A Workflow Visual Modeler and Its Interface to Existing Workflow Management Systems

The rapid growth and complexity of today\u27s businesses have created a need for business process management approaches that will promote the efficient functioning of these organizations. Users of business process management tools greatly benefit from using visual process modeling capabilities. Cross-business interaction sets forth the need for standardization of notations in designing these models. The goal of this thesis is to study state of the art business process management notations and state of the art diagramming frameworks associated with building a Visual Modeler that can be easily integrated with existing workflow management systems. This thesis presents a Visual Modeler that has been created based on the research findings. Two case studies are presented, which show how the modeler has been effectively integrated as part of two completely different workflow management systems

Test Sequences for Web Service Composition using CPN model

Web service composition is most mature and effective way to realize the rapidly changing requirements of business in service-oriented solutions. Testing the compositions of web services is complex, due to their distributed nature and asynchronous behaviour. Colored Petri Nets (CPNs) provide a framework for the design, specification, validation and verification of systems. In this paper the CPN model used for composition design verification is reused for test design purpose. We propose an on-the-fly algorithm that generates a test suite that covers all possible paths without redundancy.  The prioritization of test sequences, test suite size and redundancy reduction are also focused. The proposed technique was applied to air line reservation system and the generated test sequences were evaluated against three coverage criteria; Decision Coverage, Input Output Coverage and Transition Coverage. Keywords— CPN, MBT, web service composition testing, test case generatio

A Catalog of Reusable Design Decisions for Developing UML/MOF-based Domain-specific Modeling Languages

In model-driven development (MDD), domain-specific modeling languages (DSMLs) act as a communication vehicle for aligning the requirements of domain experts with the needs of software engineers. With the rise of the UML as a de facto standard, UML/MOF-based DSMLs are now widely used for MDD. This paper documents design decisions collected from 90 UML/MOF-based DSML projects. These recurring design decisions were gained, on the one hand, by performing a systematic literature review (SLR) on the development of UML/MOF-based DSMLs. Via the SLR, we retrieved 80 related DSML projects for review. On the other hand, we collected decisions from developing ten DSML projects by ourselves. The design decisions are presented in the form of reusable decision records, with each decision record corresponding to a decision point in DSML development processes. Furthermore, we also report on frequently observed (combinations of) decision options as well as on associations between options which may occur within a single decision point or between two decision points. This collection of decision-record documents targets decision makers in DSML development (e.g., DSML engineers, software architects, domain experts).Series: Technical Reports / Institute for Information Systems and New Medi

Characterizing and evaluating the quality of software process modeling language: Comparison of ten representative model-based languages

Software organizations are very conscious that deployments of well-defined software processes improve software product development and its quality. Over last decade, many Software Process Modeling Languages (SPMLs) have been proposed to describe and manage software processes. However, each one presents advantages and disadvantages. The main challenge for an organization is to choose the best and most suitable SPML to meet its requirements. This paper proposes a Quality Model (QM) which has been defined conforms to QuEF (Quality Evaluation Framework). This QM allows to compare model-based SPMLs and it could be used by organizations to choose the most useful model-based SPML for their particular requirements. This paper also instances our QM to evaluate and compare 10 representative SPMLs of the various alternative approaches (metamodel-level approaches; SPML based on UML and approaches based on standards). Finally, this paper concludes there are many model-based proposals for SPM, but it is very difficult to establish with could be the commitment to follow. Some non-considered aspects until now have been identified (e.g., validation within enterprise environments, friendly support tools, mechanisms to carry out continuous improvement, mechanisms to establish business rules and elements for software process orchestrating).Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2016-76956-C3-2-R (POLOLAS

Protocol for a Systematic Literature Review on Design Decisions for UML-based DSMLs

Series: Technical Reports / Institute for Information Systems and New Medi

A model‐based solution for process modeling in practice environments: PLM4BS

Today's world economic situation is ruled by issues such as reducing cost, improving quality, maximizing profit, and improving and optimizing processes at organizations. In this context, business process management can be an essential strategy, but it is not usually consolidated at software organizations because software process properties involve a complex business process management application on software lifecycle. Consequently, software organizations often focus on Software Process Modeling (SPM), and each involved role performs process execution and orchestration independently and manually. This fact makes software processes maintenance, monitoring, and measurement become difficult tasks. This paper proposes a model‐based approach for SPM taking into account concepts related to process execution, orchestration, and monitoring. It is framed into a model‐driven engineering‐based and toolbased framework: Process Lifecycle Management for Business Software (PLM4BS). We present a SPM metamodel and its concrete syntax (through Unified Modeling Language profiles) that lays the foundation for extending PLM4BS. Its underlying metamodel allows managing processes automatically. Furthermore, PLM4BS improves current state‐of‐the‐art proposals in 6 dimensions: expressiveness, understandability, granularity, measurability, orchestrability, and business variables and rules. Also, PLM4BS has been evaluated in a multiple‐case study, in which the 6 mentioned dimensions were already validated.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2016‐76956‐C3‐2‐RMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2015‐71938‐RED

ALAMEDA Ecosystem: Centering Efforts in Software Testing Development

One of the most important and critical aspects to improve the quality assurance in software is to improve the testing process by utilizing techniques and tools, which will enhance the software testing process, making it more effective and efficient. This chapter presents ALAMEDA ecosystem, a software package that centers its efforts in software testing development and is a result from a real-world project. ALAMEDA provides support to lifecycles focused on the generation, implementation, and testing organization from the earliest stages of software development. In addition, the ecosystem provides an environment of rating the degree of compliance of organizations with the International Standard for Testing ISO/IEC-29119. It is proposed as a tool to use during the various iterations that may occur in an agile software development process