Crosscutting, what is and what is not? A Formal definition based on a Crosscutting Pattern

Crosscutting is usually described in terms of scattering and tangling. However, the distinction between these concepts is vague, which could lead to ambiguous statements. Sometimes, precise definitions are required, e.g. for the formal identification of crosscutting concerns. We propose a conceptual framework for formalizing these concepts based on a crosscutting pattern that shows the mapping between elements at two levels, e.g. concerns and representations of concerns. The definitions of the concepts are formalized in terms of linear algebra, and visualized with matrices and matrix operations. In this way, crosscutting can be clearly distinguished from scattering and tangling. Using linear algebra, we demonstrate that our definition generalizes other definitions of crosscutting as described by Masuhara & Kiczales [21] and Tonella and Ceccato [28]. The framework can be applied across several refinement levels assuring traceability of crosscutting concerns. Usability of the framework is illustrated by means of applying it to several areas such as change impact analysis, identification of crosscutting at early phases of software development and in the area of model driven software development

Adaptive development and maintenance of user-centric software systems

A software system cannot be developed without considering the various facets of its environment. Stakeholders – including the users that play a central role – have their needs, expectations, and perceptions of a system. Organisational and technical aspects of the environment are constantly changing. The ability to adapt a software system and its requirements to its environment throughout its full lifecycle is of paramount importance in a constantly changing environment. The continuous involvement of users is as important as the constant evaluation of the system and the observation of evolving environments. We present a methodology for adaptive software systems development and maintenance. We draw upon a diverse range of accepted methods including participatory design, software architecture, and evolutionary design. Our focus is on user-centred software systems

A Parsing Scheme for Finding the Design Pattern and Reducing the Development Cost of Reusable Object Oriented Software

Because of the importance of object oriented methodologies, the research in developing new measure for object oriented system development is getting increased focus. The most of the metrics need to find the interactions between the objects and modules for developing necessary metric and an influential software measure that is attracting the software developers, designers and researchers. In this paper a new interactions are defined for object oriented system. Using these interactions, a parser is developed to analyze the existing architecture of the software. Within the design model, it is necessary for design classes to collaborate with one another. However, collaboration should be kept to an acceptable minimum i.e. better designing practice will introduce low coupling. If a design model is highly coupled, the system is difficult to implement, to test and to maintain overtime. In case of enhancing software, we need to introduce or remove module and in that case coupling is the most important factor to be considered because unnecessary coupling may make the system unstable and may cause reduction in the system's performance. So coupling is thought to be a desirable goal in software construction, leading to better values for external software qualities such as maintainability, reusability and so on. To test this hypothesis, a good measure of class coupling is needed. In this paper, based on the developed tool called Design Analyzer we propose a methodology to reuse an existing system with the objective of enhancing an existing Object oriented system keeping the coupling as low as possible.Comment: 15 page

Using Modularity Metrics to assist Move Method Refactoring of Large System

For large software systems, refactoring activities can be a challenging task, since for keeping component complexity under control the overall architecture as well as many details of each component have to be considered. Product metrics are therefore often used to quantify several parameters related to the modularity of a software system. This paper devises an approach for automatically suggesting refactoring opportunities on large software systems. We show that by assessing metrics for all components, move methods refactoring an be suggested in such a way to improve modularity of several components at once, without hindering any other. However, computing metrics for large software systems, comprising thousands of classes or more, can be a time consuming task when performed on a single CPU. For this, we propose a solution that computes metrics by resorting to GPU, hence greatly shortening computation time. Thanks to our approach precise knowledge on several properties of the system can be continuously gathered while the system evolves, hence assisting developers to quickly assess several solutions for reducing modularity issues

On the Identification of Agents in the Design of Production Control Systems

This paper describes a methodology that is being developed for designing and building agent-based systems for the domain of production control. In particular, this paper deals with the steps that are involved in identifying the agents and in specifying their responsibilities. The methodology aims to be usable by engineers who have a background in production control but who have no prior experience in agent technology. For this reason, the methodology needs to be very prescriptive with respect to the agent-related aspects of design