to integrate formal executable models of system components that are not yet physically realized with available realizations of other components. The combination of models and realizations is then used for early analysis of the integrated system by means of validation, verification, and testing. This analysis enables early detection and prevention of problems that would otherwise occur during real integration, resulting in a significant reduction of effort invested in the the real integration and test phases. This paper illustrates how models of components, developed for model-based integration, can be used for automated model-based testing, which allows time-efficient determination of the conformance of component realizations with respect to their requirements. The combination of model-based integration and model-based testing is practically illustrated in a realistic industrial case study. Results obtained from this study encourage further research on model-based integration as a prominent method to reduce the integration and test effort.     

基于刻面描述的构件查询匹配模型及算法研究

在软件复用研究不断深入的情况下，软件构件库的管理研究得到了产业界与学术界越来越多的重视。作为构件库管理的两个核心技术，构件的表示与检索技术已经成为研究热点，其中基于刻面描达的构件相关应用得到了广泛研究，针对构件查询的特点，结合模式分析申的树匹配思想，本文提出了一种新颖的构件树路径包含匹配模型及其相应的构件查询匹配算法，该算法可以在保持构件查准率的前提下，有效提高构件的查全率，算法的时间复杂度和空间复杂度是线性的，试验表明具有良好的查询效率。     

Multi-module satellite component assignment and layout optimization

In previous optimization methods for multi-module satellite equipment (component) layout optimization problem, each component was limited to certain module or supporting surface and could only search its position there. Components could not migrate from one module or supporting surface to another. In this case, the layout design of components within satellite module was seriously hindered from further improvement. In this study a component assignment and layout integration optimization algorithm is presented to deal with this problem, which can assign components to each module of satellite dynamically during optimization procedure. The aim of this paper is to expand the solution space of component layout optimization so as to further improve the component layout design. The proposed component assignment and layout integration optimization algorithm is inspired from the idea of stepwise regression in multiple regression analysis, which allows independent variables to enter or leave regression equation freely. In the proposed algorithm components enter the satellite module one by one in descending order of the product of mass and height. For all supporting surfaces within satellite module, each component will try all of them through layout optimization together with these components have been in the satellite module, and finally select the one with the best fitness as its initial assignment. At the same time, these components have been in the satellite module will be evaluated by their moment of inertia to decide whether they leave the current supporting surfaces and move to another or not. The layout optimization algorithm uses the differential evolution (DE) and random mutation operation to optimize the coordinates and orientations of components, respectively. The performance of the proposed algorithm is finally evaluated on a simplified satellite case. Experimental results show the proposed algorithm outperforms other two algorithms that did not consider component assignment in computational accuracy.     

Analysis of a conflict between aggregation and interfacenegotiation in Microsoft's Component Object Model

Many software projects today are based on the integration of independently designed software components that are acquired on the market, rather than developed within the projects themselves. A component standard, or integration architecture, is a set of design rules meant to ensure that such components can be integrated in defined ways without undue effort. The rules of a component standard define, among other things, component interoperability and composition mechanisms. Understanding the properties of such mechanisms and interactions between them is important for the successful development and integration of software components, as well as for the evolution of component standards. The paper presents a rigorous analysis of two such mechanisms: component aggregation and dynamic interface negotiation, which were first introduced in Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM). We show that interface negotiation does not function properly within COM aggregation boundaries. In particular, interface negotiation generally cannot be used to determine the identity and set of interfaces of aggregated components. This complicates integration within aggregates. We provide a mediator-based example, and show that the problem is in the sharing of interfaces inherent in COM aggregation