Development of a safety critical software requirements verification method with combined CPN and PVS: a nuclear power plant protection system application

Safety-critical software systems such as certain nuclear instrumentation and control (NI&C) systems should be developed with thorough verification. This study presents a method of software requirement verification with a case study for a nuclear power plant (NPP) protection system. The verification introduces colored petri net (CPN) for system modeling and prototype verification system (PVS) for mathematical verification. In order to aid flow-through from modeling by CPN to mathematical proof by PVS, an information extractor from CPN models has been developed in this paper. In order to convert the extracted information to the PVS specification language, a translator has also been developed. This combined method has been applied to the functional requirements of the Wolsong NPP Shut Down System #2 (SDS2); logical properties of the requirements were verified. Through this research, guidelines and a tool support for the use of formal methods have been developed for application to NI&C software verification.     

An efficient method for developing requirement specifications for plant control software using a component-based software prototype

This paper proposes an efficient method to develop requirement specifications for Plant Control Software (PCSW) using software-component-based prototypes. Prior to this proposal, domain analyses were conducted on existing PCSWs, and their functions were classified into “similar functions” and “individual functions”. Then PCSW Software Components (PSC: PCSW Software Component, PSCs: PCSW Software Components) were developed to correspond to these functions. PSCs as parameter-style components were developed in order to satisfy the clients’ (we define clients as owners, managers and operators of plants) requirements. A support environment for developing requirement specifications was developed. The environment consists of the Prototype Development Tool (PDT), the Behavior Check Simulator (BCS) and the Requirement Specification Development Tool (RSDT). The method consists of four steps. In the first step, PDT is used to define the parameters to customize PSCs and to compose a PCSW prototype by setting these parameters to PSCs. In the second step, BCS is used to execute the composed PCSW prototype and check its behavior and relevancy against the clients’ expectations. In the third step, steps 1 and 2 are repeated until the behavior of the PCSW prototype satisfies the clients’ requirements. Finally, a requirement specification is developed from the PCSW prototype which fully reflects the clients’ requirements. In order to evaluate the proposed method, it has been applied in five development cases. A Requirement Coverage of 91%, a Requirement Revision Rate of 6%, a PSC Reuse Rate of 92% and a LOC Reuse Rate of 83% have been achieved. In addition, a reduction of 55% in the amount of time required to develop requirement specifications has been achieved. These results indicate that the proposed method has sufficient capability to develop an exhaustive and an adequate PCSW requirement specification. And the developed PSCs have sufficient functions and capability to compose PCSW prototypes, and the support environment is capable of shortening the time taken to develop requirement specifications.     

一种从组织业务数据中获取软件需求的方法

针对隐藏于组织业务海量数据中的隐性软件需求获取提出一种方法。该方法的基本思想是：组织业务海量数据中隐含软件需求,它是以隐性知识形式存在于海量数据中的,隐性知识利用的解决方案就是组织及利益相关者对待开发软件系统的要求（软件需求）。首先,构建一个完整的、无冲突的、正确的待开发软件系统目标及其关系模型,并在待开发系统目标指导下,利用数据挖掘技术对数据进行挖掘,从中发现隐性知识;然后,识别知识的有用性和可用性;最后为可用性知识的利用提供解决方案。进而获取隐藏于大量数据中的隐性软件需求．     

Investigating dependencies in software requirements for change propagation analysis

ContextThe dependencies between individual requirements have an important influence on software engineering activities e.g., project planning, architecture design, and change impact analysis. Although dozens of requirement dependency types were suggested in the literature from different points of interest, there still lacks an evaluation of the applicability of these dependency types in requirements engineering.ObjectiveUnderstanding the effect of these requirement dependencies to software engineering activities is useful but not trivial. In this study, we aimed to first investigate whether the existing dependency types are useful in practise, in particular for change propagation analysis, and then suggest improvements for dependency classification and definition.MethodWe conducted a case study that evaluated the usefulness and applicability of two well-known generic dependency models covering 25 dependency types. The case study was conducted in a real-world industry project with three participants who offered different perspectives.ResultsOur initial evaluation found that there exist a number of overlapping and/or ambiguous dependency types among the current models; five dependency types are particularly useful in change propagation analysis; and practitioners with different backgrounds possess various viewpoints on change propagation. To improve the state-of-the-art, a new dependency model is proposed to tackle the problems identified from the case study and the related literature. The new model classifies dependencies into intrinsic and additional dependencies on the top level, and suggests nine dependency types with precise definitions as its initial set.ConclusionsOur case study provides insights into requirement dependencies and their effects on change propagation analysis for both research and practise. The resulting new dependency model needs further evaluation and improvement.     

A systematic literature review of software requirements prioritization research

ContextDuring requirements engineering, prioritization is performed to grade or rank requirements in their order of importance and subsequent implementation releases. It is a major step taken in making crucial decisions so as to increase the economic value of a system.ObjectiveThe purpose of this study is to identify and analyze existing prioritization techniques in the context of the formulated research questions.MethodSearch terms with relevant keywords were used to identify primary studies that relate requirements prioritization classified under journal articles, conference papers, workshops, symposiums, book chapters and IEEE bulletins.Results73 Primary studies were selected from the search processes. Out of these studies; 13 were journal articles, 35 were conference papers and 8 were workshop papers. Furthermore, contributions from symposiums as well as IEEE bulletins were 2 each while the total number of book chapters amounted to 13.ConclusionPrioritization has been significantly discussed in the requirements engineering domain. However, it was generally discovered that, existing prioritization techniques suffer from a number of limitations which includes: lack of scalability, methods of dealing with rank updates during requirements evolution, coordination among stakeholders and requirements dependency issues. Also, the applicability of existing techniques in complex and real setting has not been reported yet.     

上海益昌钢板镀锡机组的设备特点

论述了上海益昌薄板公司新建的钢板电镀锡机组的工艺流程和设备特点，以及为保证高质量生产而达到高水平的设备安装。同时对机组的上卷装置提出意见。     

基于SOA的制造业MRPⅡ系统的研究与实现

随着制造资源计划(MRPⅡ)在制造行业的推广和应用,如何设计一个业务敏捷的MRPⅡ系统已经成为一种发展趋势。本文依据某制造企业的实际情况,结合面向服务构架(SOA)理念,设计出一种基于SOA的MRPⅡ系统的实现方案,着重研究了生产管理模块的设计与实现,详细分析生产管理的主要模块如MRP计算等,最后详细介绍了该系统4层架构的实现。     

利用XML实现业务规则和信息系统分离的方法研究

企业信息系统常因业务规则的改变而导致信息系统无法使用,提出了将业务规则与信息系统分离的观点,探讨了利用XML作为描述软件需求文档的可行性.藉由XML的机器可读性,让信息系统直接读取包含业务规则的软件需求文档,以实现业务规则和程序代码分离,进而实现需求文档的重用.     

一种通用的软件功能规模度量模型

功能规模度量（FSM）方法通过量化用户功能需求(FUR)而得到软件功能规模。针对不同的功能规模度量方法都是使用不同的抽象来描述一个软件系统的问题,提出了一种通用的FSM模型。根据软件系统的抽象模型,首先对度量所涉及的数据组和事务进行了泛化,然后以IFPUG FPA为例详细说明了该通用模型和FPA之间的转换过程,最后给出了度量过程的算法描述。     

一种基于规范的可信协同系统分析设计框架

针对可信协同系统分析建模与设计问题,提出了RBN-T模型,分析了模型中的可信保障机制及策略.提出了基于RBN-T模型的可信协同系统分析建模过程,以具体的实例说明了RBN-T模型在可信协同系统分析建模与设计上的可用性.RBN-T模型把基于角色的规范管理提升到适合可信协同系统分析建模与设计的层次,从而有利于在协同系统开发的早期阶段就关注可信问题.