An approach for the systematic development of domain‐specific languages

Building tailored software systems for a particular application domain is a complex task. For this reason, domain‐specific languages (DSLs) receive a constantly growing attention in recent years. So far the main focus of DSL research is on case studies and experience reports for the development of individual DSLs, design approaches and implementation techniques for DSLs, and the integration of DSLs with other software development approaches on a technical level. In this paper, we identify and describe the different activities that we conduct when engineering a DSL, and describe how these activities can be combined in order to define a tailored DSL engineering process. Our research results are based on the experiences we gained from multiple different DSL development projects and prototyping experiments. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improving quality of software product line by analysing inconsistencies in feature models using an ontological rule‐based approach

In software product line engineering, feature models (FMs) represent the variability and commonality of a family of software products. The development of FMs may introduce inaccurate feature relationships. These relationships may cause various types of defects such as inconsistencies, which deteriorate the quality of software products. Several researchers have worked on the identification of defects due to inconsistency in FMs, but only a few of them have explained their causes. In this paper, FM is transformed to predicate‐based feature model ontology using Prolog. Further, first‐order logic is employed for defining rules to identify defects due to inconsistency, the explanations for their causes, and suggestions for their corrections. The proposed approach is explained using an FM available in Software Product Line Online Tools repository. It is validated using 26 FMs of discrete sizes up to 5,543 features, generated using the FeatureIDE tool and real‐world FMs. Results indicate that the proposed methodology is effective, accurate, and scalable and improves software product line.     

基于产品线体系结构的软件工程过程模型研究

在借鉴现代工业的组织体系、管理规范、生产流程的基础上,针对基于软件产品线体系结构的软件工程方法和开发过程进行了系统研究,提出了基于产品线体系结构而实现软件工程化生产的N-生命周期模型.该模型的建立,对研究基于软件产品线体系结构的集成化软件工程环境,进而实现软件产品的工业化生产是非常有益且重要的.     

Feature‐based approach to object‐oriented engineering of applications for reuse

Object‐oriented technology is gaining popularity among software engineers with the goal of building reusable and adaptable software. Unfortunately, however, most methods introduced so far are not domain‐oriented and do not address the issue of reuse directly. For these methods, software reuse is not the primary goal; it is only a by‐product. The feature‐oriented reuse method, FORM, is extended in this paper for improving the object‐oriented engineering of applications for reuse. FORM concentrates on analyzing and modeling commonalities and differences in the applications of a given domain in terms of capability, operating environment, domain technology, and implementation technique features. These features are used to systematically derive objects that are tied to the features, and to develop reusable and adaptable domain architectures. We found that FORM facilitates analysis of variability (and commonality) of software before engineering and implementation start, and with this understanding, adaptability and reusability can be built into software. Feature modeling has been found to be an effective method for identifying and modeling reusable objects. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A component‐based framework for radio‐astronomical imaging software systems

This paper describes a component‐based framework for radio‐astronomical imaging software systems. We consider optimal re‐use strategies for packages of disparate architectures brought together within a modern component framework. In this practical case study, the legacy codes include both procedural and object‐oriented architectures. We consider also the special requirements on scientific component middleware, with a specific focus on high‐performance computing. We present an example application in this component architecture and outline future development planned for this project. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

面向服务的领域需求分析方法及模型研究

面向特征方法是当前进行领域分析的基本方法,但是由于特征的抽象性,使得用面向特征方法所生成的领域模型在领域需求描述和向领域设计、领域实现的转换方面略显不足.提出了面向服务的领域需求分析方法,将Web服务结合到领域分析过程中,通过分析不同的领域需求来源,形成共性和个性领域服务,并以领域服务为中心构建领域需求模型,并在公共出行信息服务系统中进行应用.     

一种基于特征迁移系统的软件产品线测试方法

为了在软件产品线的应用工程阶段最大程度地复用领域工程的测试用例,领域测试用例需要覆盖领域模型中的变化性.针对此问题,提出了一种以特征模型为出发点的软件产品线测试方法,通过扩展特征迁移系统建立软件产品线的领域行为模型,对模型中的变化性迁移进行抽象,得到精简的测试模型;应用迁移覆盖准则,导出包含变化性的领域测试用例;在应用工程阶段,根据具体应用所包含的特征,绑定领域测试用例中的变化性,复用领域测试用例导出针对具体应用的测试用例.最后通过一个咖啡机产品线验证了该测试方法,导出了可复用的领域测试用例.     

Modelling and engineering the requirements engineering process: An overview of the NATURE approach

This paper presents an overview of the process theory developed in the context of the ESPRIT project NATURE.¹ This theory proposes means for modelling and engineering the requirements engineering (RE) process. The key element of this theory is a situation-and decision-based process meta-model independent of any RE methodology. The process meta-model acts as a shell for defining process models by instantiation. An enactment mechanism implemented in a tool environment has been defined. It allows execution of process models and provides effective guidance to the requirements engineer. Construction of process models is also supported based on generic method knowledge chunks. The formalization of our approach is based on a free algebra.     

A comprehensive pattern-oriented approach to engineering security methodologies

ContextDeveloping secure software systems is an issue of ever-growing importance. Researchers have generally come to acknowledge that to develop such systems successfully, their security features must be incorporated in the context of a systematic approach: a security methodology. There are a number of such methodologies in the literature, but no single security methodology is adequate for every situation, requiring the construction of “fit-to-purpose” methodologies or the tailoring of existing methodologies to the project specifics at hand. While a large body of research exists addressing the same requirement for development methodologies – constituting the field of Method Engineering – there is nothing comparable for security methodologies as such; in fact, the topic has never been studied before in such a context.ObjectiveIn this paper we draw inspiration from a number of Method Engineering ideas and fill the latter gap by proposing a comprehensive approach to engineering security methodologies.MethodOur approach is embodied in three interconnected parts: a framework of interrelated security process patterns; a security-specific meta-model; and a meta-methodology to guide engineers in using the latter artefacts in a step-wise fashion. A UML-inspired notation is used for representing all pattern-based methodology models during design and construction. The approach is illustrated and evaluated by tailoring an existing, real-life security methodology to a distributed-system-specific project situation.ResultsThe paper proposes a novel pattern-oriented approach to modeling, constructing, tailoring and combining security methodologies, which is the very first and currently sole such approach in the literature. We illustrate and evaluate our approach in an academic setting, and perform a feature analysis to highlight benefits and deficiencies.ConclusionUsing our proposal, developers, architects and researchers can analyze and engineer security methodologies in a structured, systematic fashion, taking into account all security methodology aspects.     

A geographic information system‐based model for economical and eco‐friendly high‐speed railway route determination using analytic hierarchy process and least‐cost‐path analysis

In this study, geographic information system (GIS)‐based network analysis and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methods were applied to the Erzincan–Trabzon segment of the Turkish high‐speed railway (HSR) project. A new hybrid route, which considers both economic and environmental criteria, was created and compared with three different routes from various preconstruction studies. The route‐generating analysis included the eight parameters (criteria) of slope, geology, soil quality, rivers, protected areas, roads, land cover, and lakes. The optimum route for connecting the port of Trabzon to Turkey's interior via HSR was generated. The weights for determining the route were tested for sensitivity. The study demonstrated the efficiency of GIS and AHP integration in generating optimum routes for HSR projects according to given databases. All these GIS and AHP analyses were applied automatically with our novel GIS extension for determining optimum HSR routes. The final route has preserved cultural and historical structures, environmental integrity. The new hybrid route also decreased construction costs by approximately 12%, and the least‐cost‐path analysis confirmed the environmental efficiency of the route.     

A threat model‐based approach to security testing

Software security issues have been a major concern in the cyberspace community, so a great deal of research on security testing has been performed, and various security testing techniques have been developed. Threat modeling provides a systematic way to identify threats that might compromise security, and it has been a well‐accepted practice by the industry, but test case generation from threat models has not been addressed yet. Thus, in this paper, we propose a threat model‐based security testing approach that automatically generates security test sequences from threat trees and transforms them into executable tests. The security testing approach we consider consists of three activities in large: building threat models with threat trees; generating security test sequences from threat trees; and creating executable test cases by considering valid and invalid inputs. To support our approach, we implemented security test generation techniques, and we also conducted an empirical study to assess the effectiveness of our approach. The results of our study show that our threat tree‐based approach is effective in exposing vulnerabilities. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

一种面向特征的软件产品线非功能需求建模方法

分析传统非功能需求定义的不足,基于需求分析阶段的系统抽象—"需求模型"重新定义非功能需求,规范并简化功能需求与非功能需求之间的关系。扩展面向特征的软件产品线建模方法,在特征模型中显式地建模功能需求、非功能需求、非功能需求类型以及它们之间的相互关系,沿用传统特征模型中固有的变化性建模机制建模并管理非功能需求的变化性,显式地复用与非功能需求相关的建模知识和资产,为进一步研究定量评估产品线变体质量的新技术奠定基础。设计了一个基于多视图的特征建模方法,指导开发者在迭代的过程中建模非功能需求和功能需求,支持关注点分离和模型的复杂性管控。实现了工具原型并进行了实例验证。     

基于复用的软件产品线工程关键技术研究

软件复用技术在软件工程领域具有重要作用并且被广泛应用,尤其是在软件产品线工程领域,系统化的软件复用技术为软件产品线的设计和实现提供了基础。论文首先详细阐述了具有代表性的系统化软件复用支撑技术,随后在一个通用的软件产品线参考架构的基础上,探讨了复用技术在软件产品线工程领域的主要应用形式,最后针对可变性定义及其管理问题,引人并着重探讨了三种可变性管理模型及技术。     

Agents in object‐oriented software engineering

Software engineers of multi‐agent systems (MASs) are faced with different concerns such as autonomy, adaptation, interaction, collaboration, learning, and mobility, which are essentially different from classical concerns addressed in object‐oriented software engineering. MAS developers, however, have relied mostly on object‐oriented design techniques and programming languages, such as Java. This often leads to a poor separation of MAS concerns and in turn to the production of MASs that are difficult to maintain and reuse. This paper discusses software engineering approaches for MASs, and presents a new method for integrating agents into object‐oriented software engineering from an early stage of design. The proposed approach encourages the separate handling of MAS concerns, and provides a disciplined scheme for their composition. Our proposal explores the benefits of aspect‐oriented software development for the incorporation of agents into object‐oriented systems. We also illustrate our aspect‐oriented approach through the Portalware multi‐agent system, a Web‐based environment for the development of e‐commerce portals. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A specification-based approach to concurrency analysis

The behavior of a concurrent program often depends on the arbitrary interleaving of computations performed by asynchronous processes. The resulting non-determinism can lead to such phenomena as deadlock and starvation, making program development extremely difficult, and consequently making the development of tools for formal analysis highly desirable.A specification-based approach to concurrency analysis is a particularly promising way of addressing some of the difficulties inherent in concurrent program development. According to this approach, a programmer first writes a specification describing the interprocess communication behavior of a concurrent program. A set of formal analysis techniques are then applied in an effort to determine whether the specification can be fully satisfied. If the analysis is successful, target code is generated automatically that conforms to the specification.This approach has a variety of benefits. While such properties as safety and liveness are rather difficult to discern in actual code, they are actually easy to include as part of a specification. Moreover, state spaces induced by specifications tend to be smaller and more manageable than state spaces of actual code, and this leads to more effective analysis techniques. Finally, the generation of interprocess communication code from formal specifications is accomplished in a relatively straightforward manner.Research partially supported by NSF grant CCR-9109231.     

A systematic mapping study of search-based software engineering for software product lines

ContextSearch-Based Software Engineering (SBSE) is an emerging discipline that focuses on the application of search-based optimization techniques to software engineering problems. Software Product Lines (SPLs) are families of related software systems whose members are distinguished by the set of features each one provides. SPL development practices have proven benefits such as improved software reuse, better customization, and faster time to market. A typical SPL usually involves a large number of systems and features, a fact that makes them attractive for the application of SBSE techniques which are able to tackle problems that involve large search spaces.ObjectiveThe main objective of our work is to identify the quantity and the type of research on the application of SBSE techniques to SPL problems. More concretely, the SBSE techniques that have been used and at what stage of the SPL life cycle, the type of case studies employed and their empirical analysis, and the fora where the research has been published.MethodA systematic mapping study was conducted with five research questions and assessed 77 publications from 2001, when the term SBSE was coined, until 2014.ResultsThe most common application of SBSE techniques found was testing followed by product configuration, with genetic algorithms and multi-objective evolutionary algorithms being the two most commonly used techniques. Our study identified the need to improve the robustness of the empirical evaluation of existing research, a lack of extensive and robust tool support, and multiple avenues worthy of further investigation.ConclusionsOur study attested the great synergy existing between both fields, corroborated the increasing and ongoing interest in research on the subject, and revealed challenging open research questions.     

A software engineering approach for the development of heterogeneous robotic applications

One of the most evident characteristics of robotic applications is heterogeneity: large robotic projects involve many different researchers with very different programming needs and areas of research, using a variety of hardware and software that must be integrated efficiently (i.e.: with a low development cost) to construct applications that satisfy not only classic robotic requirements (fault-tolerance, real-time specifications, intensive access to hardware, etc.) but also software engineering aspects (reusability, maintainability, etc.). Most existing solutions to this problem either do not deal with such heterogeneity or do not cover specific robotic needs. In this paper we propose a framework for the integration of heterogeneous robotic software through a software engineering approach: the BABEL development system, which is aimed to cover the main phases of the application lifecycle (design, implementation, testing, and maintainance) when unavoidable heterogeneity conditions are present. The capabilities of our system are shown by its support for designing and implementing diverse real robotic applications that use several programming languages (C, C++, JAVA), execution platforms (RT-operating systems, MS-Windows, no operating system at all), communication middleware (CORBA, TCP/IP, USB), and also a variety of hardware components (Personal Computers, microcontrollers, and a wide diversity of sensor and actuator devices in mobile robots and manipulator arms).