(Re)configuration based on model generation

Reconfiguration is an important activity for companies selling configurable products or services which have a long life time. However, identification of a set of required changes in a legacy configuration is a hard problem, since even small changes in the requirements might imply significant modifications. In this paper we show a solution based on answer set programming, which is a logic-based knowledge representation formalism well suited for a compact description of (re)configuration problems. Its applicability is demonstrated on simple abstractions of several real-world scenarios. The evaluation of our solution on a set of benchmark instances derived from commercial (re)configuration problems shows its practical applicability.Comment: In Proceedings LoCoCo 2011, arXiv:1108.609

Automated software quality visualisation using fuzzy logic techniques

In the past decade there has been a concerted effort by the software industry to improve the quality of its products. This has led to the inception of various techniques with which to control and measure the process involved in software development. Methods like the Capability Maturity Model have introduced processes and strategies that require measurement in the form of software metrics. With the ever increasing number of software metrics being introduced by capability based processes, software development organisations are finding it more difficult to understand and interpret metric scores. This is particularly problematic for senior management and project managers where analysis of the actual data is not feasible. This paper proposes a method with which to visually represent metric scores so that managers can easily see how their organisation is performing relative to quality goals set for each type of metric. Acting primarily as a proof of concept and prototype, we suggest ways in which real customer needs can be translated into a feasible technical solution. The solution itself visualises metric scores in the form of a tree structure and utilises Fuzzy Logic techniques, XGMML, Web Services and the .NET Framework. Future work is proposed to extend the system from the prototype stage and to overcome a problem with the masking of poor scores

A lexical approach for taxonomy mapping

Obtaining a useful complete overview of Web-based product information has become difficult nowadays due to the ever-growing amount of information available on online shops. Findings from previous studies suggest that better search capabilities, such as the exploitation of annotated data, are needed to keep online shopping transparent for the user. Annotations can, for example, help present information from multiple sources in a uniform manner. In order to support the product data integration process, we propose an algorithm that can autonomously map heterogeneous product taxonomies from different online shops. The proposed approach uses word sense disambiguation techniques, approximate lexical matching, and a mechanism that deals with composite categories. Our algorithm’s performance compared favorably against two other state-of-the-art taxonomy mapping algorithms on three real-life datasets. The results show that the F1-measure for our algorithm is on average 60% higher than a state-of-the-art product taxonomy mapping algorithm

Software Product Line

The Software Product Line (SPL) is an emerging methodology for developing software products. Currently, there are two hot issues in the SPL: modelling and the analysis of the SPL. Variability modelling techniques have been developed to assist engineers in dealing with the complications of variability management. The principal goal of modelling variability techniques is to configure a successful software product by managing variability in domain-engineering. In other words, a good method for modelling variability is a prerequisite for a successful SPL. On the other hand, analysis of the SPL aids the extraction of useful information from the SPL and provides a control and planning strategy mechanism for engineers or experts. In addition, the analysis of the SPL provides a clear view for users. Moreover, it ensures the accuracy of the SPL. This book presents new techniques for modelling and new methods for SPL analysis

Taking advantage of the software product line paradigm to generate customized user interfaces for decision-making processes: a case study on university employability

[EN]University employment and, specifically, employability has gained relevance since research in these fields can lead to improvement in the quality of life of individual citizens. However, empirical research is still insufficient to make significant decisions, and relying on powerful tools to explore data and reach insights on these fields is paramount. Information dashboards play a key role in analyzing and visually exploring data about a specific topic or domain, but end users can present several necessities that differ from each other, regarding the displayed information itself, design features and even functionalities. By applying a domain engineering approach (within the software product line paradigm), it is possible to produce customized dashboards to fit into particular requirements, by the identification of commonalities and singularities of every product that could be part of the product line. Software product lines increase productivity, maintainability and traceability regarding the evolution of the requirements, among other benefits. To validate this approach, a case study of its application in the context of the Spanish Observatory for University Employability and Employment system has been developed, where users (Spanish universities and administrators) can control their own dashboards to reach insights about the employability of their graduates. These dashboards have been automatically generated through a domain specific language, which provides the syntax to specify the requirements of each user. The domain language fuels a template-based code generator, allowing the generation of the dashboards' source code. Applying domain engineering to the dashboards' domain improves the development and maintainability of these complex software products given the variety of requirements that users might have regarding their graphical interfaces

Generic bill of functions, materials, and operations for SAP2 configuration

International audienceMost available studies on configuration focus on either sales configuration specifying functional features or production configuration addressing product components. It has been well recognised that automating most of the activities associated with specification, engineering, and process planning of customised products and their interactions is one key in achieving product customisation. Thus, treating sales configuration and product configuration separately may not contribute to product customisation from a systematic view although they may lead to the improvement of individual stages. Recognising this limitation of existing studies, in this paper, we propose integrated SAles, Product and Production (SAP2) configuration, which helps achieve product customisation from a holistic view. Its rationale lies in automating consistently sales, product and production configuration activities in one system. In view of the importance of configuration models, we focus on the model underpinning SAP2 configuration called generic bill of functions, materials and operations (GBoFMO) and discuss it in detail. As the core of SAP2 configuration, GBoFMO can provide companies with an insight into organising the large volumes of data and knowledge in the life cycle of product family development. We also report a case study of light passenger aircrafts to illustrate the GBoFMO