Designing and Developing a Web-Based Post Graduate Application System for UUM

The internet technologies are rapidly increasing. The aim of the study is to design and develop a Web-based Postgraduate Application System (WPAS) for Universiti Utara Malaysia. The WPAS is a real-time application system which is free from traditional document processing procedures. It provides a convenient graphics user interface (GUI) for both student and admission department staff. It allows students to make self-apply for their selected apply online, degree program, view application status, and update application information time-to-time. It also allows administrator to manage student account, offer of place and admission information. All of the services are possible anywhere at any time

Conceptual Model for Bomb Victims Information System (BVIS) In Iraq Using WAP Standard

Many Iraqis have died resulting from insurgent bombings, revenge killings and U.S. military intervention during the 2003 invasion. This situation led to the destabilization of the security in the country and increased the number of dead and missing, making the search for missing loved ones very complex. To find a missing person, many procedures needed to be satisfied, one of which is to search in the area of bomb explosion, in the casualties section of the hospitals and in the police stations. Moreover, the Iraqis who are killed by terrorists are published in the newspapers but they do not account for all the victims and their information are imprecise. Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is a technology that may provide the solution to problem of looking for loved ones. WAP is characterized as easy, fast delivery of relevant information and services to mobile users. It is a secure technology allowing users to access instant information through wireless handheld devices like mobile phones, pagers, two-way radios, smart phones and communications. The goal of the present study is to develop a conceptual design model of Bomb Victims Information System (BVIS) through the use of WAP Standard to provide information regarding Iraqi bomb victims

Arabic Language Learning (ALL) for Kids

Arabic Language has an exceptional position in Islam. It is the language of Quran, thus the need to learn and understand Arabic amongst Muslims is of paramount importance. For countries where their native language is not Arabic, the language is only taught in special schools. Arabic language needs to be introduced to children at early ages such as in the kindergarten. With the advent of computer technology, various kind of multimedia tools have been developed for the purpose of language learning. Since children are attracted to computer applications especially those that involve multimedia,there is a need to develop Arabic language learning applications for them. Even though there are few applications available in the market for that purpose, most of them do not fully utilize the multimedia elements. The prime objective of this study was to propose an Arabic Language Learning (ALL) for kids of ages between 4 to 6 years old that enable them to learn the language. In the process, an interactive field-tested ALL for kids has been developed as an alternative to the traditional learning tools. The results of user evaluation on the ALL indicate that it has good usability in terms of Learnability,Usefulness, Ease of Use and Outcome/Future Use. The results also indicate that there is a significant difference between novice and expert users for Usefulness and Ease of Use,while no significant difference for learnability and Outcome/Future Use

FAULT TREE ANALYSIS FOR UML (UNIFIED MODELING LANGUAGE)

ABSTRACT Software plays an increasing role in the safety critical systems. Increasing the quality and reliability of the software has become the major objective of software development industry. Researchers and industry practitioners, look for innovative techniques and methodologies that could be used to increase their confidence in the software reliability. Fault tree analysis (FTA) is one method under study at the Software Assurance Technology Center (SATC) of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center to determine its relevance to increasing the quality and the reliability of software. This paper briefly reviews some of the previous research in the area of Software Fault Tree Analysis (SFTA). Next we discuss a roadmap for application of the SFTA to software, with special emphasis on object-oriented design. This is followed by a brief discussion of the paradigm for transforming a software design artifact (i.e., sequence diagram) to its corresponding software fault tree

Experiences Using Formal Methods for Requirements Modeling

This paper describes three cases studies in the lightweight application of formal methods to requirements modeling for spacecraft fault protection systems. The case studies differ from previously reported applications of formal methods in that formal methods were applied very early in the requirements engineering process, to validate the evolving requirements. The results were fed back into the projects, to improve the informal specifications. For each case study, we describe what methods were applied, how they were applied, how much effort was involved, and what the findings were. In all three cases, the formal modeling provided a cost effective enhancement of the existing verification and validation processes. We conclude that the benefits gained from early modeling of unstable requirements more than outweigh the effort needed to maintain multiple representations

Integration of safety risk assessment techniques into requirement elicitation

Incomplete and incorrect requirements may cause the safety-related software systems to fail to achieve their safety goals. It is crucial to ensure software safety by identifying proper software safety requirements during the requirements elicitation activity. Practitioners apply various Safety Risk Assessment Techniques (SRATs) to identify, analyze and assess safety risk.Nevertheless, there is a lack of guidance on how appropriate SRATs and safety process can be integrated into requirements elicitation activity to bridge the gap between the safety and requirements engineering practices. In this research, we proposed an Integration Framework that integrates safety activities and techniques into existing requirements elicitation activity

Evaluation of Stimulus tool in Nokia context

Abstract. The purpose of this thesis was to evaluate Stimulus requirements evaluation tool. This evaluation was done at Nokia to see if the tool is suitable for Nokia’s use cases. The thesis used design science research as research method. As the research artifact requirements set was used. This requirement set was then demonstrated using Stimulus tool. The data was collected from workshops held between team from Dassault and team from Nokia. The participants in these workshops were software engineers and requirements engineers. The result of the study was that Stimulus had a good number of useful features but also issues were found. Further evaluation of the tool is needed to determine whether all the issues can be fixed to make the tool suitable for Nokia

A normal accident theory-based complexity assessment methodology for safety-related embedded computer systems

"Computer-related accidents have caused injuries and fatalities in numerous applications. Normal accident theory (NAT) explains that these accidents are inevitable because of system complexity. Complex systems, such as computer-based systems, are highly interconnected, highly interactive, and tightly coupled. We do not have a scientific methodology to identify and quantify these complexities; specifically, NAT has not been operationalized for computer-based systems. Our research addressed this by operationalizing NAT for the system requirements of safety-related computer systems. It was theorized that there are two types of system complexity: external and internal. External complexity was characterized by three variables: system predictability, observability, and usability - the dependent variables. Internal complexity was characterized by modeling system requirements with software cost reduction dependency graphs, then quantifying model attributes using 15 graph-theoretical metrics - the independent variables. Dependent variable data were obtained by having 32 subjects run simulations of our research test vehicle: the light control system (LCS). The LCS simulation tests used a crossover design. Subject perceptions of these simulations were obtained by using a questionnaire. Canonical correlation analysis and structure correlations were used to test hypotheses 1 to 3: the dependent variables predictability, observability, and usability do not correlate with the NAT complexity metrics. Five of fifteen metrics proposed for NAT complexity correlated with the dependent data. These five metrics had structure correlations exceeding 0.25, standard errors <0.10, and a 95% confidence interval. Therefore, the null hypotheses were rejected. A Wilcoxon signed ranks test was used to test hypotheses 4 to 6: increasing NAT complexity increases system predictability, observability, and usability. The results showed that the dependent variables decreased as complexity increased. Therefore, null hypotheses 4 to 6 were rejected. This work is a step forward to operationalize NAT for safety-related computer systems; however, limitations exist. Opportunities addressing these limitations and advancing NAT were identified. Lastly, the major contribution of this work is fundamental to scientific research: to gain knowledge through the discovery of relationship between the variables of interest. Specifically, NAT has been advanced by defining and quantifying complexity measures and showing their inverse relationship to system predictability, observability, and usability." - NIOSHTIC-2NIOSHTIC no. 20024286200

A Reasoning Framework for Dependability in Software Architectures

The degree to which a software system possesses specified levels of software quality attributes, such as performance and modifiability, often have more influence on the success and failure of those systems than the functional requirements. One method of improving the level of a software quality that a product possesses is to reason about the structure of the software architecture in terms of how well the structure supports the quality. This is accomplished by reasoning through software quality attribute scenarios while designing the software architecture of the system. As society relies more heavily on software systems, the dependability of those systems becomes critical. In this study, a framework for reasoning about the dependability of a software system is presented. Dependability is a multi-faceted software quality attribute that encompasses reliability, availability, confidentiality, integrity, maintainability and safety. This makes dependability more complex to reason about than other quality attributes. The goal of this reasoning framework is to help software architects build dependable software systems by using quantitative and qualitative techniques to reason about dependability in software architectures