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

Roles in construction projects: analysis and terminology

Standard form contracts are typically developed through a negotiated consensus, unless they are proffered by one specific interest group. Previously published plans of work and other descriptions of the processes in construction projects tend to focus on operational issues, or they tend to be prepared from the point of view of one or other of the dominant interest groups. Legal practice in the UK permits those who draft contracts to define their terms as they choose. There are no definitive rulings from the courts that give an indication as to the detailed responsibilities of project participants. The science of terminology offers useful guidance for discovering and describing terms and their meanings in their practical context, but has never been used for defining terms for responsibilities of participants in the construction project management process. Organizational analysis enables the management task to be deconstructed into its elemental parts in order that effective organizational structures can be developed. Organizational mapping offers a useful technique for reducing text-based descriptions of project management roles and responsibilities to a comparable basis. Research was carried out by means of a desk study, detailed analysis of nine plans of work and focus groups representing all aspects of the construction industry. No published plan of work offers definitive guidance. There is an enormous amount of variety in the way that terms are used for identifying responsibilities of project participants. A catalogue of concepts and terms (a “Terminology”) has been compiled and indexed to enable those who draft contracts to choose the most appropriate titles for project participants. The purpose of this terminology is to enable the selection and justification of appropriate terms in order to help define roles. The terminology brings an unprecedented clarity to the description of roles and responsibilities in construction projects and, as such, will be helpful for anyone seeking to assemble a team and specify roles for project participants

Classifying the aptitude of civil engineering project managers (CEPM) using multivariate discriminant analysis (MDA)

Civil Engineering Project Managers (CEPMs) plan, direct and coordinate a wide variety of construction projects, including buildings of all types of residential, commercial, and industrial structures, roads, bridges, wastewater treatment plants, schools and hospitals. CEPMs may supervise a whole civil engineering project or just part of a project and although CEPMs usually play no direct role in the actual construction of a structure, they typically schedule and coordinate all design and construction processes, including the selection, hiring and oversight of specialty trade contractors. CEPMs therefore, supervise the construction process from the conceptual development stage through to final construction whilst simultaneously meeting time, quality, economic, environmental and health and safety performance criteria as defined by the client. CEPMs evaluate and help determine appropriate construction delivery systems and the most cost-effective plan and schedule for completing the project. They divide all required construction site activities into logical steps, budgeting the time required to meet established deadline. Based upon the massive duties and responsibilities that CEPMs characteristically undertake before and throughout the whole construction cycle, this research has taken place. The predominant aim of this research is to develop a new mathematical model that can be used for classifying the aptitude (capability) of the Civil Engineering Project Manager (CEPM). [Continues.

Neuro-fuzzy knowledge processing in intelligent learning environments for improved student diagnosis

In this paper, a neural network implementation for a fuzzy logic-based model of the diagnostic process is proposed as a means to achieve accurate student diagnosis and updates of the student model in Intelligent Learning Environments. The neuro-fuzzy synergy allows the diagnostic model to some extent "imitate" teachers in diagnosing students' characteristics, and equips the intelligent learning environment with reasoning capabilities that can be further used to drive pedagogical decisions depending on the student learning style. The neuro-fuzzy implementation helps to encode both structured and non-structured teachers' knowledge: when teachers' reasoning is available and well defined, it can be encoded in the form of fuzzy rules; when teachers' reasoning is not well defined but is available through practical examples illustrating their experience, then the networks can be trained to represent this experience. The proposed approach has been tested in diagnosing aspects of student's learning style in a discovery-learning environment that aims to help students to construct the concepts of vectors in physics and mathematics. The diagnosis outcomes of the model have been compared against the recommendations of a group of five experienced teachers, and the results produced by two alternative soft computing methods. The results of our pilot study show that the neuro-fuzzy model successfully manages the inherent uncertainty of the diagnostic process; especially for marginal cases, i.e. where it is very difficult, even for human tutors, to diagnose and accurately evaluate students by directly synthesizing subjective and, some times, conflicting judgments

Verification and validation in software product line engineering

Verification and Validation (V&V) is currently performed during application development for many systems, especially safety-critical and mission-critical systems. However, the V&V process has been limited to single system development. This dissertation describes the extension of V&V from an individual application system to a product line of systems that are developed within an architecture-based software engineering environment.;In traditional V&V, the system provides the context under which the software will be evaluated, and V&V activities occur during all phases of the system development lifecycle. The transition to a product line approach to development removes the individual system as the context for evaluation, and introduces activities that are not directly related to a specific system. This dissertation presents an approach to V&V of software product lines that uses the domain model and the domain architecture as the context for evaluation, and enables V&V to be performed throughout the modified lifecycle introduced by domain engineering.;This dissertation presents three advances that assist in the adaptation of V&V from single application systems to a product line of systems. The first is a framework for performing V&V that includes the activities of traditional application-level V&V, and extends these activities into domain engineering and into the transition between domain engineering and application engineering. The second is a detailed method to extend the crucial V&V activity of criticality analysis from single system development to a product line of systems. The third advance is an approach to enable formal reasoning, which is needed for high assurance systems, on systems that are based on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products

Analysis on Barriers to Development of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in Health Sector of Pakistan: Analytic Hierarchy Process Approach

Introduction: In the recent years, public-private partnership (PPP) has become one of the most commonly used mechanisms with regards to providing healthcare services in various countries, and the ventures have gone successful. Despite of many accomplishments, still there are many challenges to development of PPP projects in the health care sector of Pakistan. Purpose: Current research was conducted to identify the most critical barriers in public-private partnerships in health sector of Pakistan using the Analytic hierarchy process technique. Methods: Based on the literature review and responses of interviewees, AHP model was developed. The model was developed with five main criteria barriers and twenty-one sub-criteria barriers. All the barriers were analyzed through pairwise comparisons to calculate relative weights and rankings as per experts’ evaluations. Results: A total of fourteen participants’ responses were analyzed and their relative weights were calculated. The criteria ranking was evaluated from the most influential to the least influential as follows: governance and regulatory barriers (w=0.4633), financial barriers (w=0.2465), socio-cultural barriers (w=0.1534), political barriers (w=0.0898), and technical and legal barriers (w=0.0471). Conclusion: Based on the results, it is concluded that decision-makers/policy-makers may consider the most influential barriers and their ranking while formulating the policies to develop PPPs in the healthcare sector Pakistan. After, eliminating the critical barriers, the policies and strategies may become more effective and efficient.open석