The relationship between search based software engineering and predictive modeling

Search Based Software Engineering (SBSE) is an approach to software engineering in which search based optimization algorithms are used to identify optimal or near optimal solutions and to yield insight. SBSE techniques can cater for multiple, possibly competing objectives and/or constraints and applications where the potential solution space is large and complex. This paper will provide a brief overview of SBSE, explaining some of the ways in which it has already been applied to construction of predictive models. There is a mutually beneficial relationship between predictive models and SBSE. The paper sets out eleven open problem areas for Search Based Predictive Modeling and describes how predictive models also have role to play in improving SBSE

Embedding requirements within the model driven architecture.

The Model Driven Architecture (MDA) is offered as one way forward in software systems modelling to connect software design with the business domain. The general focus of the MDA is the development of software systems by performing transformations between software design models, and the automatic generation of application code from those models. Software systems are provided by developers, whose experience and models are not always in line with those of other stakeholders, which presents a challenge for the community. From reviewing the available literature, it is found that whilst many models and notations are available, those that are significantly supported by the MDA may not be best for use by non technical stakeholders. In addition, the MDA does not explicitly consider requirements and specification. This research begins by investigating the adequacy of the MDA requirements phase and examining the feasibility of incorporating a requirements definition, specifically focusing upon model transformations. MDA artefacts were found to serve better the software community and requirements were not appropriately integrated within the MDA, with significant extension upstream being required in order to sufficiently accommodate the business user in terms of a requirements definition. Therefore, an extension to the MDA framework is offered that directly addresses Requirements Engineering (RE), including the distinction of analysis from design, highlighting the importance of specification. This extension is suggested to further the utility of the MDA by making it accessible to a wider audience upstream, enabling specification to be a direct output from business user involvement in the requirements phase of the MDA. To demonstrate applicability, this research illustrates the framework extension with the provision of a method and discusses the use of the approach in both academic and commercial settings. The results suggest that such an extension is academically viable in facilitating the move from analysis into the design of software systems, accessible for business use and beneficial in industry by allowing for the involvement of the client in producing models sufficient enough for use in the development of software systems using MDA tools and techniques

An empirical study on the implementation and evaluation of a goal-driven software development risk management model

Context: Building a quality software product in the shortest possible time to satisfy the global market demand gives an enterprise a competitive advantage. However, uncertainties and risks exist at every stage of a software development project. These can have an extremely high influence on the success of the final software product. Early risk management practice is effective to manage such risks and contributes effectively towards the project success. Objective:Despite risk management approaches, a detailed guideline that explains where to integrate risk management activities into the project is still missing. Little effort has been directed towards the evaluation of the overall impact of a risk management method. We present a Goal-driven Software Development Risk Management Model (GSRM) and its explicit integration into the requirements engineering phase and an empirical investigation result of applying GSRM into a project. Method:We combined case study method with action research. This allows to guide the development team for managing risks and to attain goals as well as to identify ways to improve the proposed methodology. The data is from multiple sources and analysed both qualitative and quantitative way. Results: When risk factors are beyond the control of the project manager and project environment then it is difficult to control these risks. Project scope affects all dimensions of risk. GSRM is a reasonable risk management method that can be employed in an industrial context. The study results compare with other existing study results, to generalize findings and to identify contextual factors. Conclusion: A formal early stage risk management practice provides early warning related to the problems that exists in the project and contributes to the overall project success. It is not necessary to always consider budget and schedule constraints top priority. There exist issues such as requirements, change management, and user satisfaction influence these constraints

Automatic construction of virtual technical documentation

The main objective of the research reported in this thesis is the generation of intelligent documentation of complex manufactured products. The construction of documentation is a major part of product support that increases the competitiveness of the product and its effective and proper use during its life-time. At the same time, it is also a complicated and time-consuming task occupying highly trained personnel. The need for systems that increase the productivity of documentation authoring teams becomes even more apparent as other design and manufacturing activities progress towards their automation and integration through the various CAD/CAM systems. The first target of this research is to provide a system to assist the integration of the documentation authoring to the Product Data Management System, the primary source of product data. The second target is to increase the efficiency of the information systems used for this purpose and automate the process to the extent that is feasible using the available tools and ideas that are proposed in this thesis. The first contribution presented in this thesis is an Object-Oriented framework that aims to assist software developers in the design and implementation of electronic documentation systems. The second contribution is a novel distributed architecture for an intelligent documentation system that will allow the automation of a major part of the authoring procedure and the generation of electronic manuals based on information reused from the Product Data Management System. The third contribution is a new technique for the generation of virtual documents. The technique is rule-based so as to support the decision-oriented nature of data selection within the authoring procedure. The technique follows knowledge-based principles allowing authors to design documents at a higher level of abstraction.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Automatic generation of software interfaces for supporting decisionmaking processes. An application of domain engineering & machine learning

[EN] Data analysis is a key process to foster knowledge generation in particular domains or fields of study. With a strong informative foundation derived from the analysis of collected data, decision-makers can make strategic choices with the aim of obtaining valuable benefits in their specific areas of action. However, given the steady growth of data volumes, data analysis needs to rely on powerful tools to enable knowledge extraction. Information dashboards offer a software solution to analyze large volumes of data visually to identify patterns and relations and make decisions according to the presented information. But decision-makers may have different goals and, consequently, different necessities regarding their dashboards. Moreover, the variety of data sources, structures, and domains can hamper the design and implementation of these tools. This Ph.D. Thesis tackles the challenge of improving the development process of information dashboards and data visualizations while enhancing their quality and features in terms of personalization, usability, and flexibility, among others. Several research activities have been carried out to support this thesis. First, a systematic literature mapping and review was performed to analyze different methodologies and solutions related to the automatic generation of tailored information dashboards. The outcomes of the review led to the selection of a modeldriven approach in combination with the software product line paradigm to deal with the automatic generation of information dashboards. In this context, a meta-model was developed following a domain engineering approach. This meta-model represents the skeleton of information dashboards and data visualizations through the abstraction of their components and features and has been the backbone of the subsequent generative pipeline of these tools. The meta-model and generative pipeline have been tested through their integration in different scenarios, both theoretical and practical. Regarding the theoretical dimension of the research, the meta-model has been successfully integrated with other meta-model to support knowledge generation in learning ecosystems, and as a framework to conceptualize and instantiate information dashboards in different domains. In terms of the practical applications, the focus has been put on how to transform the meta-model into an instance adapted to a specific context, and how to finally transform this later model into code, i.e., the final, functional product. These practical scenarios involved the automatic generation of dashboards in the context of a Ph.D. Programme, the application of Artificial Intelligence algorithms in the process, and the development of a graphical instantiation platform that combines the meta-model and the generative pipeline into a visual generation system. Finally, different case studies have been conducted in the employment and employability, health, and education domains. The number of applications of the meta-model in theoretical and practical dimensions and domains is also a result itself. Every outcome associated to this thesis is driven by the dashboard meta-model, which also proves its versatility and flexibility when it comes to conceptualize, generate, and capture knowledge related to dashboards and data visualizations

A pattern-oriented and model-driven architecture for interactive systems

Day-to-day experiences suggest that it is not enough to approach a complex design equipped with design tips, guidelines, and hints. Developers must also be able to use proven solutions emerging from the best design practices to solve new design challenges. Without these, the designer is unable to properly apply guidelines or take full advantage of the power of technology, resulting therefore in poor performance, poor scalability, and poor usability. Furthermore, the designer might "reinvent the wheel" when attempting to implement a design solution. A number of design problems continue to arise, such as: (1) decoupling the various aspects of interactive systems (for example, business logic, the UI, navigation, and information architecture) and (2) isolating platform specifics from the concerns common to all interactive systems. In the context of a proposal for a Pattern-Oriented and Model-driven Architecture (POMA) for interactive systems, this thesis identifies an extensive list of pattern categories and types of models aimed at providing a pool of proven solutions to these problems. The models of patterns span several levels of abstraction, such as domain, task, dialog, presentation and layout. The proposed POMA architecture illustrates how several individual models can be combined at different levels of abstraction into heterogeneous structures which can then be used as building blocks in the development of interactive systems. This document is divided into six chapters: the first chapter presents a background and related work on "Patterns" in general and on various architectures for interactive systems development such as "N-tiers architectures", "Pattern-Oriented Design" (POD), "Pattern- Supported Approach" (PSA), and "Model-Driven Architecture" (MDA). The second chapter introduces the research topic with its objectives, its limits, the research methodology, and research steps. The third chapter describes primarily the most important parts of the research which is the development of a new architecture called Pattern-Oriented and Model-Driven Architecture, facilitating the development of interactive systems including fundamentals and key concepts, an overview, justifications versus N-tiers, POD, PSA, and MDA architectures and specifications. The fourth chapter describes architectural levels and categories of patterns used in POMA. The fifth chapter describes the categories of models used in POMA. The sixth chapter presents an exploratory case study applied to the architecture proposed in this research. The last chapter presents a conclusion on this research work and its expected evolution in the future

Empirical modelling for participative business process reengineering

The purpose of this thesis is to introduce a new broad approach to computing - Empirical Modelling (EM) - and to propose a way of applying this approach for system development so as to avoid the limitations of conventional approaches and integrate system development with business process reengineering (BPR). Based on the concepts of agency, observable and dependency, EM is an experiencebased approach to modelling with computers in which the modeller interacts with an artefact through continuous observations and experiments. It is a natural way of working for business process modelling because the modeller is involved in, and takes account of, the real world context. It is also adaptable to a rapidly changing environment as the computer-based models serve as creative artefacts with which the modeller can interact in a situated and open-ended manner. This thesis motivates and illustrates the EM approach to new concepts of participative BPR and participative process modelling. That is, different groups of people, with different perceptions, competencies and requirements, can be involved during the process of system development and BPR, rather than just being involved at an early stage. This concept aims to address the well-known high failure rate of BPR. A framework SPORE (situated process of requirements engineering), which has been proposed to guide the process of cultivating requirements in a situated manner, is extended to participative BPR (i.e. to support many users in a distributed environment). Two levels of modelling are proposed for the integration of contextual understanding and system development. A comparison between EM and object-orientation is also provided to give insight into how EM differs from current methodologies and to point out the potential of EM in system development and BPR. The ISMs (interactive situation models), built using the principles and tools of EM, are used to form artefacts during the modelling process. A warehouse and logistics management system is taken as an illustrative case study for applying this framework

Multi-Agent Systems

A multi-agent system (MAS) is a system composed of multiple interacting intelligent agents. Multi-agent systems can be used to solve problems which are difficult or impossible for an individual agent or monolithic system to solve. Agent systems are open and extensible systems that allow for the deployment of autonomous and proactive software components. Multi-agent systems have been brought up and used in several application domains

Micro-intelligence for the IoT: logic-based models and technologies

Computing is moving towards pervasive, ubiquitous environments in which devices, software agents and services are all expected to seamlessly integrate and cooperate in support of human objectives. An important next step for pervasive computing is the integration of intelligent agents that employ knowledge and reasoning to understand the local context and share this information in support of intelligent applications and interfaces. Such scenarios, characterised by "computation everywhere around us", require on the one hand software components with intelligent behaviour in terms of objectives and context, and on the other their integration so as to produce social intelligence. Logic Programming (LP) has been recognised as a natural paradigm for addressing the needs of distributed intelligence. Yet, the development of novel architectures, in particular in the context Internet of Things (IoT), and the emergence of new domains and potential applications, are creating new research opportunities where LP could be exploited, when suitably coupled with agent technologies and methods so that it can fully develop its potential in the new context. In particular, the LP and its extensions can act as micro-intelligence sources for the IoT world, both at the individual and the social level, provided that they are reconsidered in a renewed architectural vision. Such micro-intelligence sources could deal with the local knowledge of the devices taking into account the domain specificity of each environment. The goal of this thesis is to re-contextualise LP and its extensions in these new domains as a source of micro-intelligence for the IoT world, envisioning a large number of small computational units distributed and situated in the environment, thus promoting the local exploitation of symbolic languages with inference capabilities. The topic is explored in depth and the effectiveness of novel LP models and architectures -and of the corresponding technology- expressing the concept of micro-intelligence is tested

Ingénierie et Architecture d’Entreprise et des Systèmes d’Information - Concepts, Fondements et Méthodes

L'ingénierie des systèmes d'information s'est longtemps cantonnée à la modélisation du produit (objet) qu'est le système d’information sans se préoccuper des processus d'usage de ce système. Dans un environnement de plus en plus évolutif, la modélisation du fonctionnement du système d’information au sein de l'entreprise me semble primordiale. Pendant les deux dernières décennies, les pratiques de management, d’ingénierie et d’opération ont subi des mutations profondes et multiformes. Nous devons tenir compte de ces mutations dans les recherches en ingénierie des systèmes d’information afin de produire des formalismes et des démarches méthodologiques qui sauront anticiper et satisfaire les nouveaux besoins, regroupés dans ce document sous quatre thèmes:1) Le système d’information est le lieu même où s’élabore la coordination des actes et des informations sans laquelle une entreprise (et toute organisation), dans la diversité des métiers et des compétences qu’elle met en œuvre, ne peut exister que dans la médiocrité. La compréhension des exigences de coopération dans toutes ses dimensions (communication, coordination, collaboration) et le support que l’informatique peut et doit y apporter deviennent donc un sujet digne d’intérêt pour les recherches en système d’information.2) Le paradigme de management des processus d’entreprise (BPM) est en forte opposition avec le développement traditionnel des systèmes d’information qui, pendant plusieurs décennies, a cristallisé la division verticale des activités des organisations et favorisé ainsi la construction d’îlots d’information et d’applications. Cependant, les approches traditionnelles de modélisation de processus ne sont pas à la hauteur des besoins d’ingénierie des processus dans ce contexte en constant changement, que ce dernier soit de nature contextuelle ou permanente. Nous avons donc besoin de formalismes (i) qui permettent non seulement de représenter les processus d’entreprise et leurs liens avec les composants logiciels du système existant ou à venir mais (ii) qui ont aussi l’aptitude à représenter la nature variable et/ou évolutive (donc parfois éminemment décisionnelle) de ces processus.3) Les systèmes d’information continuent aujourd’hui de supporter les besoins classiques tels que l’automatisation et la coordination de la chaîne de production, l’amélioration de la qualité des produits et/ou services offerts. Cependant un nouveau rôle leur est attribué. Il s’agit du potentiel offert par les systèmes d’information pour adopter un rôle de support au service de la stratégie de l’entreprise. Les technologies de l’information, de la communication et de la connaissance se sont ainsi positionnées comme une ressource stratégique, support de la transformation organisationnelle voire comme levier du changement. Les modèles d’entreprise peuvent représenter l’état actuel de l’organisation afin de comprendre, de disposer d’une représentation partagée, de mesurer les performances, et éventuellement d’identifier les dysfonctionnements. Ils permettent aussi de représenter un état futur souhaité afin de définir une cible vers laquelle avancer par la mise en œuvre des projets. L’entreprise étant en mouvement perpétuel, son évolution fait partie de ses multiples dimensions. Nous avons donc besoin de représenter, a minima, un état futur et le chemin de transformation à construire pour avancer vers cette cible. Cependant planifier/imaginer/se projeter vers une cible unique et, en supposant que l’on y arrive, croire qu’il puisse exister un seul chemin pour l’atteindre semble irréaliste. Nous devons donc proposer des formalismes qui permettront de spécifier des scenarii à la fois pour des cibles à atteindre et pour des chemins à parcourir. Nous devons aussi développer des démarches méthodologiques pour guider de manière systématique la construction de ces modèles d’entreprise et la rationalité sous-jacente.4) En moins de cinquante ans, le propos du système d’information a évolué et s’est complexifié. Aujourd’hui, le système d’information doit supporter non seulement les fonctions de support de manière isolée et en silos (1970-1990), et les activités appartenant à la chaîne de valeur [Porter, 1985] de l’entreprise (1980-2000) mais aussi les activités de contrôle, de pilotage, de planification stratégique ainsi que la cohérence et l’harmonie de l’ensemble des processus liés aux activités métier (2000-201x), en un mot les activités de management stratégique et de gouvernance d’entreprise. La gouvernance d'entreprise est l'ensemble des processus, réglementations, lois et institutions influant la manière dont l'entreprise est dirigée, administrée et contrôlée. Ces processus qui produisent des ‘décisions’ en guise de ‘produit’ ont autant besoin d’être instrumentalisés par les systèmes d’information que les processus de nature plus opérationnels de l’entreprise. De même, ces processus stratégiques (dits aussi ‘de développement’) nécessitent d’avoir recours à des formalismes de représentation qui sont très loin, en pouvoir d’expression, des notations largement adoptées ces dernières années pour la représentation des processus d’entreprise.Ainsi, il semble peu judicieux de vouloir (ou penser pouvoir) isoler, pendant sa construction, l’objet “système d’information” de son environnement d’exécution. Si le sens donné à l’information dépend de la personne qui la reçoit, ce sens ne peut être entièrement capturé dans le système technique. Il sera plutôt appréhendé comme une composante essentielle d’un système socio-technique incluant les usagers du système d’information technologisé, autrement dit, les acteurs agissant de l’entreprise. De mon point de vue, ce système socio-technique qui mérite l’intérêt scientifique de notre discipline est l’entreprise. Les recherches que j’ai réalisées, animées ou supervisées , et qui sont structurées en quatre thèmes dans ce document, visent à résoudre les problèmes liés aux contextes de l'usage (l'entreprise et son environnement) des systèmes d’information. Le point discriminant de ma recherche est l'intérêt que je porte à la capacité de représentation :(i) de l'évolutivité et de la flexibilité des processus d'entreprise en particulier de ceux supportés par un système logiciel, d’un point de vue microscopique (modèle d’un processus) et macroscopique (représentation et configuration d’un réseau de processus) : thème 2(ii) du système d’entreprise dans toutes ses dimensions (stratégie, organisation des processus, système d’information et changement) : thème 3Pour composer avec ces motivations, il fallait :(iii) s’intéresser à la nature même du travail coopératif et à l’intentionnalité des acteurs agissant afin d’identifier et/ou proposer des formalismes appropriés pour les décrire et les comprendre : thème 1(iv) se questionner aussi sur les processus de management dont le rôle est de surveiller, mesurer, piloter l’entreprise afin de leur apporter le soutien qu’ils méritent du système d’information : thème