A Model-Driven approach for functional test case generation

Test phase is one of the most critical phases in software engineering life cycle to assure the final system quality. In this context, functional system test cases verify that the system under test fulfills its functional specification. Thus, these test cases are frequently designed from the different scenarios and alternatives depicted in functional requirements. The objective of this paper is to introduce a systematic process based on the Model-Driven paradigm to automate the generation of functional test cases from functional requirements. For this aim, a set of metamodels and transformations and also a specific language domain to use them is presented. The paper finishes stating learned lessons from the trenches as well as relevant future work and conclusions that draw new research lines in the test cases generation context.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2013-46928-C3-3-

Determinant Factors in Adopting Mobile Technology-based Services by Academic Librarians

Nowadays, mobile technology seems to become integral part of our life. People with different careers have begun to use it in their jobs. This research aims to identify influential factors in mobile technology adoption at library context. To this end, a conceptual model was presented based on an integrated model of technology acceptance model (TAM) and technology organization and environment (TOE) model. A researcher-made questionnaire was distributed among 120 academic librarians. Seven factors out of the integrated model of TAM and TOE were chosen to investigate their influence on mobile technology adoption. The results of the study suggest that the proposed model (integrated model of TAM and TOE) is a favorable one to identify the influential factors in mobile technology adoption at library context. In addition, regression analysis indicated that out of these seven factors, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, compatibility, relative advantage and organizational competency are determinant factors in adopting mobile technology-based library services among academic librarians

Determinant Factors in Adopting Mobile Technology-based Services by Academic Librarians

Nowadays, mobile technology seems to become integral part of our life. People with different careers have begun to use it in their jobs. This research aims to identify influential factors in mobile technology adoption at library context. To this end, a conceptual model was presented based on an integrated model of technology acceptance model (TAM) and technology organization and environment (TOE) model. A researcher-made questionnaire was distributed among 120 academic librarians. Seven factors out of the integrated model of TAM and TOE were chosen to investigate their influence on mobile technology adoption. The results of the study suggest that the proposed model (integrated model of TAM and TOE) is a favorable one to identify the influential factors in mobile technology adoption at library context. In addition, regression analysis indicated that out of these seven factors, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, compatibility, relative advantage and organizational competency are determinant factors in adopting mobile technology-based library services among academic librarians

Certifications of Critical Systems – The CECRIS Experience

In recent years, a considerable amount of effort has been devoted, both in industry and academia, to the development, validation and verification of critical systems, i.e. those systems whose malfunctions or failures reach a critical level both in terms of risks to human life as well as having a large economic impact.Certifications of Critical Systems – The CECRIS Experience documents the main insights on Cost Effective Verification and Validation processes that were gained during work in the European Research Project CECRIS (acronym for Certification of Critical Systems). The objective of the research was to tackle the challenges of certification by focusing on those aspects that turn out to be more difficult/important for current and future critical systems industry: the effective use of methodologies, processes and tools.The CECRIS project took a step forward in the growing field of development, verification and validation and certification of critical systems. It focused on the more difficult/important aspects of critical system development, verification and validation and certification process. Starting from both the scientific and industrial state of the art methodologies for system development and the impact of their usage on the verification and validation and certification of critical systems, the project aimed at developing strategies and techniques supported by automatic or semi-automatic tools and methods for these activities, setting guidelines to support engineers during the planning of the verification and validation phases

The engineering of an object-oriented software development methodology

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Certifications of Critical Systems – The CECRIS Experience

In recent years, a considerable amount of effort has been devoted, both in industry and academia, to the development, validation and verification of critical systems, i.e. those systems whose malfunctions or failures reach a critical level both in terms of risks to human life as well as having a large economic impact.Certifications of Critical Systems – The CECRIS Experience documents the main insights on Cost Effective Verification and Validation processes that were gained during work in the European Research Project CECRIS (acronym for Certification of Critical Systems). The objective of the research was to tackle the challenges of certification by focusing on those aspects that turn out to be more difficult/important for current and future critical systems industry: the effective use of methodologies, processes and tools.The CECRIS project took a step forward in the growing field of development, verification and validation and certification of critical systems. It focused on the more difficult/important aspects of critical system development, verification and validation and certification process. Starting from both the scientific and industrial state of the art methodologies for system development and the impact of their usage on the verification and validation and certification of critical systems, the project aimed at developing strategies and techniques supported by automatic or semi-automatic tools and methods for these activities, setting guidelines to support engineers during the planning of the verification and validation phases

Uma proposta para rastreabilidade no desenvolvimento de software

Orientador: Mario JinoTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Elétrica e de ComputaçãoResumo: Rastreabilidade tem sido um tópico de pesquisa no desenvolvimento de software por pelo menos 40 anos, sendo adicionada a muitos padrões, como o DOD-STD-2167A e o IEEE 830-1998. Este último, por exemplo, afirma que uma boa especificação de requisitos de software deve ser rastreável. A rastreabilidade fornece muitos benefícios para projetos de software, tais como: identificação das razões para decisões de design, prevenção de problemas de dependência, identificação de responsabilidades em um projeto, estimação de impacto e de custo de modificações, e medição do progresso de desenvolvimento. Sucintamente, a rastreabilidade permite a geração de um produto de melhor qualidade. Dois principais focos surgiram na literatura nos últimos anos: desenvolvimento baseado em modelo e geração automática de rastros. O primeiro trata da modelagem de rastreabilidade, definindo relações e elementos de um projeto; o segundo trata da descoberta automática de relações entre elementos. Vários conceitos foram definidos até agora, como rastreabilidade bidirecional, rastreabilidade de especificações pré e pós-requisitos, rastreabilidade horizontal e vertical, e rastreabilidade explícita e implícita. Embora haja um consenso geral sobre a maioria dos conceitos relacionados a rastreabilidade, há uma falta de consenso sobre como, e o quê, deve ser rastreado; não há consenso sobre: quais relações são relevantes para os projetos de desenvolvimento de software, quais elementos devem ser rastreados, como as mudanças nos elementos de um projeto afetam as relações existentes, ou como atualizar as relações dadas certas mudanças. Os modelos de rastreabilidade visam responder a essas questões fornecendo um padrão para ser usado como uma guia em projetos de desenvolvimento de software; entretanto, não há consenso sobre o que um modelo deve conter. Existe uma variedade de modelos, cada um considerando diferentes tipos de relações, elementos, e possuindo diferentes focos. Além disso, a maioria dos modelos possui problemas que tornam o seu uso difícil, ou até mesmo impossível; por exemplo, existem modelos que não descrevem - suficientemente ou em nada - as ligações de rastreabilidade que propõem. Este trabalho visa a ajudar nesta questão, fornecendo uma contribuição dupla: um modelo de referência para criar e avaliar modelos de rastreabilidade, e um metamodelo abrangente, construído em cima do modelo de referência, para adicionar rastreabilidade a projetos de desenvolvimento de software. Nosso Modelo de Referência para rastreabilidade define os elementos básicos em um modelo de rastreabilidade e define conjuntos básicos de: ações, tipos de ligações, tipos de artefatos, e processos. Propriedades necessárias para o conjunto de tipos de ligações e o conjunto de tipos de artefatos também são fornecidas. Nosso Metamodelo para rastreabilidade é composto por: um modelo conceitual descrevendo e organizando os elementos de rastreabilidade; um conjunto de tipos de artefatos representando as atividades definidas no Modelo de Referência, além de um conjunto de tipos de artefatos criados para registrar decisões de design; um conjunto de tipos de ligações que modelam diferentes relações de rastreabilidade; e um conjunto de processos para garantir a consistência de projetosAbstract: Traceability has been a topic of research in software development for at least 40 years, being added to many standards, such as the DOD-STD-2167A and the IEEE 830-1998. The latter, for instance, states that a good software requirements specification should be traceable. Traceability provides many benefits to software projects, such as: identification of the reasons for design decisions, avoidance of dependency issues, identification of accountability in a project, estimation of impact and cost of modifications, and measurement of development progress. Succintly, traceability allows the generation of a better quality product. Two main focuses have emerged in the literature in recent years: model-based development and automated trace generation. The former concerns modeling traceability by defining relations and elements in a project; the latter concerns automatic discovery of relations between elements in a project. Several concepts have been defined so far, such as bidirectional traceability, pre and post-requirements specification traceability, horizontal and vertical traceability, and explicit and implicit traceability. While there is general consensus on most concepts related to traceability, there is a lack of consensus on how, and what, should be traced; there is no consensus on which relations are relevant for software development projects, which elements should be traced, how changes in elements of a project affects existing relations, or how to update relations given certain changes. Traceability models aim to answer these questions by providing a standard to be used as a guide in software development projects; however, there is no consensus on what a model should contain. There is a variety of models, each considering different types of relations, elements, and having distinct focuses. Also, the majority of models have issues which makes them difficult or even impossible to use; for instance, there are models which do not describe - sufficiently or at all - traceability links which they propose. This work aims to help in this issue by providing a twofold contribution: a reference model for creating and evaluating traceability models, and a comprehensive metamodel, built on top of the reference model, to add traceability to software development projects. Our Reference Model for traceability defines the basic elements in a traceability model and defines basic sets of: actions, link types, artifact types, and processes. Necessary properties for the sets of link types and artifact types are also provided. Our Metamodel for traceability is composed of: a conceptual model describing and organizing the elements of traceability; a set of artifact types representing the activities of the Reference Model, plus a set of artifact types created to record design decisions; a set of link types modeling different traceability relations; and a set of processes to ensure project consistencyDoutoradoEngenharia de ComputaçãoDoutor em Engenharia Elétrica1142618CAPE

Automated software systems generation for process-oriented organizations

Tese de doutoramento do Programa Doutoral em Tecnologias e Sistemas de InformaçãoCada vez mais, as organizações suportam as suas operações em sistemas de software. Torna-se, portanto, muito relevante o correto mapeamento das operações nos sistemas de software. Esta tese foca-se em organizações orientadas a processos de negócio, devido à relevância dada pelas normas de qualidade, pelos modelos de excelência, e pelos requisitos dos clientes, a esse tipo de estruturação interna das organizações. Nas organizações orientadas a processos de negócio existem diversos fatores, como o tempo envolvido nos projetos de implementação de processos de negócio em software, as diferenças existentes entre os modelos de processos de negócio e a sua implementação real, ou a quantidade e o tipo de recursos envolvidos nesses projetos, que fazem com que os projetos de desenvolvimento de software sejam demasiado dispendiosos, demorem demasiado tempo, e não garantam que o produto de software resultante seja o mais adequado à realidade da organização que o vai usar. Esta tese propõe que os sistemas de informação e de software devam ser desenvolvidos, desde o início, incorporando os modelos das organizações onde irão ser usados. Além disso, e como existem disponíveis modelos de referência de processos de negócio, esta tese também propõe o seu uso explícito aquando da recolha de requisitos. Assim, o objetivo principal da tese é propor uma metodologia que se inicie com modelos de processos de negócio e que termine com a geração de sistemas de software, para organizações orientadas a processos de negócio. A metodologia denomina-se BIM e é formalizada através do metamodelo EPF. Dada a abrangência dos temas a tratar, a tese foi conduzida tendo em atenção que o processo de desenvolvimento de software para suportar organizações orientadas a processos pode ser otimizado. Para melhor mostrar os diversos passos e resultados intermédios, usamos a metodologia de investigação Action Research. A tese propõe que as atividades de investigação sejam terminadas quando uma dada condição de paragem seja atingida, e para isso usa uma avaliação baseada num conjunto de indicadores para os resultados do produto e do processo, e uma adaptação do modelo de excelência EFQM para a forma como foi executado o processo de desenvolvimento. O foco das Action são os sistemas de software MES, essenciais na ligação entre sistemas de software embebido e sistemas ERP. Nesta tese, as Action iniciam-se com modelos de processos e com arquiteturas de software standard, e terminam com uma proposta de modelo de processo e com arquiteturas de software e tecnologias adaptadas à execução de processos de negócio. A tese propõe também alguns conceitos como IAvO (extensão de modelos de processos de negócio), OBO (componentes de software intermutáveis e não-proprietários), OA (aspetos organizacionais), e PF (framework de processos) para aumentarem a eficiência e eficácia na implementação em software de processos de negócio.Increasingly, organizations support their operations by using software systems, turning very relevant the proper mapping of operations into software systems. This thesis focuses on organizations oriented to business processes, due to the importance that quality norms, excellence models, and customer requirements put on this type of internal structures of organizations. Process-oriented organizations have characteristics, such as the time needed to implement business processes in software, the differences between the business process models and the real business processes, or the quantity and type of the required resources, that lead to development projects too expensive, taking too long to complete, and that do not assure that the resulting product is the most adequate to the reality of the client organization. This thesis proposes that the development of information and software system embodies, since the early stages, the models of the organization where they operate. In addition, and since business process reference models are available, the thesis also proposes to use explicitly such reference models by requirements collection time. Thus, the main goal of the thesis is to propose a methodology that picks business process reference models and ends with software systems, for process-oriented organizations. The methodology is denominated BIM and is formalized by using the EPF metamodel. Due to the wide scope of the studied areas, the thesis is tailored considering that the development process for processoriented organizations can be optimized. To express better the intermediate steps and results, we use the Action Research methodology. The thesis proposes that the research activities terminate when a stopping condition is met, based on a set of indicators for the product, and a tailoring of the EFQM model for the development process. The Actions are focused on MES, crucial for the linking of embedded software systems with ERP systems. In this thesis, the Actions start by using standard process models and software architectures, and end by using a proposed process model, and software architectures and technologies adapted to the execution of business software. The thesis also proposes new concepts like IAvO (extension to business process reference models), OBO (interchangeable and nonproprietary software components), AO (organizational aspects), and PF (process framework) to increase the efficiency and the effectiveness of the implementation of business processes in software

Enterprise modelling framework for dynamic and complex business environment: socio-technical systems perspective

The modern business environment is characterised by dynamism and ambiguity. The causes include global economic change, rapid change requirements, shortened development life cycles and the increasing complexity of information technology and information systems (IT/IS). However, enterprises have been seen as socio-technical systems. The dynamic complex business environment cannot be understood without intensive modelling and simulation. Nevertheless, there is no single description of reality, which has been seen as relative to its context and point of view. Human perception is considered an important determinant for the subjectivist view of reality. Many scholars working in the socio-technical systems and enterprise modelling domains have conceived the holistic sociotechnical systems analysis and design possible using a limited number of procedural and modelling approaches. For instance, the ETHICS and Human-centred design approaches of socio-technical analysis and design, goal-oriented and process-oriented modelling of enterprise modelling perspectives, and the Zachman and DoDAF enterprise architecture frameworks all have limitations that can be improved upon, which have been significantly explained in this thesis. [Continues.