Integrated environment of systems automated engineering

The Standardization of a development process for systems of medium complexity, entirely supported by an integrated development environment, could mean a double contribution to the industry of systems development. On the one hand it would contribute to the reduction of costs by shortening times of development and facilitating the maintenance of the systems. On the other hand, by using conceptual models of a high level of abstraction, final users would be able to visualize and follow the progress of systems development and to commit themselves in the process actively, guaranteeing their success. The purpose of this series of papers is to identify, design, develop and integrate the components of an integrated environment for a system automated development, starting from high-level-abstraction formal specifications. It is intended to achieve a generation of systems starting from only two models: the static or data structure model, and the dynamic or functional model. The former is based on an adaptation of the conceptual pattern of entities and relationships, and the latter on the formal specification of operations in objects relational algebra and on the finite automaton theory. The maintenance of the systems generated by the tool would be made by operating directly on the static and dynamic models, with no need for either re-coding or making reverse engineering. The strength of the proposal is based on integration of the Software Engineering and the analysis and metrics of quality. Storage protocols of data definitions and storage protocols of interface definitions corresponding to a graph, through the state transitions and their gradation so that the user could visualize the development of the life cycle[6][32][33][47]. Any artifact or document can be measured and estimated if it is produced during the software life cycle. This study is an approximation to a process of activities supported by an effective help tool. Abstraction and visualization capacities are provided to the artifacts with the system design and analysis (CASE). Such artifacts under controlled conditions trace the software life cycle taking information of the structure (framework) of the application; with Quality, Reliability and Metrics.Eje: Ingeniería de Software y Base de DatosRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Quality measures for ETL processes: from goals to implementation

Extraction transformation loading (ETL) processes play an increasingly important role for the support of modern business operations. These business processes are centred around artifacts with high variability and diverse lifecycles, which correspond to key business entities. The apparent complexity of these activities has been examined through the prism of business process management, mainly focusing on functional requirements and performance optimization. However, the quality dimension has not yet been thoroughly investigated, and there is a need for a more human-centric approach to bring them closer to business-users requirements. In this paper, we take a first step towards this direction by defining a sound model for ETL process quality characteristics and quantitative measures for each characteristic, based on existing literature. Our model shows dependencies among quality characteristics and can provide the basis for subsequent analysis using goal modeling techniques. We showcase the use of goal modeling for ETL process design through a use case, where we employ the use of a goal model that includes quantitative components (i.e., indicators) for evaluation and analysis of alternative design decisions.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Quality model for semantic IS standards

Semantic IS (Information Systems) standards are essential for achieving\ud interoperability between organizations. However a recent survey suggests that\ud not the full benefits of standards are achieved, due to the quality issues. This\ud paper presents a quality model for semantic IS standards, that should support\ud standards development organizations in assessing the quality of their\ud standards. Although intended for semantic IS standards the potential use of\ud this quality model is much broader and might be applicable to all kind of\ud standards

Root Cause Analysis in Business Processes

Conceptual modeling is an important tool for understanding and revealing weaknesses of business processes. Yet, the current practice in reengineering projects often considers simply the as-is control flow and uses the respective model barely as a reference for brain-storming about improvement opportunities. This approach heavily relies on the intuition of the participants and misses a clear description of steps to identify root causes of problems. In contrast to that, this paper introduces a systematic methodology to detect and document the quality dimension of a business process. It builds on the definition of softgoals for each process activity, of correlations between softgoals, and metrics to measure the occurrence of quality issues. In this regard our contribution is a foundation of root-cause analysis in business process modeling, and a conceptual integration of goal-based and activity-based approaches to capturing processes

Project Controls and Management Systems : current practice and how it has changed over the past decade

Project Controls and Management System (PCMS) refers to an ecosystem of processes, tools and personnel required for the proper planning and execution of capital projects throughout the different phases of design, procurement, construction and startup. This can be divided into different focus areas (functions) that would include Estimating, Planning, Scheduling, Cost Control, Change Management, Progressing, and Forecasting. Various trends such as globalization, contractor specialization and information technology developments have impacted the way PCMS are implemented and made it the subject of extensive research over the past years to investigate how to best utilize those trends. Replicating the research methodology used in a 2011 report published by the Construction Research Institute (CII), this work aims to investigate the current status of PCMS implementation and how it has changed over the past decade. It was concluded that while the original PCMS principles are still valid, adoption has drastically changed in terms of efficiency for the majority of the functions. The research also identifies areas of potential concerns and provides recommendations for further improvement.Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineerin

Complexity Metrics for Systems Development Methods and Techniques

So many systems development methods have been introduced in the last decade that one can talk about a ¿methodology jungle¿. To aid the method developers and evaluators in fighting their way through this jungle, we propose a systematic approach for measuring properties of methods. We describe two sets of metrics which measure the complexity of single diagram techniques, and of complete systems development methods. The proposed metrics provide a relatively fast and simple way to analyse the descriptive capabilities of a technique or method. When accompanied with other selection criteria, the metrics can be used for estimating the relative complexity of a technique compared to others. To demonstrate the applicability of the metrics, we have applied them to 36 techniques and 11 methods

Evaluating Software Architectures: Development Stability and Evolution

We survey seminal work on software architecture evaluationmethods. We then look at an emerging class of methodsthat explicates evaluating software architectures forstability and evolution. We define architectural stabilityand formulate the problem of evaluating software architecturesfor stability and evolution. We draw the attention onthe use of Architectures Description Languages (ADLs) forsupporting the evaluation of software architectures in generaland for architectural stability in specific