Don’t Throw your Software Prototypes Away. Reuse them!

The mechanism of prototype development is considered by the research and industrial software communities as a key tool for user-developer communication. In software development, prototypes are used in requirements engineering to help elicit and validate users’ needs. Software prototypes like mockups are frequently considered throwaway artefacts and therefore they are often developed very fast, or with very few resources and discarded. In this paper we propose to change this idea, and to create prototypes that can be reused in any model-driven engineering (MDE) process. The paper presents an approach for an automatic mechanism for translating prototype models into requirements models and its implementation in a suitable tool case. This way, software developer teams will be able to dedicate resources to improving communication with users using prototypes because the knowledge acquired will be automatically transferred to the requirements phase of the development process

Client-Side Cornucopia : Comparing the Built-In Application Architecture Models in the Web Browser

Peer reviewe

On the Web Platform Cornucopia

Peer reviewe

Towards an Approach for Applying Early Testing to Smart Contracts

Immutability -  the ability for a Blockchain (BC) Ledger to remain an unalterable, permanent and indelible history of transactions - is a feature that is highlighted as a key benefit of BC. This ability is very important when several companies work collaboratively to achieve common objectives. This collaboration is usually represented by using business process models. BC is considered as a suitable technology to reduce the complexity of designing these collaborative processes using Smart Contracts. This paper discusses how to combine Model-based Software Development, modelling techniques, such as use cases models and activity diagram models based on Unified Model Languages (UML) in order to simplify and improve the modelling, management and execution of collaborative business processes between multiple companies in the BC network. This paper includes the neccessity of using transformation protocols to obtain Smart Contract code. In addition, it presents systematic mechanisms to evaluate and validate Smart Contract, applying early testing techniques, before deploying the Smart Contract code in the BC network.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2016-76956-C3-2-R (POLOLAS

Model-Driven Skills Assessment in Knowledge Management Systems

Organizations need employees who perform satisfactorily in generic skills, such as teamwork, leadership, problem solving or interpersonal abilities, among others. In organizational environments, employees perform work that is not always visible for supervisors and, thus, they can hardly assess their performance in generic skills. By using a knowledge management system, the users are able to leave a trace of their activity in the system’s records. This research aims to address a computer supported assessment of the user’s generic skills from the perspective of Model-Driven engineering. First, a systematic mapping study is carried out to understand the state of the art. Second, a proposal based on Model-Driven engineering is presented and is then validated through an organizational learning process model. Our results are promising and we are able to conduct a scalable assessment based on objective indicators of the employee’s planning, time management and problem solving skills

The Terror Network Industrial Complex: A Measurement and Analysis of Terrorist Networks and War Stocks

This paper presents a measurement study and analysis of the structure of multiple Islamic terrorist networks to determine if similar characteristics exist between those networks. We examine data gathered from four terrorist groups: Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) consisting of six terror networks. Our study contains 471 terrorists’ nodes and 2078 links. Each terror network is compared in terms efficiency, communication and composition of network metrics. The paper examines the effects these terrorist attacks had on US aerospace and defence stocks (herein War stocks). We found that the Islamic terror groups increase recruitment during the planned attacks, communication increases during and after the attacks between the subordinate terrorists and low density is a common feature of Islamic terrorist groups. The Al- Qaeda organisation structure was the most complex and superior in terms of secrecy, diameter, clustering, modularity and density. Jemaah Islamiyah followed a similar structure but not as superior. The ISIS and LeT organisational structures were more concerned with the efficiency of the operation rather than secrecy. We found that war stocks prices and the S+P 500 were lower the day after the attacks, however, the war stocks slightly outperformed the S+P 500 the day after the attacks. Further, we found that war stock prices were significantly lower one month after the terrorist attacks but the S+P 500 rebounded one month later

Model Pengamanan Berkas Menggunakan Kriptografi Asimetris RSA Dan Algoritma Kompresi PPM Pada File Curriculum Vitae (CV)

Model pengamanan berkas adalah suatu model yang mengimplementasikan satu atau lebih algoritma keamanan untuk melindungi keamanan berkas. Sudah banyak penelitian yang mengusung model pengamanan berkas. Namun, berdasarkan penelitian sebelumnya, model pengamanan berkas masih dapat dikembangkan. Peneliti mengusung model pengamanan berkas baru menggunakan kriptografi asimetris RSA dan algoritma kompresi PPM. Kriptografi asimetri RSA dipilih karena kuatnya algoritma dalam mengamankan berkas. Algoritma kompresi PPM dipilih sebagai penyokong kelemahan RSA dengan mengurangi besarnya ukuran file ciphertext yang dihasilkan. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengukur performa dari model pengamanan berkas menggunakan kriptografi asimetris RSA dan algoritma kompresi PPM dari segi keamanan, waktu, dan ukuran berkas yang dihasilkan. Dari 5 berkas CV yang digunakan didapat hasil waktu komputasi sebesar 0,37 detik dengan rasio kompresi sebesar 70,7611 %. Dengan demikian hasil dari model yang menggunakan RSA dan PPM memiliki hasil rasio kompresi yang lebih baik dibandingkan model pengamanan berkas terhadulu yang menggunakan Blowfish dan LZW

The Internet connected production line : realising the ambition of cloud manufacturing

This paper outlines a vision for Internet connected production complementary to the Cloud Manufacturing paradigm, reviewing current research and putting forward a generic outline of this form of manufacture. This paper describes the conceptual positioning and practical implementation of the latest developments in manufacturing practice such as Redistributed manufacturing, Cloud manufacturing and the technologies promoted by Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet agendas. In the illustration of the outline of web enabled production a case study is presented based on automotive manufacture. Existing and future needs for customized production and the manufacturing flexibility required are examined. Future directions for manufacturing, enabled by web based connectivity are then examined, concluding that the need for humans to remain ‘in the loop’ while automation develops is an essential ingredient of all future manufacturing scenarios