Software System Understanding via Architectural Views Extraction According to Multiple Viewpoints

International audienceChanges and evolution of software systems constantly gener- ate new challenges for the recovery of software systems architectures. A system's architecture, together with its elements and the way they inter- act, constitute valuable assets for understanding the system. We believe that offering multiple architectural views of a given system, using domain and pattern knowledge enhance understanding of the software system as a whole. To correlate different sources of information and existing soft- ware system, different viewpoints are considered. Viewpoints enable one to model such information and guide the extraction algorithms to ex- tract multiple architectural views. We propose a recursive framework, an approach that expresses different kinds of information as viewpoints to guide the extraction process. These multiple viewpoints models al- low considering architectural, conceptual, and structural aspects of the system

Fine-grain process modelling

In this paper, we propose the use of fine-grain process modelling as an aid to software development. We suggest the use of two levels of granularity, one at the level of the individual developer and another at the level of the representation scheme used by that developer. The advantages of modelling the software development process at these two levels, we argue, include respectively: (1) the production of models that better reflect actual development processes because they are oriented towards the actors who enact them, and (2) models that are vehicles for providing guidance because they may be expressed in terms of the actual representation schemes employed by those actors. We suggest that our previously published approach of using multiple “ViewPoints” to model software development participants, the perspectives that they hold, the representation schemes that they deploy and the process models that they maintain, is one way of supporting the fine-grain modelling we advocate. We point to some simple, tool-based experiments we have performed that support our proposition

Automated Model Synchronization: A Case Study on UML with Maude

Design specifications of software-intensive systems involve models that have been defined with different modelling languages for different purposes. Hence, a specification can be seen as the description of a system from multiple viewpoints, each providing domain-specific constructs for modelling the system in a more precise way. Such heterogeneity of models can jeopardize the consistency of the specification, because updates in one viewpoint may cause unpredictable design errors in other viewpoints, which can then be transferred to the implementation. OMG’s Meta-Object Facility enhances the automation of the model consistency management by providing a uniform format for different modelling languages. In this paper, we illustrate a technique, based on rewriting logic and on strategies for finding inconsistencies in MOF-based heterogeneous specifications and for resolving them in an automated way

Model Driven Engineering with Capella and AADL

The development of real time embedded equipments is a challenging task that requires the elaboration of multiple models in several domains, notably system, electronics and software, spanning a large spectrum of multiple abstraction levels and viewpoints: structural, behavioral, dependability, etc. These models serve various purposes: specification, design, evaluation or verification and validation. Today, no single modeling language and environment covers all these aspects. While Capella – an open source modeling language and environment for system engineering developed by Thales – fits well to the most early stages of the development process, AADL – the Architecture Analysis and Design Language defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers – provides powerful capabilities to describe and analyze the design artifacts of the software point of view that appear during the latest phase of the design. This is why they have both been selected in the project INGEQUIP of IRT Saint Exupéry. While using different modeling languages for different purpose is perfectly acceptable in a development process, it is important to guarantee that information remain consistent across all models. This is why building a formalized bridge between Capella and AADL is an essential piece of INGEQUIP process. In this paper, after an introduction to the context of INGEQUIP, the high level semantics of Capella and AADL are compared. The mapping used in INGEQUIP between Capella physical models and AADL abstract models is then described. The whole approach is illustrated by some elements coming from the design of TwIRTee – the robotic demonstrator of INGEQUIP – before concluding

DspaceOgre 3D Graphics Visualization Tool

This general-purpose 3D graphics visualization C++ tool is designed for visualization of simulation and analysis data for articulated mechanisms. Examples of such systems are vehicles, robotic arms, biomechanics models, and biomolecular structures. DspaceOgre builds upon the open-source Ogre3D graphics visualization library. It provides additional classes to support the management of complex scenes involving multiple viewpoints and different scene groups, and can be used as a remote graphics server. This software provides improved support for adding programs at the graphics processing unit (GPU) level for improved performance. It also improves upon the messaging interface it exposes for use as a visualization server

A goal-oriented requirements modelling language for enterprise architecture

Methods for enterprise architecture, such as TOGAF, acknowledge the importance of requirements engineering in the development of enterprise architectures. Modelling support is needed to specify, document, communicate and reason about goals and requirements. Current modelling techniques for enterprise architecture focus on the products, services, processes and applications of an enterprise. In addition, techniques may be provided to describe structured requirements lists and use cases. Little support is available however for modelling the underlying motivation of enterprise architectures in terms of stakeholder concerns and the high-level goals that address these concerns. This paper describes a language that supports the modelling of this motivation. The definition of the language is based on existing work on high-level goal and requirements modelling and is aligned with an existing standard for enterprise modelling: the ArchiMate language. Furthermore, the paper illustrates how enterprise architecture can benefit from analysis techniques in the requirements domain

Towards a Layered Architectural View for Security Analysis in SCADA Systems

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems support and control the operation of many critical infrastructures that our society depend on, such as power grids. Since SCADA systems become a target for cyber attacks and the potential impact of a successful attack could lead to disastrous consequences in the physical world, ensuring the security of these systems is of vital importance. A fundamental prerequisite to securing a SCADA system is a clear understanding and a consistent view of its architecture. However, because of the complexity and scale of SCADA systems, this is challenging to acquire. In this paper, we propose a layered architectural view for SCADA systems, which aims at building a common ground among stakeholders and supporting the implementation of security analysis. In order to manage the complexity and scale, we define four interrelated architectural layers, and uses the concept of viewpoints to focus on a subset of the system. We indicate the applicability of our approach in the context of SCADA system security analysis.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure