The role of the RM-ODP computational viewpoint concepts in the MDA approach

An MDA design approach should be able to accommodate designs at different levels of platform-independence. We have proposed a design approach previously (in [2]), which allows these levels to be identified. An important feature of this approach is the notion of abstract platform. An abstract platform is determined by the platform characteristics that are relevant for applications at a certain level of platform-independence, and must be established by considering various design goals. In this paper, we define a framework that makes it possible to use RM-ODP concepts in our MDA design approach. This framework allows a recursive application of the computational viewpoint at different levels of platform-independence. This is obtained by equating the RM-ODP notion of infrastructure to our notion of abstract platform

Towards a refinement of the open distributed systems interactions signatures

International audienceThe ODP framework defines a set of concepts and an architecture for the construction of ODP systems in terms of five viewpoints. The computational viewpoint supports three models of interaction, each of which has an associated kind of computational interface: signals and signal interfaces, flows and stream interfaces, operations and operation interfaces. In this paper we address both the functional decomposition and constraints specification on interactions signatures. We show how to refine an operation signature into a signal signature. And finally, we use OCL to express constraints on interaction signatures refinements. The result is an UML model which can serve as a basis to define end-to-end QoS in open distributed systems, and the operation of multi-party binding and bindings between different kinds of interfaces (e.g. stream to operation interface bindings). That is, QoS require-ments on interactions in the computational viewpoint might be specified just using signals. We are investigating this issue

On the Notion of Abstract Platform in MDA Development

Although platform-independence is a central property in MDA models, the study of platform-independence has been largely overlooked in MDA. As a consequence, there is a lack of guidelines to select abstraction criteria and modelling concepts for platform-independent design. In addition, there is little methodological support to distinguish between platform-independent and platform-specific concerns, which could be detrimental to the beneficial exploitation of the PIM-PSM separation-of-concerns adopted by MDA. This work is an attempt towards clarifying the notion of platform-independent modelling in MDA development. We argue that each level of platform-independence must be accompanied by the identification of an abstract platform. An abstract platform is determined by the platform characteristics that are relevant for applications at a certain level of platform-independence, and must be established by balancing various design goals. We present some methodological principles for abstract platform design, which forms a basis for defining requirements for design languages intended to support platform-independent design. Since our methodological framework is based on the notion of abstract platform, we pay particular attention to the definition of abstract platforms and the language requirements to specify abstract platforms. We discuss how the concept of abstract platform relates to UML

A systematic approach for component-based software development

Component-based software development enables the construction of software artefacts by assembling prefabricated, configurable and independently evolving building blocks, called software components. This paper presents an approach for the development of component-based software artefacts. This approach consists of splitting the software development process according to four abstraction levels, viz., enterprise, system, component and object, and three different views, viz., structural, behavioural and interactional. The use of different abstraction levels and views allows a better control of the development process

Interaction signatures and action templates in the ODP computational viewpoint

International audienceIn this work we raise two issues that we came across when aiming to formalize both interaction signatures and action templates within the ODP computational viewpoint. We discuss these two concepts and present a way to formalize them by introducing a new term to formal descriptions of interaction signatures. In the same spirit as other works, our aim is to address issues concerning how concepts of the ODP computational viewpoint are currently defined as we present some solutions to their formalisation. If required, our work aim to serve as a step to help improve or change the current process of formalizing the ODP computational viewpoint concepts using the UML language

Security and management policy specification

Accepted versio