15,304 research outputs found
Analysis as first-class citizens – an application to Architecture Description Languages
Architecture Description Languages (ADLs) support modeling and analysis of systems through models transformation and exploration. Various contributions made proposals to bring verification capabilities to designers through model-based frame- works and illustrated benefits to the overall system quality. Model-level analyses are usually performed as an exogenous, unidirectional and semantically weak transformation towards a third-party model. We claim such process can be incomplete and/or inefficient because gathered results lead to evolution of the primary model. This is particularly problematic for the design of Distributed Real-Time Embedded (DRE) systems that has to tackle many concerns like time, security or safety. In this paper, we argue why analysis should no longer be considered as a side step in the design process but, rather, should be embedded as a first-class citizen in the model itself. We review several standardized architecture description languages, which consider analysis as a goal. As an element of solution, we introduce current work on the definition of a language dedicated to the analysis of models within the scope of one particular ADL, namely the Architecture Analysis and Design Language (AADL)
Managing knowledge for capability engineering
The enterprises that deliver capability are trying to evolve into through-life businesses
by shifting away from the traditional pattern of designing and manufacturing successive
generations of products, towards a new paradigm centred on support, sustainability and
the incremental enhancements of existing capabilities from technology insertions and
changes to process. The provision of seamless through-life customer solutions depends
heavily on management of information and knowledge between, and within the different
parts of the supply chain enterprise.
This research characterised and described Capability Engineering (CE) as applied in the
defence enterprise and identified to BAE Systems important considerations for
managing knowledge within that context.
The terms Capability Engineering and Through Life Capability Management (TLCM),
used synonymously in this thesis, denote a complex evolving domain that requires new
approaches to better understand the different viewpoints, models and practices.
The findings and novelty of this research is demonstrated through the following
achievements:
Defined the problem space that Requirements Engineers can use in through-life
management projects.
Made a contribution to the development of models for Systems Architects to
enable them to incorporate ‘soft’ systems within their consideration.
Independently developed a TLCM activity model against which BAE Systems
validated the BAE Systems TLCM activity model, which is now used by UK
Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Developed, and published within INCOSE1, the INCOSE Capability
Engineering ontology. Through the novel analysis of a directly applicable case study, highlighted to
Functional Delivery Managers the significance of avoiding the decoupling of
information and knowledge in the context of TLCM.
Through experimentation and knowledge gained within this research, identified
inadequacies in the TechniCall (rapid access to experts) service which led to the
generation of requirements for an improved service which is now being
implemented by BAE Systems.
The results showed that managing knowledge is distinct when compared to information
management. Over-reliance on information management in the absence of tacit
knowledge can lead to a loss in the value of the information, which can result in
unintended consequences. Capability is realised through a combination of component
systems and Capability Engineering is equivalent to a holistic perspective of Systems
Engineering. A sector-independent Capability Engineering ontology is developed to
enable semantic interoperability between different domains i.e. defence, rail and
information technology. This helped to better understand the dependencies of
contributing component systems within defence, and supported collaboration across
different domains. Although the evaluation of the ontology through expert review has
been accomplished; the ontology, KM analysis framework and soft systems
transitioning approach developed still need to undergo independent verification and
validation. This requires application to other case studies to check and exploit their
suitability.
This Engineering Doctorate research has been disseminated through a number of peer
reviewed publications
A Semi-Automated Approach for the Co-Refinement of Requirements and Architecture Models
Requirements and architecture specifications are strongly related as the second provides a solution to a problem stated by the first. This coupling is typically realized by traceability links and maintaining such links becomes extremely difficult as both requirements and architecture specifications frequently evolve, and in particular when the architecture is refined providing an increasing level of details. In such case, not only the traceability must evolve but the requirements must be refined as well. We present a novel semi-automated approach to evolve non-functional requirements and their traceability links following system's architecture refinement in the context of design space exploration and automated code generation. The approach has been prototyped for AADL models refined with the RAMSES tool and for model transformations implemented as Story Diagrams
Traceability support in software product lines
Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática.Traceability is becoming a necessary quality of any modern software system. The
complexity in modern systems is such that, if we cannot rely on good techniques and
tools it becomes an unsustainable burden, where software artifacts can hardly be linked
to their initial requirements.
Modern software systems are composed by a many artifacts (models, code, etc.).
Any change in one of them may have repercussions on many components. The
assessment of this impact usually comes at a high cost and is highly error-prone. This
complexity inherent to software development increases when it comes to Software
Product Line Engineering. Traceability aims to respond to this challenge, by linking all
the software artifacts that are used, in order to reason about how they influence each
others.
We propose to specify, design and implement an extensible Traceability Framework
that will allow developers to provide traceability for a product line, or the possibility to
extend it for other development scenarios. This MSc thesis work is to develop an
extensible framework, using Model-Driven techniques and technologies, to provide
traceability support for product lines. We also wish to provide basic and advanced
traceability queries, and traceability views designed for the needs of each user
Integration of Quality Attributes in Software Product Line Development
Different
approaches
for
building
modern
software
systems
in
complex
and
open
environments
have
been
proposed
in
the
last
few
years.
Some
efforts
try
to
apply
Software
Product
Line
(SPL)
approach
to
take
advantage
of
the
massive
reuse
for
producing
software
systems
that
share
a
common
set
of
features.
In
general
quality
assurance
is
a
crucial
activity
for
success
in
software
industry,
but
it
is
even
more
important
when
talking
about
Software
Product
Lines
since
the
intensive
reuse
of
assets
makes
the
quality
attributes
(a
measurable
physical
or
abstract
property
of
an
entity)
of
the
assets
to
be
transmitted
to
the
whole
SPL
scope.
However,
despite
the
importance
that
quality
has
in
software
product
line
development,
most
of
the
methodologies
being
applied
in
Software
Product
Line
Development
focus
only
on
managing
the
commonalities
and
variability
within
the
product
line
and
not
giving
support
to
the
non--¿
functional
requirements
that
the
products
must
fit.
The
main
goal
of
this
master
final
work
is
to introduce
quality
attributes
in
early
stages
of
software
product
line
development
processes
by
means
of
the
definition
of
a
production
plan
that,
on
one
hand,
integrates
quality
as
an
additional
view
for
describing
the
extension
of
the
software
product
line
and,
on
the
other
hand
introduces
the
quality
attributes
as
a
decision
factor
during
product
configuration
and
when
selecting
among
design
alternatives.
Our
approach
has
been
defined
following
the
Model--¿
Driven
Software
Development
paradigm.
Therefore
all
the
software
artifacts
defined
had
its
correspondent
metamodels
and
the
processes
defined
rely
on
automated
model
transformations.
Finally
in
order
to
illustrate
the
feasibility
of
the
approach
we
have
integrated
the
quality
view
in
an
SPL
example
in
the
context
of
safety
critical
embedded
systems
on
the
automotive
domain.González Huerta, J. (2011). Integration of Quality Attributes in Software Product Line Development. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/15835Archivo delegad
A model-based approach to System of Systems risk management
The failure of many System of Systems (SoS) enterprises can be attributed to the inappropriate application of traditional Systems Engineering (SE) processes within the SoS domain, because of the mistaken belief that a SoS can be regarded as a single large, or complex, system. SoS Engineering (SoSE) is a sub-discipline of SE; Risk Management and Modelling and Simulation (M&S) are key areas within SoSE, both of which also lie within the traditional SE domain. Risk Management of SoS requires a different approach to that currently taken for individual systems; if risk is managed for each component system then it cannot be assumed that the aggregated affect will be to mitigate risk at the SoS level.
A literature review was undertaken examining three themes: (1) SoS Engineering (SoSE), (2) M&S and (3) Risk.
Theme 1 of the literature provided insight into the activities comprising SoSE and its difference from traditional SE with risk management identified as a key activity.
The second theme discussed the application of M&S to SoS, providing an output, which supported the identification of appropriate techniques and concluding that, the inherent complexity of a SoS required the use of M&S in order to support SoSE activities.
Current risk management approaches were reviewed in theme 3 as well as the management of SoS risk. Although some specific examples of the management of SoS risk were found, no mature, general approach was identified, indicating a gap in current knowledge. However, it was noted most of these examples were underpinned by M&S approaches.
It was therefore concluded a general approach SoS risk management utilising M&S methods would be of benefit.
In order to fill the gap identified in current knowledge, this research proposed a new model based approach to Risk Management where risk identification was supported by a framework, which combined SoS system of interest dimensions with holistic risk types, where the resulting risks and contributing factors are captured in a causal network.
Analysis of the causal network using a model technique selection tool, developed as part of this research, allowed the causal network to be simplified through the replacement of groups of elements within the network by appropriate supporting models.
The Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) was identified as a suitable method to represent SoS risk. Supporting models run in Monte Carlo Simulations allowed data to be generated from which the risk BBNs could learn, thereby providing a more quantitative approach to SoS risk management. A method was developed which provided context to the BBN risk output through comparison with worst and best-case risk probabilities.
The model based approach to Risk Management was applied to two very different case studies: Close Air Support mission planning and the Wheat Supply Chain, UK National Food Security risks, demonstrating its effectiveness and adaptability.
The research established that the SoS SoI is essential for effective SoS risk identification and analysis of risk transfer, effective SoS modelling requires a range of techniques where suitability is determined by the problem context, the responsibility for SoS Risk Management is related to the overall SoS classification and the model based approach to SoS risk management was effective for both application case studies
Clafer: Lightweight Modeling of Structure, Behaviour, and Variability
Embedded software is growing fast in size and complexity, leading to intimate
mixture of complex architectures and complex control. Consequently, software
specification requires modeling both structures and behaviour of systems.
Unfortunately, existing languages do not integrate these aspects well, usually
prioritizing one of them. It is common to develop a separate language for each
of these facets. In this paper, we contribute Clafer: a small language that
attempts to tackle this challenge. It combines rich structural modeling with
state of the art behavioural formalisms. We are not aware of any other modeling
language that seamlessly combines these facets common to system and software
modeling. We show how Clafer, in a single unified syntax and semantics, allows
capturing feature models (variability), component models, discrete control
models (automata) and variability encompassing all these aspects. The language
is built on top of first order logic with quantifiers over basic entities (for
modeling structures) combined with linear temporal logic (for modeling
behaviour). On top of this semantic foundation we build a simple but expressive
syntax, enriched with carefully selected syntactic expansions that cover
hierarchical modeling, associations, automata, scenarios, and Dwyer's property
patterns. We evaluate Clafer using a power window case study, and comparing it
against other notations that substantially overlap with its scope (SysML, AADL,
Temporal OCL and Live Sequence Charts), discussing benefits and perils of using
a single notation for the purpose
- …