MDD4SOA: Model-Driven Service Orchestration

Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs) have become an important cornerstone of the development of enterprise-scale software applications. Although a range of domain-specific languages and standards are available for dealing with such architectures, model-driven approaches starting from models written in an established modelling language like UML and including the ability for model transformation (in particular, for code generation) are still in their infancy. In this paper, we show (1) how our UML-based domain-specific language for working with SOA artefacts, UML4SOA, can be used for modelling service orchestrations, and (2) how to exploit so-designed models in the MDD4SOA approach to generate code in multiple languages, among them BPEL and WSDL, Java, and the formal language Jolie. We use a case study for illustrating this approach. Our main contributions are an easy-to-use, conservative extension to the UML2 for modelling service orchestrations on a high level of abstraction, and a fully automated, model-driven approach for transforming these orchestrations down to code. 1

Evaluation of Service Designs Based on SoaML

Abstract — In the context of service-oriented architectures, services are expected to fulfill certain service characteristics, such as high autonomy or loose coupling. In order to easily influence the design of these services, it is desirable to evaluate their characteristics early on in the development process, i.e. during design time. Related work focuses on the description of desired service characteristics that refer to services as a whole and does not address the evaluation of service designs in terms of their characteristics. Thus, in this paper, we analyze common and widespread service characteristics, derive evaluable design attributes that refer to elements of service designs based on SoaML, and demonstrate the formalization of an exemplarily design attribute using OCL. The application of the identified design attributes on a tentative service design of a service-oriented surveillance system helps to create a revised service design with improved service characteristics. Keywords-service design; soaml; evaluation; service characteristic; design attribute I

Dynamic reconfiguration of cloud application architectures

[EN] Service-based cloud applications are software systems that continuously evolve to satisfy new user requirements and technological changes. This kind of applications also require elasticity, scalability, and high availability, which means that deployment of new functionalities or architectural adaptations to fulfill service level agreements (SLAs) should be performed while the application is in execution. Dynamic architectural reconfiguration is essential to minimize system disruptions while new or modified services are being integrated into existing cloud applications. Thus, cloud applications should be developed following principles that support dynamic reconfiguration of services, and also tools to automate these reconfigurations at runtime are needed. This paper presents an extension of a model-driven method for dynamic and incremental architecture reconfiguration of cloud services that allows developers to specify new services as software increments, and the tool to generate the implementation code for the services integration logic and the deployment and architectural reconfiguration scripts specific to the cloud environment in which the service will be deployed (e.g., Microsoft Azure). We also report the results of a quasi-experiment that empirically validate our method. It was conducted to evaluate their perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and perceived intention to use. The results show that the participants perceive the method to be useful, and they also expressed their intention to use the method in the future. Although further experiments must be carried out to corroborate these results, the method has proven to be a promising architectural reconfiguration process for cloud applications in the context of agile and incremental development processes.This research is supported by the Value@Cloud project (MINECO TIN2013-46300-R), DIUC_XIV_2016_038 project, and the Microsoft Azure Research AwardZúñiga-Prieto, MÁ.; Gonzalez-Huerta, J.; Insfran, E.; Abrahao Gonzales, SM. (2018). Dynamic reconfiguration of cloud application architectures. Software Practice and Experience. 48(2):327-344. https://doi.org/10.1002/spe.2457S32734448

SysML modeling of service-oriented system-of-systems

The success of the ongoing fourth industrial revolution largely depends on our ways to cope with the novel design challenges arising from a combination of an enormous increase in process and product complexity, as well as the expected autonomy and self-organization of complex and diverse industrial hardware–software installments, often called systems-of-systems. In this paper, we employ the service-oriented architectural paradigm, as materialized in the Eclipse Arrowhead framework, to represent modern systems engineering principles and their open structural principles and, thus, relevance to flexible and adaptive systems. As for adequately capturing the structural aspect, we propose using model-based engineering techniques and, in particular, a SysML-based specialization of systems modeling. The approach is illustrated by a real-life use-case in industrial automation.publishedVersio

UML-SOA-Sec and Saleem's MDS Services Composition Framework for Secure Business Process Modelling of Services Oriented Applications

In Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) environment, a software application is a composition of services, which are scattered across enterprises and architectures. Security plays a vital role during the design, development and operation of SOA applications. However, analysis of today's software development approaches reveals that the engineering of security into the system design is often neglected. Security is incorporated in an ad-hoc manner or integrated during the applications development phase or administration phase or out sourced. SOA security is cross-domain and all of the required information is not available at downstream phases. The post-hoc, low-level integration of security has a negative impact on the resulting SOA applications. General purpose modeling languages like Unified Modeling Language (UML) are used for designing the software system; however, these languages lack the knowledge of the specific domain and "security" is one of the essential domains. A Domain Specific Language (DSL), named the "UML-SOA-Sec" is proposed to facilitate the modeling of security objectives along the business process modeling of SOA applications. Furthermore, Saleem's MDS (Model Driven Security) services composition framework is proposed for the development of a secure web service composition

A platform-independent domain-specific modeling language for multiagent systems

Associated with the increasing acceptance of agent-based computing as a novel software engineering paradigm, recently a lot of research addresses the development of suitable techniques to support the agent-oriented software development. The state-of-the-art in agent-based software development is to (i) design the agent systems basing on an agent-based methodology and (ii) take the resulting design artifact as a base to manually implement the agent system using existing agent-oriented programming languages or general purpose languages like Java. Apart from failures made when manually transform an abstract specification into a concrete implementation, the gap between design and implementation may also result in the divergence of design and implementation. The framework discussed in this dissertation presents a platform-independent domain-specific modeling language for MASs called Dsml4MAS that allows modeling agent systems in a platform-independent and graphical manner. Apart from the abstract design, Dsml4MAS also allows to automatically (i) check the generated design artifacts against a formal semantic specification to guarantee the well-formedness of the design and (ii) translate the abstract specification into a concrete implementation. Taking both together, Dsml4MAS ensures that for any well-formed design, an associated implementation will be generated closing the gap between design and code.Aufgrund wachsender Akzeptanz von Agentensystemen zur Behandlung komplexer Problemstellungen wird der Schwerpunkt auf dem Gebiet der agentenorientierten Softwareentwicklung vor allem auf die Erforschung von geeignetem Entwicklungswerkzeugen gesetzt. Stand der Forschung ist es dabei das Agentendesign mittels einer Agentenmethodologie zu spezifizieren und die resultierenden Artefakte als Grundlage zur manuellen Programmierung zu verwenden. Fehler, die bei dieser manuellen Überführung entstehen, machen insbesondere das abstrakte Design weniger nützlich in Hinsicht auf die Nachhaltigkeit der entwickelten Softwareapplikation. Das in dieser Dissertation diskutierte Rahmenwerk erörtert eine plattformunabhängige domänenspezifische Modellierungssprache für Multiagentensysteme namens Dsml4MAS. Dsml4MAS erlaubt es Agentensysteme auf eine plattformunabhängige und graphische Art und Weise darzustellen. Die Modellierungssprache umfasst (i) eine abstrakte Syntax, die das Vokabular der Sprache definiert, (ii) eine konkrete Syntax, die die graphische Darstellung spezifiziert sowie (iii) eine formale Semantik, die dem Vokabular eine präzise Bedeutung gibt. Dsml4MAS ist Bestandteil einer (semi-automatischen) Methodologie, die es (i) erlaubt die abstrakte Spezifikation schrittweise bis hin zur konkreten Implementierung zu konkretisieren und (ii) die Interoperabilität zu alternativen Softwareparadigmen wie z.B. Dienstorientierte Architekturen zu gewährleisten

MILAS : ModernIzing Legtacy Applications towards Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Software as a Service (SaaS)

MILAS er om modernisering av gamle applikasjoner, og løfte dem opp til et SOA, SaaS nivå. MILAS beskriver en metodikk for hvordan dette kan best gjøres. Metodikken baserer seg på standarder og modelleringsmuligheter. MILAS dekker spesielt modellering av tjenester og hvordan en kan modellere tjeneser ut fra gamle komponeter

UML-SOA-Sec and Saleem’s MDS Services Composition Framework for Secure Business Process Modelling of Services Oriented Applications

In Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) environment, a software application is a composition of services, which are scattered across enterprises and architectures. Security plays a vital role during the design, development and operation of SOA applications. However, analysis of today’s software development approaches reveals that the engineering of security into the system design is often neglected. Security is incorporated in an ad-hoc manner or integrated during the applications development phase or administration phase or out sourced. SOA security is cross-domain and all of the required information is not available at downstream phases. The post-hoc, low-level integration of security has a negative impact on the resulting SOA applications. General purpose modeling languages like Unified Modeling Language (UML) are used for designing the software system; however, these languages lack the knowledge of the specific domain and “security” is one of the essential domains. A Domain Specific Language (DSL), named the “UML-SOA-Sec” is proposed to facilitate the modeling of security objectives along the business process modeling of SOA applications. Furthermore, Saleem’s MDS (Model Driven Security) services composition framework is proposed for the development of a secure web service composition

Scenario-Driven Development of Service-Oriented Systems

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a software architectural style, which relies on reusable and composable services. In addition to software-orientation, SOA includes a business viewpoint, so that business requirements can be captured as high level business processes. Business processes can be implemented, for example, as an orchestration of different service components. Individual services participate in the overall execution of business processes by providing elementary service activities. In addition to flexibility and services reuse, bridging of business and information technology (IT) views is one of the claimed benefits of SOA. Development of service-based systems includes a range of different activities. However, development of service-based systems is still lacking systematic and tool vendor independent practices and development methods. In this thesis, a development process for a service provider, called Service Product Development Process (SPDP), is presented. It consists of several development phases and related activities. The input for SPDP includes high level business process requirements. The result of the process is a new service-based product to be added to the service provider’s product portfolio. The purpose of this thesis is to study the applicability and the benefits of applying a scenario-driven approach, a type of requirement-driven development, for the development of service-based systems. Scenarios are used to capture functional system requirements as simple message sequences given as UML sequence diagrams. The scenario-driven approach is applied to different phases of SPDP including business process development, service specification, and service realization. The proposed scenario-driven approach is not limited to the SPDP context. It is rather a general purpose framework for development of service-based systems or products, called SceDA. SceDA includes three independent scenario-based methods, which are targeted to support different development phases of service-based systems. One of the three methods is used for scenario-based business process development. The other two methods are targeted at service development, in particular, service specification and service realization. Service specification is supported by a method for automatically mining and re-documenting the development rules as scenarios. To support service realization, a method for generating source code for individual service and client applications has been developed. Each method includes a description of the developed tool support and a case study.Case studies are used for constructing and evaluating the three scenario-based methods developed. Each method is applied as a case study in the context of development phases of SPDP. In the first case study, scenario-driven business process development method is applied. Two other case studies concern constructing and using scenarios for application development. One case study utilizes the scenario mining method. In the other case study, the code generation method is applied