Use cases in software development: an investigation in its roles and values

This research work identifies the roles and values of USE CASES in software development, and analysed the concept of USE CASES critically in other to ascertain their usefulness in achieving a user’s requirement when applied to a system development methodology. We examined the major considerations for deploying advanced UML modelling by considering the best approach for a programmer to get to the source code by putting the right aspect of the UML to work at the right stage of a system life cycle in an object (OO) oriented analysis and design practice. research has found out that to achieve a successful object oriented programming design and implementation, an analyst should strive to drive an OO software design from USE CASE

Task analysis: the missing link in software development methodologies

Systems development methods or software methodologies have evolved considerably over the past few years. This development has tended to fall into two main areas: Software Engineering and Human Computer Interaction (HCI). The two main techniques proposed in Software Engineering were Structured Analysis, as proposed by Ross and DeMarco; and Semantic Modelling. These two different approaches were later combined to yield Modern Structured Analysis, in which Structured Analysis was augmented with data modelling techniques. Modern Structured Analysis was subsequently replaced by Object Oriented Analysis and Design (OOAD) which adopted a holistic approach to data and processes, encapsulating them into objects. In the HCI domain, design methods such as Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA) and Task Analysis for Knowledge Descriptions (TAKD), have long been used to model the cognitive nature of the tasks performed by the users. Recent work by Walsh, Um, Long and Sutcliffe have proposed combining Task Analysis (TA) with Structured Analysis and Design methods, in order to improve system usability. Analysis for Task Object Modelling (ATOM), as proposed by Walsh, is an example of such a method which combines TA with object modelling in an integrated life cycle approach. This article will review the major Software Engineering methods, together with the principal HCI methods and motivate for the integration of the two areas on the basis of improved system usability. A taxonomy of software development methods as proposed by Blum will be reviewed and a proposal made to augment the framework to include the issue of user-centered design methods. The extended framework will then be used to classify several of the principal software design methodologies, together with the principal HCI methods. Each of these methodologies will be reviewed and conclusions drawn as to the efficacy of each in the context of the software life cycle. We will demonstrate that all of the traditional design methodologies fail to include Task Analysis (TA). An alternative methodology, Analysis for Task Object Modelling, as proposed by Walsh, will be discussed, which includes TA with object modelling. We will motivate that TA is an essential part of Requirements Analysis and HCI design. Furthermore, failure to include TA may result in serious usability problems. Methods like ATOM, which combine TA with OOAD, are thus the most applicable software methodologies for designing usable systems in the future. Further research, however, is needed to improve and integrate the conceptual modelling techniques in ATOM

Business Domain Modelling using an Integrated Framework

This paper presents an application of a “Systematic Soft Domain Driven Design Framework” as a soft systems approach to domain-driven design of information systems development. The framework combining techniques from Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), the Unified Modelling Language (UML), and an implementation pattern known as “Naked Objects”. This framework have been used in action research projects that have involved the investigation and modelling of business processes using object-oriented domain models and the implementation of software systems based on those domain models. Within this framework, Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) is used as a guiding methodology to explore the problem situation and to develop the domain model using UML for the given business domain. The framework is proposed and evaluated in our previous works, and a real case study “Information Retrieval System for academic research” is used, in this paper, to show further practice and evaluation of the framework in different business domain. We argue that there are advantages from combining and using techniques from different methodologies in this way for business domain modelling. The framework is overviewed and justified as multimethodology using Mingers multimethodology ideas

An Object-Oriented Framework for Analysis of MV/LV Distribution Systems

This work was conducted as part of the AMEN (Agentbased Modelling of Electricity Networks) project, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council in the UK under Grant Reference EP/K033492/1.The interest of this work is in designing and developing a simulation package for comprehensive analysis of a distribution system based on object-oriented principles. Towards such an objective, we propose a design of a framework based on an object-oriented approach that is capable of handling such features and yet is simple and flexible enough for further extension. Here, we present a novel derivation of an object oriented methodology to firstly model the various components of a present day distribution system, and then to solve for the power flows across the system. Innovative aspects of the implementation of the derived system are how the various components are represented for power flow calculations using a standard backward/forward algorithm. An IEEE test feeder is used to demonstrate the framework. This work is of interest to model developers, distribution network planners, software designers and most importantly to users in the academia and industry

National freight transport planning: towards a Strategic Planning Extranet Decision Support System (SPEDSS)

This thesis provides a `proof-of-concept' prototype and a design architecture for a Object Oriented (00) database towards the development of a Decision Support System (DSS) for the national freight transport planning problem. Both governments and industry require a Strategic Planning Extranet Decision Support System (SPEDSS) for their effective management of the national Freight Transport Networks (FTN). This thesis addresses the three key problems for the development of a SPEDSS to facilitate national strategic freight planning: 1) scope and scale of data available and required; 2) scope and scale of existing models; and 3) construction of the software. The research approach taken embodies systems thinking and includes the use of: Object Oriented Analysis and Design (OOA/D) for problem encapsulation and database design; artificial neural network (and proposed rule extraction) for knowledge acquisition of the United States FTN data set; and an iterative Object Oriented (00) software design for the development of a `proof-of-concept' prototype. The research findings demonstrate that an 00 approach along with the use of 00 methodologies and technologies coupled with artificial neural networks (ANNs) offers a robust and flexible methodology for the analysis of the FTN problem domain and the design architecture of an Extranet based SPEDSS. The objectives of this research were to: 1) identify and analyse current problems and proposed solutions facing industry and governments in strategic transportation planning; 2) determine the functional requirements of an FTN SPEDSS; 3) perform a feasibility analysis for building a FTN SPEDSS `proof-of-concept' prototype and (00) database design; 4) develop a methodology for a national `internet-enabled' SPEDSS model and database; 5) construct a `proof-of-concept' prototype for a SPEDSS encapsulating identified user requirements; 6) develop a methodology to resolve the issue of the scale of data and data knowledge acquisition which would act as the `intelligence' within a SPDSS; 7) implement the data methodology using Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) towards the validation of it; and 8) make recommendations for national freight transportation strategic planning and further research required to fulfil the needs of governments and industry. This thesis includes: an 00 database design for encapsulation of the FTN; an `internet-enabled' Dynamic Modelling Methodology (DMM) for the virtual modelling of the FTNs; a Unified Modelling Language (UML) `proof-of-concept' prototype; and conclusions and recommendations for further collaborative research are identified

The design of a support department simulator for use in the design of manufacturing systems

Manufacturing firms are driven by competitive pressures to continually improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their organisations. For this reason, manufacturing engineers often implement changes to existing processes, or design new production facilities, with the expectation of making further gains in manufacturing system performance. This thesis relates to how the likely outcome of this type of decision should be predicted prior to its implementation. The thesis argues that since manufacturing systems must also interact with many other parts of an organisation, the expected performance improvements can often be significantly hampered by constraints that arise elsewhere in the business. As a result, decision-makers should attempt to predict just how well a proposed design will perform when these other factors, or 'support departments', are taken into consideration. However, the thesis also demonstrates that, in practice, where quantitative analysis is used to evaluate design decisions, the analysis model invariably ignores the potential impact of support functions on a system's overall performance. A more comprehensive modelling approach is therefore required. A study of how various business functions interact establishes that to properly represent the kind of delays that give rise to support department constraints, a model should actually portray the dynamic and stochastic behaviour of entities in both the manufacturing and non-manufacturing aspects of a business. This implies that computer simulation be used to model design decisions but current simulation software does not provide a sufficient range of functionality to enable the behaviour of all of these entities to be represented in this way. The main objective of the research has therefore been the development of a new simulator that will overcome limitations of existing software and so enable decision-makers to conduct a more holistic evaluation of design decisions. It is argued that the application of object-oriented techniques offers a potentially better way of fulfilling both the functional and ease-of-use issues relating to development of the new simulator. An object-oriented analysis and design of the system, called WBS/Office, are therefore presented that extends to modelling a firm's administrative and other support activities in the context of the manufacturing system design process. A particularly novel feature of the design is the ability for decision-makers to model how a firm's specific information and document processing requirements might hamper shop-floor performance. The simulator is primarily intended for modelling make-to-order batch manufacturing systems and the thesis presents example models created using a working version of WBS/Office that demonstrate the feasibility of using the system to analyse manufacturing system designs in this way

Formal Verification, Quantitative Analysis and Automated Detection of Design Patterns

Present-day software engineering concepts emphasize on developing software based on design patterns. Design patterns form the basis of generic solution to a recurring design problem. Software requirement analysis and design methodologies based on different Unified Modelling Language (UML) diagrams need to be strengthened by the use of a number of design patterns. In this study, an attempt has been made for automated verification of the design patterns. A grammar has been developed for verification and recognition of selected design patterns. ANTLR (ANother Tool for Language Recognition) tool has been used for verification of developed grammar. After proper verification and validation of design patterns, there comes a need to quantitatively determine the quality of design patterns. Hence, we have provided a methodology to compare the quality attributes of a system having design pattern solution with a system having non-pattern solution, both the system intending to provide same functionalities. Using Quality Model for Object-Oriented Design (QMOOD) approach, the cut-off points are calculated in order to provide the exact size of the system in terms of the number of classes, for which the solution adopted using design pattern, provides more quality parameters. Again Design Pattern Detection (DPD) has also considered as an emerging field of Software Reverse Engineering. An attempt has been made to present a noble approach for design pattern detection with the help of Graph Isomorphism and Normalized Cross Correlation (NCC) techniques. Eclipse Plugin i.e., ObjectAid is used to extract UML class diagrams as well as the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) files from the Software System and Design Pattern. An algorithm is proposed to extract relevant information from the XML files, and Graph Isomorphism technique is used to find the pattern subgraph. Use of NCC provides the percentage existence of the pattern in the system

Real world evaluation of aspect-oriented software development : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Computer Science at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Software development has improved over the past decade with the rise in the popularity of the Object-Oriented (OO) development approach. However, software projects continue to grow in complexity and continue to have alarmingly low rates of success. Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) is touted to be one solution to this software development problem. It shows promise of reducing programming complexity, making software more flexible and more amenable to change. The central concept introduced by AOP is the aspect. An aspect is used to modularise crosscutting concerns in a similar fashion to the way classes modularise business concerns. A crosscutting concern cannot be modularised in approaches such as OO because the code to realise the concern must be spread throughout the module (e.g. a tracing concent is implemented by adding code to every method in a system). AOP also introduces join points, pointcuts, and advice which are used with aspects to capture crosscutting concerns so they can be localised in a modular unit. OO took approximately 20 years to become a mainstream development approach. AOP was only invented in 1997. This project considers whether AOP is ready for commercial adoption. This requires analysis of the AOP implementations available, tool support, design processes, testing tools, standards, and support infrastructure. Only when AOP is evaluated across all these criteria can it be established whether it is ready to be used in commercial projects. Moreover, if companies are to invest time and money into adopting AOP, they must be aware of the benefits and risks associated with its adoption. This project attempts to quantify the potential benefits in adopting AOP, as well as identifying areas of risk. SolNet Solutions Ltd, an Information Technology (IT) company in Wellington, New Zealand, is used in this study as a target environment for integration of aspects into a commercial development process. SolNet is in the business of delivering large scale enterprise Java applications. To assist in this process they have developed a Common Services Architecture (CSA) containing components that can be reused to reduce risk and cost to clients. However, the CSA is complicated and SolNet have identified aspects as a potential solution to decrease the complexity. Aspects were found to bring substantial improvement to the Service Layer of SolNet. applications, including substantial reductions in complexity and size. This reduces the cost and time of development, as well as the risk associated with the projects. Moreover, the CSA was used in a more consistent fashion making the system easier to understand and maintain, and several crosscutting concerns were modularised as part of a reusable aspect library which could eventually form part of their CSA. It was found that AOP is approaching commercial readiness. However, more work is needed on defining standards for aspect languages and modelling of design elements. The current solutions in this area are commercially viable, but would greatly benefit from a standardised approach. Aspect systems can be difficult to test and the effect of the weaving process on Java serialisation requires further investigation

A survey of agent-oriented methodologies

This article introduces the current agent-oriented methodologies. It discusses what approaches have been followed (mainly extending existing object oriented and knowledge engineering methodologies), the suitability of these approaches for agent modelling, and some conclusions drawn from the survey

Modelling global behaviour with scenarios in object-oriented analysis

The first object-oriented analysis methods focused on the specification of the classes of a system and on the static relationships between them. Dynamic relationships between classes and the functional view of the system as a whole were neglected, and no models were offered for capturing system requirements. This changed with the publication of use case driven approaches such as OOSE (1992) and Fusion (1994). Modelling global behaviour by scenarios in both requirements analysis and design has since been adopted by many object-oriented methods. Scenarios are also called use cases, system operations or business processes, and they are modelled using different notations. Some of the analysis methods that use scenarios have common characteristics, namely i) the similarity of the relationship between the entities of a data model and the scenarios of a flat scenario model with a matrix, and ii) the assumption that the externally visible behaviour of the system can be subdivided into more or less independent scenario types. In the following, we will refer to these characteristics by the term matrix approach. While in many projects the matrix approach has been used successfully, several difficulties arise when more complex systems are modelled: relationships and similarities between different scenario types cannot be expressed, the dependencies between scenario types are not modelled, only one abstraction level can be represented, and the apparently seamless transition from the analysis to the design model may result in a low quality object model with a strong bias towards data modelling. These difficulties lead us to propose an enhanced scenario modelling technique (called SEAM) which overcomes some of the weaknesses of the matrix approach. This modelling technique includes composition, aggregation, specialisation and extension hierarchies of services, and is based on the paradigm of interacting objects (which can be atomic objects, subsystems or systems) offering services. Scenario types, showing the possible interaction sequences for a specific service, can be modelled on several abstraction levels, and can describe the services of any kind of object (and thus also the global behaviour of a whole system) from both an internal and external point of view. We describe the concepts and the notation of SEAM, and we show how it can be integrated into the Fusion method. The difficulties that may arise in projects using methods based on the matrix approach are not only due to the limitations of scenario modelling techniques. A major factor is the often contradictory definition of the analysis model goals, which leads to clashes of intent. Therefore we discuss the nature of such intent clashes and analyse how the different software development methods deal with them. Finally we give an overview of the various notations and basic concepts used by different scenario modelling techniques, and we provide summaries of current, mostly objectoriented, approaches to modelling global behaviour