233 research outputs found
A Value-Driven Framework for Software Architecture
Software that is not aligned with the business values of the organization for which it
was developed does not entirely fulfill its raison d’etre. Business values represent what
is important in a company, or organization, and should influence the overall software
system behavior, contributing to the overall success of the organization. However, approaches
to derive a software architecture considering the business values exchanged
between an organization and its market players are lacking. Our quest is to address this
problem and investigate how to derive value-centered architectural models systematically.
We used the Technology Research method to address this PhD research question.
This methodological approach proposes three steps: problem analysis, innovation, and
validation. The problem analysis was performed using systematic studies of the literature
to obtain full coverage on the main themes of this work, particularly, business value
modeling, software architecture methods, and software architecture derivation methods.
Next, the innovation step was accomplished by creating a framework for the derivation
of a software reference architecture model considering an organization’s business values.
The resulting framework is composed of three core modules: Business Value Modeling,
Agile Reference Architecture Modeling, and Goal-Driven SOA Architecture Modeling.
While the Business value modeling module focuses on building a stakeholder-centric
business specification, the Agile Reference Architecture Modeling and the Goal-Driven
SOA Architecture Modeling modules concentrate on generating a software reference architecture
aligned with the business value specification. Finally, the validation part of
our framework is achieved through proof-of-concept prototypes for three new domain
specific languages, case studies, and quasi-experiments, including a family of controlled
experiments. The findings from our research show that the complexity and lack of rigor
in the existing approaches to represent business values can be addressed by an early requirements
specification method that represents the value exchanges of a business. Also,
by using sophisticated model-driven engineering techniques (e.g., metamodels, model
transformations, and model transformation languages), it was possible to obtain source
generators to derive a software architecture model based on early requirements value
models, while assuring traceability throughout the architectural derivation process. In conclusion, despite using sophisticated techniques, the derivation process of a software
reference architecture is helped by simple to use methods supported by black box
transformations and guidelines that facilitate the activities for the less experienced software
architects. The experimental validation process used confirmed that our framework
is feasible and perceived as easy to use and useful, also indicating that the participants
of the experiments intend to use it in the future
Enterprise architecture for small and medium-sized enterprises : CHOOSE
Enterprise architecture (EA) is a coherent whole of principles, methods, and models that are used in the design and realization of an enterprise’s organizational structure, business processes, information systems, and IT infrastructure. EA is used as a holistic approach to keep things aligned in a company. Some emphasize the use of EA to align IT with the business, others see it broader and use it to also keep the processes aligned with the strategy.
Recent research indicates the need for EA in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), important drivers of the economy, as they struggle with problems related to a lack of structure and overview of their business. However, existing EA frameworks are perceived as too complex and, to date, none of the EA approaches are sufficiently adapted to the SME context.
Therefore, in this PhD, we present the CHOOSE approach for EA for SMEs. The approach consists of four artifacts: a metamodel, a method, software tool support, and a visualization. The approach is kept simple so that it may be applied in an SME context and is based on the essential dimensions of EA frameworks.
Five steps were taken: first, the problem of EA in SMEs was extensively analyzed. Next, the CHOOSE metamodel was developed during action research in SMEs. Then, action research in six companies was used to develop an adequate method (consisting of guidelines, a roadmap, and stop criteria) and to further refine this CHOOSE metamodel, while different types of software tools (PC, iPad, Android, ...) were developed to enable the evaluation rounds. Finally, a proper visualization was established
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Problem Oriented Engineering for Software Safety
Safety critical systems must satisfy stringent safety standards and there development requires the use of specialist safe software system development (SSSD) approaches as the complexity and penetration of these systems increases. These SSSD approaches satisfy certain useful properties that make them suitable for safety system development. The first objective of this thesis is to select a candidate SSSD approach and evaluate its capabilities against a set of useful properties identified from reviewing a group of existing SSSD approaches, and thus show that this candidate SSSD approach is appropriate for use in safety system development.
In addition, a second objective is to use this candidate SSSD approach to improve the early life cycle phase of an existing industrial safety development process used to develop embedded avionics applications. In particular to allow issues to be resolved earlier in the development, which are currently not being uncovered until much later in the development when they are much more difficult and expensive to correct. This involved the identification of further properties and issues that the candidate SSSD approach must address.
The overall aim is to demonstrate that this candidate SSSD approach can be used in the early phase of a safety system development to derive a validated specification that can be subjected to safety analysis to show that it satisfies the identified system safety properties and thus forms a viable basis for the rest of the development
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