CARDS: A blueprint and environment for domain-specific software reuse

CARDS (Central Archive for Reusable Defense Software) exploits advances in domain analysis and domain modeling to identify, specify, develop, archive, retrieve, understand, and reuse domain-specific software components. An important element of CARDS is to provide visibility into the domain model artifacts produced by, and services provided by, commercial computer-aided software engineering (CASE) technology. The use of commercial CASE technology is important to provide rich, robust support for the varied roles involved in a reuse process. We refer to this kind of use of knowledge representation systems as supporting 'knowledge-based integration.

An investigation into evolving support for component reuse

It is common in engineering disciplines for new product development to be based on a concept of reuse, i.e. based on a foundation of knowledge and pre-existing components familiar to the discipline's community. In Software Engineering, this concept is known as software reuse. Software reuse is considered essential if higher quality software and reduced development effort are to be achieved. A crucial part of any engineering development is access to tools that aid development. In software engineering this means having software support tools with which to construct software including tools to support effective software reuse. The evolutionary nature of software means that the foundation of knowledge and components on which new products can be developed must reflect the changes occurring in both the software engineering discipline and the domain in which the software is to function. Therefore, effective support tools, including those used in software reuse, must evolve to reflect changes in both software engineering and the varying domains that use software. This thesis contains a survey of the current understanding of software reuse. Software reuse is defined as the use of knowledge and work components of software that already exist in the development of new software. The survey reflects the belief that domain analysis and software tool support are essential in successful software reuse. The focus of the research is an investigation into the effects of a changing domain on the evolution of support for component-based reuse and domain analysis, and on the application of software reuse support methods and tools to another engineering discipline, namely roll design. To broaden understanding of a changing domain on the evolution of support for software reuse and domain analysis, a prototype for a reuse support environment has been developed for roll designers in the steel industry

Prototype software reuse environment at Goddard Space Flight Center

The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) work is organized into four phases and includes participation by a contractor, CTA, Inc. The first phase was an automation study, which began with a comprehensive survey of software development automation technologies. Eight technical areas were analyzed for goals, current capabilities, and obstacles. The study documented current software development practice in GSFC Mission Operations and Data Systems Directorate, and presented short- and long-term recommendations that included focus on reuse and object-oriented development. The second phase, which has been completed, developed a prototype reuse environment with tools supporting object-oriented requirements analysis and design. This phase addressed the operational concept of software reuse, i.e., it attempted to understand how software can be reused. This environment has two semantic networks: object and keywords, and includes automated search, interactive browsing and a graphical display of database contents. Phase 3 was a domain analysis of Payload Operations Control Center (POCC) software. The goal in this phase was to create an initial repository of reusable components and techniques. Seven existing Operations Control Centers at GSFC were studied, but the domain analysis proved to be very slow. A lesson learned from this was that senior people who understand the environment and the functionality of the area are needed to perform successful domain analyses

Developing reusable.NET software components

© 2014 The Science and Information (SAI) Organization. Software Development with reuse and for reuse is the foundation of CBSE (Component based software engineering) which allow faster development at lower cost and better usability. A reusable software component works as a plug and play device, which abstract the software complexity and increase performance. Software reuse guidelines have been addressing the issue of capturing best practices, for a long while software industry has collected the enormous wealth of knowledge, experience, domain expertise, design principals & heuristics, hypothesis, algorithms, and experimental results. However, there is no rock solid and mature software component development guidelines defined for the current technologies such as.NET. This paper presents reuse guidelines based framework (known as.NET Reuse Guider) for guidelines based component development for reuse in.NET family. We have demonstrated our approach by designing a binary component as part of development for reuse based on our own.NET Reuse Guider framework. This paper also provides a number reuse analysis and metrics and a prototype component guider tool which sits on top of the.NET architecture with built-in software development & reuse knowledge

Impact of domain analysis on reuse methods

The SPS is performing a study for the U.S. Army CECOM on the impact of domain analysis on reuse methods. Domain analysis is the first activity that should be performed in the development of reusable software. It identifies the commonalities between systems within a given problem (such as navigation systems or database management). In the software arena these commonalities are implemented as software components that can be reused by new systems within that application domain. The objectives of the study are to develop an approach that makes domain analysis practical and effective for the Army, to reinforce the importance of domain analysis for software reuse programs, and to summarize and coalesce domain analysis information into a single reference source. Existing methods and tools are being analyzed, critical issues identified, and key automation issues addressed. Based on these, a methodology and set of guidelines for domain analysis are being developed. Potential automated tools will be identified for each activity in the methodology

Analysis of expert’s opinion on requirements patterns for software product families framework using GQM method

Software product line engineering (SPLE), provides an opportunity to improve reuse of software artifacts through domain engineering and application engineering processes. During the domain engineering process, reuse activities of the product line are well-planned and subsequently executed in the application engineering process. This paper presents an analysis of interview result with experts in requirements engineering (RE) and software development for validating requirements pattern for software product families (RP-SPF) framework. The interview was conducted using goal questions metrics (GQM) method to define a goal and formulate research questions for conducting the interview. During the interview, 6 experts compared RP-SPF approach (systematic) with ad hoc (conventional) approach of reuse and documentation of requirements in terms of suitability, efficiency, and effectiveness in SPLE. The experts also gave their feedback on the perception of the use of RP-SPF tool. The analysis of the interview result shows that RP-SPF approach is suitable in SPLE and more efficient and effective than ad hoc approach of reuse and documentation of requirements

On the structure of problem variability: From feature diagrams to problem frames

Requirements for product families are expressed in terms of commonality and variability. This distinction allows early identification of an appropriate software architecture and opportunities for software reuse. Feature diagrams provide intuitive notations and techniques for representing requirements in product line development. In this paper, we observe that feature diagrams tend to obfuscate three important descriptions: requirements, domain properties and specifications. As a result, feature diagrams do not adequately capture the problem structures that underlie variability, and inform the solution structures of their complexity. With its emphasis on separation of the three descriptions, the problem frames approach provides a conceptual framework for a more detailed analysis of variability and its structure. With illustrations from an example, we demonstrate how problem frames analysis of variability can augment feature diagrams

A reusable application framework for context-aware mobile patient monitoring systems

The development of Context-aware Mobile Patient Monitoring Systems (CaMPaMS) using wireless sensors is very complex. To overcome this problem, the Context-aware Mobile Patient Monitoring Framework (CaMPaMF) was introduced as an ideal reuse technique to enhance the overall development quality and overcome the development complexity of CaMPaMS. While a few studies have designed reusable CaMPaMFs, there has not been enough study looking at how to design and evaluate application frameworks based on multiple reusability aspects and multiple reusability evaluation approaches. Furthermore, there also has not been enough study that integrates the identified domain requirements of CaMPaMS. Therefore, the aim of this research is to design a reusable CaMPaMF for CaMPaMS. To achieve this aim, twelve methods were used: literature search, content analysis, concept matrix, feature modelling, use case assortment, domain expert review, model-driven architecture approach, static code analysis, reusability model approach, prototyping, amount of reuse calculation, and software expert review. The primary outcome of this research is a reusable CaMPaMF designed and evaluated to capture reusability from different aspects. CaMPaMF includes a domain model validated by consultant physicians as domain experts, an architectural model, a platform-independent model, a platform-specific model validated by software expert review, and three CaMPaMS prototypes for monitoring patients with hypertension, epilepsy, or diabetes, and multiple reusability evaluation approaches. This research contributes to the body of software engineering knowledge, particularly in the area of design and evaluation of reusable application frameworks. Researchers can use the domain model to enhance the understanding of CaMPaMS domain requirements, thus extend it with new requirements. Developers can also reuse and extend CaMPaMF to develop various CaMPaMS for different diseases. Software industries can also reuse CaMPaMF to reduce the need to consult domain experts and the time required to build CaMPaMS from scratch, thus reducing the development cost and time