Including non-functional issues in Anna/Ada programs for automatic implementation selection

We present an enrichment of the Anna specification language for Ada aimed at dealing not only with functional specification of packages but also with non-functional information about them. By non-functional information we mean information about efficiency, reliability and, in general, any software attribute measuring somehow the quality of software (perhaps in a subjective manner). We divide this information into three kinds: definition of non-functional properties, statement of non-functional behaviour and statement of non-functional requirements; like Anna annotations, all of this information appears in Ada packages and package bodies and their syntax is close to Ada constructs. Non-functional information may be considered not only as valuable comments, but also as an input for an algorithm capable of selecting the “best” package body for every package definition in a program, the “best” meaning the one that fits the set of non-functional requirements of the package in the program.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Modelling non-functional requirements

We present in this paper the language NoFun for stating component quality in the framework of the ISO/IEC quality standards. The language consists of three different parts. In the first one, software quality characteristics and attributes are defined, probably in a hierarchical manner. As part of this definition, abstract quality models can be formulated and further refined into more specialised ones. In the second part, values are assigned to component quality basic attributes. In the third one, quality requirements can be stated over components, both context-free (universal quality properties) and context-dependent (quality properties for a given framework-software domain, company, project, etc.). Last, we address to the translation of the language to UML, using its extension mechanisms for capturing the fundamental non-functional concepts.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

The Critical Challenges from International High-Tech and Computer-Related Crime at the Millennium

The automotive industry stands in front of a great challenge, to decrease its impact on the environment. One important part in succeeding with this is to decrease the structural weight of the body structure and by that the fuel consumption or the required battery power. Carbon fibre composites are by many seen as the only real option when traditional engineering materials are running out of potential for further weight reduction. However, the automotive industry lacks experience working with structural composites and the methods for high volume composite manufacturing are immature. The development of a composite automotive body structure, therefore, needs methods to support and guide the conceptual work to improve the financial and technical results. In this thesis a framework is presented which will provide guidelines for the conceptual phase of the development of an automotive body structure. The framework follows two main paths, one to strive for the ideal material diversity, which also defines an initial partition of the body structure based on the process and material selection. Secondly, a further analysis of the structures are made to evaluate if a more cost and weight efficient solution can be found by a more differential design and by that define the ideal part size. In the case and parameter studies performed, different carbon fibre composite material systems and processes are compared and evaluated. The results show that high performance material system with continuous fibres becomes both more cost and performance effective compared to industrialised discontinuous fibre composites. But also that cycle times, sometimes, are less important than a competitive feedstock cost for a manufacturing process. When further analysing the manufacturing design of the structures it is seen that further partition(s) can become cost effective if the size and complexity is large enough.      QC 20140527</p

Management: A bibliography for NASA managers

This bibliography lists 630 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA Scientific and Technical Information System in 1991. Items are selected and grouped according to their usefulness to the manager as manager. Citations are grouped into ten subject categories: human factors and personnel issues; management theory and techniques; industrial management and manufacturing; robotics and expert systems; computers and information management; research and development; economics, costs and markets; logistics and operations management; reliability and quality control; and legality, legislation, and policy

Hardware Certification for Real-time Safety-critical Systems: State of the Art

This paper discusses issues related to the RTCA document DO-254 Design Assurance Guidance for Airborne Electronic Hardware and its consequences for hardware certification. In particular, problems related to circuits’ compliance with DO-254 in avionics and other industries are considered. Extensive literature review of the subject is given, including current views on and experiences of chip manufacturers and EDA industry with qualification of hardware design tools, including formal approaches to hardware verification. Some results of the authors’ own study on tool qualification are presented

Informatics in the Future: Proceedings of the 11th European Computer Science Summit (ECSS 2015), Vienna, October 2015

Big data; Computing ethics; Women in computing; Research ethic

Open Multithreaded Transactions: A Transaction Model for Concurrent Object-Oriented Programming

To read the abstract, please go to my PhD home page

Externalities and Enterprise Software: Helping and Hindering Legal Compliance

Enterprise software helps organizations comply with laws and regulations, yet software itself creates negative externalities that can undermine rights and laws. Software developers are an important regulatory force, yet many know little about how law and software interact. This work examines developer understanding of legal concepts and examples of the software code and law relationship: payroll, Sarbanes Oxley Act, web accessibility, and data protection