Generic domain models in software engineering

This paper outlines three research directions related to domain-specific software development: (1) reuse of generic models for domain-specific software development; (2) empirical evidence to determine these generic models, namely elicitation of mental knowledge schema possessed by expert software developers; and (3) exploitation of generic domain models to assist modelling of specific applications. It focuses on knowledge acquisition for domain-specific software development, with emphasis on tool support for the most important phases of software development

Reusing processes and documenting processes: toward an integrated framework

This paper presents a cognitive typology of reuse processes, and a cognitive typology of documenting processes. Empirical studies on design with reuse and on software documenting provide evidence for a generalized cognitive model. First, these studies emphasize the cyclical nature of design: cycles of planning, writing and revising occur. Second, natural language documentation follows the hierarchy of cognitive entities manipulated during design. Similarly software reuse involves exploiting various types of knowledge depending on the phase of design in which reuse is involved. We suggest that these observations can be explained based on cognitive models of text processing: the van Dijk and Kintsch (1983) model of text comprehension, and the Hayes and Flower (1980) model of text production. Based on our generalized cognitive model, we suggest a framework for documenting reusable components

Improving the reuse possibilities of the behavioral aspects of object-oriented domain models.

Reuse of domain models is often limited to the reuse of the structural aspects of the domain (e.g. by means of generic data models). In object-oriented models, reuse of dynamic aspects is achieved by reusing the methods of domain classes. Because in the object-oriented approach any behavior is attached to a class, it is impossible to reuse behavior without at the same time reusing the class. In addition, because of the message passing paradigm, object interaction must be specified as a method attached to one class which is invoked by another class. In this way object interaction is hidden in the behavioral aspects of classes. This makes object interaction schemas difficult to reuse and customize. The focus of this paper is on improving the reuse of object-oriented domain models. This is achieved by centering the behavioral aspects around the concept of business events.Model; Models;

Definition and use of software requirement patterns in requirements engineering activities

The final quality of software products and services depends on the requirements stated in the Software Requirements Specification (SRS). However, some problems like ambiguity, incompleteness and inconsistency, have been reported in the writing of SRS, especially when natural language is used. Requirements reuse has been proposed as a key asset for requirement engineers to efficiently elicit, validate and document software requirements, and as a consequence obtain SRS of better quality through more effective engineering processes. Among all the possible techniques to achieve reuse, patterns hold a prominent position. Although there have been several techniques proposed to reuse requirements, it may be observed that no concrete proposal has achieved a wide acceptance. Due to that, this research proposes the PABRE framework, which uses Software Requirement Patterns (SRP) as a means to capture and reuse requirements knowledge in the context of IT projects.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

A Cognitive Comparison of Modeling Behaviors Between Novice and Expert Information Analysts

Empirical research into the novice-expert differences in information requirement analysis has recognized that the differences in knowledge and in modeling behaviors are the causes of differences in quality of requirement specifications. However, there is no cognitive process model available for explaining the interactions among the three factors: knowledge, modeling behaviors, and the quality of requirement specifications. On the basis of structure-mapping model of analogy, this article proposes a cognitive process model that views information requirement analysis as a process of conceptual mapping from the base structures (i.e., the knowledge structures of requirement analysis techniques) to the target structures (i.e., the knowledge structures of users’ problem statements). Due to the differences in knowledge, novice and expert information analysts use different types of cognitive processes, relation mapping by experts versus object-attribute mapping by novices, to model information requirements. The different cognitive processes lead to different modeling behaviors, and in turn the different modeling behaviors finally result in different qualities of requirement specifications. On the basis of the cognitive process model, two ways to improve the performance of novice information analysts are suggested: encouraging novice information analysts to think in terms of relations rather than objectattributes and providing domain-specific requirement analysis techniques that are similar to the problem domains in both relations and object-attributes

Orion: A menu-driveri source code generator for end users

Low software development productivity is a major concern for corporations. This paper describes one approach to improve productivity by allowing end users to build their own business data processing systems. The approach uses Orion, a menu-driven software development tool. Orion generates source level COBOL programs that compile and run without modification. The tool does not require end users to know COBOL or high-level query languages. Orion was used for nearly two years to build real business systems. The approach resulted in a significant improvement in software development productivity