Extended Version of Elucidative Development for Model-Based Documentation and Language Specification

Documentation is an essential activity in software development, for source code as well as modelling artefacts. Typically, documentation is created and maintained manually which leads to inconsistencies as documented artefacts like source code or models evolve during development. Existing approaches like literate/elucidative programming or literate modelling address these problems by deriving documentation from software development artefacts or vice versa. However, these approaches restrict themselves to a certain kind of artefact and to a certain phase of the software development life-cycle. In this paper, we propose elucidative development as a generalisation of these approaches supporting heterogeneous kinds of artefacts as well as the analysis, design and implementation phases of the software development life-cycle. Elucidative development allows for linking source code and model artefacts into documentation and thus, maintains and updates their presentation semi-automatically. We present DEFT as an integrated development environment for elucidative development. We show, how DEFT can be applied to language specifications like the UML specification and help to avoid inconsistencies caused by maintenance and evolution of such a specification

UML 1.4 versus UML 2.0 as Languages to Describe Software Architectures.

ML 1.4 is widely accepted as the standard for representing the various software artifacts generated by a development process. For this reason, there have been attempts to use this language to represent the software architec- ture of systems as well. Unfortunately, these attempts have ended in representa- tions (boxes and lines) already criticized by the software architecture commu- nity. Recently, OMG has published a draft that will constitute the future UML 2.0 specification. In this paper we compare the capacities of UML 1.4 and UML 2.0 to describe software architectures. In particular, we study extensions of both UML versions to describe the static view of the C3 architectural style (a simplification of the C2 style). One of the results of this study is the difficulties found when using the UML 2.0 metamodel to describe the concept of connector in a software architecture

Computing the Importance of Schema Elements Taking Into Account the Whole SCHEMA

Conceptual Schemas are one of the most important artifacts in the development cycle of information systems. To understand the conceptual schema is essential to get involved in the information system that is described within it. As the information system increases its size and complexity, the relative conceptual schema will grow in the same proportion making di cult to understand the main concepts of that schema/information system. The thesis comprises the investigation of the in uence of the whole schema in computing the relevance of schema elements. It will include research and implementation of algorithms for scoring elements in the literature, an study of the di erent results obtained once applied to a few example conceptual schemas, an extension of those algorithms including new components in the computation process like derivation rules, constraints and the behavioural subschema speci cation, and an in-depth comparison among the initial algorithms and the extended ones studying the results in order to choose those algorithms that give the most valuable output

A Model for Configuration Management of Open Software Systems

The article proposes a model for the configuration management of open systems. The model aims at validation of configurations against given specifications. An extension of decision graphs is proposed to express specifications. The proposed model can be used by software developers to validate their own configurations across different versions of the components, or to validate configurations that include components by third parties. The model can also be used by end-users to validate compatibility among different configurations of the same application. The proposed model is first discussed in some application scenarios and then formally defined. Moreover, a type discipline is given to formally define validation of a configuration against a system specificationComment: 13 page

Translating standard process models to BPEL

Standardisation of languages in the field of business process management has long been an elusive goal. Recently though, consensus has built around one process implementation language, namely BPEL, and two fundamentally similar process modelling notations, namely UML Activity Diagram (UML AD) and BPMN. This paper presents a technique for generating BPEL code from process models expressed in a core subset of BPMN and UML AD. This model-to-code translation is a necessary ingredient to the emergence of model-driven business process development environments based on these standards. The proposed translation has been implemented as an open source tool

Event-B in the Institutional Framework: Defining a Semantics, Modularisation Constructs and Interoperability for a Specification Language

Event-B is an industrial-strength specification language for verifying the properties of a given system’s specification. It is supported by its Eclipse-based IDE, Rodin, and uses the process of refinement to model systems at different levels of abstraction. Although a mature formalism, Event-B has a number of limitations. In this thesis, we demonstrate that Event-B lacks formally defined modularisation constructs. Additionally, interoperability between Event-B and other formalisms has been achieved in an ad hoc manner. Moreover, although a formal language, Event-B does not have a formal semantics. We address each of these limitations in this thesis using the theory of institutions. The theory of institutions provides a category-theoretic way of representing a formalism. Formalisms that have been represented as institutions gain access to an array of generic specification-building operators that can be used to modularise specifications in a formalismindependent manner. In the theory of institutions, there are constructs (known as institution (co)morphisms) that provide us with the facility to create interoperability between formalisms in a mathematically sound way. The main contribution of this thesis is the definition of an institution for Event-B, EVT, which allows us to address its identified limitations. To this end, we formally define a translational semantics from Event- B to EVT. We show how specification-building operators can provide a unified set of modularisation constructs for Event-B. In fact, the institutional framework that we have incorporated Event-B into is more accommodating to modularisation than the current state-of-the-art for Rodin. Furthermore, we present institution morphisms that facilitate interoperability between the respective institutions for Event-B and UML. This approach is more generic than the current approach to interoperability for Event-B and in fact, allows access to any formalism or logic that has already been defined as an institution. Finally, by defining EVT, we have outlined the steps required in order to include similar formalisms into the institutional framework. Hence, this thesis acts as a template for defining an institution for a specification language

A Model-Driven Architecture based Evolution Method and Its Application in An Electronic Learning System

Software products have been racing against aging problem for most of their lifecycles, and evolution is the most effective and efficient solution to this problem. Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) is a new technique for software product for evolving development and reengineering methods. The main steps for MDA are to establish models in different levels and phases, therefore to solve the challenges of requirement and technology change. However, there is only a standard established by Object Management Group (OMG) but without a formal method and approach. Presently, MDA is widely researched in both industrial and research areas, however, there is still without a smooth approach to realise it especially in electronic learning (e-learning) system due to the following reasons: (1) models’ transformations are hard to realise because of lack of tools, (2) most of existing mature research results are working for business and government services but not education area, and (3) most of existing model-driven researches are based on Model-Driven Development (MDD) but not MDA because of OMG standard’s preciseness. Hence, it is worth to investigate an MDA-based method and approach to improve the existing software development approach for e-learning system. Due to the features of MDA actuality, a MDA-based evolution method and approach is proposed in this thesis. The fundamental theories of this research are OMG’s MDA standard and education pedagogical knowledge. Unified Modelling Language (UML) and Unified Modelling Language Profile are hired to represent the information of software system from different aspects. This study can be divided into three main parts: MDA-based evolution method and approach research, Platform-Independent Model (PIM) to Platform-Specific Model (PSM) transformation development, and MDA-based electronic learning system evolution. Top-down approach is explored to develop models for e-learning system. A transformation approach is developed to generate Computation Independent Model (CIM), Platform-Independent Model (PIM), and Platform-Specific Model (PSM); while a set of transformation rules are defined following MDA standard to support PSM’ s generation. In addition, proposed method is applied in an e-learning system as a case study with the prototype rules support. In the end, conclusions are drawn based on analysis and further research directions are discussed as well. The kernel contributions are the proposed transformation rules and its application in electronic learning system