Real-time software methodologies: Are they suitable for developing Manufacturing control software?

Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) systems may be classified as real-time systems. Hence, the applicability of methodologies that are developed for specifying, designing, implementing, testing, and evolving real-time software is investigated in this article.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45553/1/10696_2005_Article_BF01358949.pd

Developing control and integration software for flexible manufacturing systems

The slow growth of computer-integrated manufacturing is attributed to the complexity of designing and implementing their control and integration software. This article expands on a methodology for designing and implementing this software that was introduced in [16]. The goal of this methodology is to build flexible and resuable control and integration software for computer-integrated manufacturing systems. It hinges upon the concepts of software/hardware components, their assemblages, a distributed common language environment, formal models, and generic controllers. Major sources of flexibility are obtained by decoupling process plan models from the model of the factory floor and by using a generic controller. Reusability is achieved by building selfcontained software/hardware components with general, possibly parametrized, interfaces. The interplay between simulated and actual hardware internals of software/hardware components is used as the basis of a testing strategy that performs off-line simulation followed by on-line testing.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43095/1/10952_2005_Article_BF02265064.pd

Developing manufacturing control software: A survey and critique

The complexity and diversity of manufacturing software and the need to adapt this software to the frequent changes in the production requirements necessitate the use of a systematic approach to developing this software. The software life-cycle model (Royce, 1970) that consists of specifying the requirements of a software system, designing, implementing, testing, and evolving this software can be followed when developing large portions of manufacturing software. However, the presence of hardware devices in these systems and the high costs of acquiring and operating hardware devices further complicate the manufacturing software development process and require that the functionality of this software be extended to incorporate simulation and prototyping.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45542/1/10696_2005_Article_BF01328739.pd

Software design methodologies : a survey

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/4077/5/ang8668.0001.001.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/4077/4/ang8668.0001.001.tx

A methodology for developing real-time control software for efficient and dependable manufacturing systems.

Designing efficient and dependable manufacturing systems has always been a major goal of modern computer-integrated manufacturing. The dissertation proposes a methodology for developing the control software of these systems, and develops a set of software tools that enhance the applicability of this methodology. These tools aid in planning the set of operations of a manufacturing job, generating a cyclic schedule for processing a batch of jobs, and monitoring the operations of the system while this batch is being processed. The syntax and semantics of a component-oriented rule-based language for specifying the formal models of manufacturing systems is presented. A model captures the state of a component of the system in a set of first-order logic predicates, and it captures the semantics of the operations performed by this component in a set of rules that determine the preconditions and postconditions of an operation. These models are used in planning the sequence of operations of each class of jobs to be manufactured by these systems. To achieve efficiency, the reservation table technique is used to create optimum cyclic job-shop schedules for processing a batch of identical jobs or a mix of jobs from several classes on these systems. A reservation table is derived from the plan of a job. This table is then used to determine the theoretical maximum job initiation rate and the set of all possible initiation strategies for the batch. In some cases, this theoretical maximum rate is achieved by increasing the flow time of the job. The above technique inherently allows multiple devices to be reserved concurrently, it can deal with transport time explicitly, and it achieves higher initiation rates by including cycles that involve multiple job initiations. To achieve dependability, a plan-oriented fault detection and correction strategy is proposed. This strategy can automatically handle any combination of faults that may occur when monitoring the operations of manufacturing systems. A fault-tree is consulted prior to executing the scheduled operations of a plan, and the faults that affect the execution of these operations are handled subsequently. Resuming the original cyclic schedule is attempted, whenever feasible.Ph.D.Computer Science and EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/103284/1/9034397.pdfDescription of 9034397.pdf : Restricted to UM users only

eFlow: A Java-Based Workflow Service

This paper describes the eFlow architecture and illustrates its functionality through the use of an example process: a grant proposal workflow process

In-Process Evaluation for Software Inspection and Test

Abstract-The goal of software inspection and test is to reduce the expected cost of software failure over the life of a product. This paper extends the use of defect higgers, the eventsthat cause defects to be discovered, to help evaluate the effectiveness of inspections and test scenarios. In the case of inspections, the defect trigger is defined as a set of values that associate the shills of the inspector with the discovered defect. Similarly, for test scenarios, the defect trigger values embody the deferring strategies being used in creating these scenarios. The usefulness of triggers in evaluating the effectiveness of software inspections and tests is demonstrated by evaluating the inspection and test activities of some software products. These evaluations are used to point to both deficiencies in inspection and test strategies and to progress made in improving such strategies. The trigger distribution of the entire inspection or test series may then be used to highlight areas for further investigation, with the aim of improving the design, implementation, and test processes. Index Terms-Software development process, software inspec-tion, software reliability, software testing

A Case Study of Software Process Improvement During Development

Abstract- We present a case study of the use of a software process improvement method which is based on the analysis of defect data. The first step of the method is the classification of software defects using attributes which relate defects to specific process activities. Such classification captures the semantics of the defects in a fashion which is useful for process correction. The second step utilizes a machine-assisted approach to data explo-ration which allows a project team to discover such knowledge from defect data as is useful for process correction. We show that such analysis of defect data can readily lead a project team to improve their process during development. Index Terms-Date exploration, defect-based process improve-ment, in-process metrics, knowledge discovery. T I. INTRODDCTI~

A review of software inspections

For two decades, software inspections have proven e ective for detecting defects in software. We have reviewed the di erent ways software inspections are done, created a taxonomy of inspection methods, and examined claims about the cost-e ectiveness of di erent methods. We detect a disturbing pattern in the evaluation of inspection methods. Although there is universal agreement on the e ectiveness of software inspection, their economics are uncertain. Our examination of several empirical studies leads us to conclude that the bene ts of inspections are often overstated and the costs (especially for large software developments) are understated. Furthermore, some of the most in uential studies establishing these costs and bene ts are 20 years old now, which leads us to question their relevance to today's software development processes. Extensive work is needed to determine exactly how, why, and when software inspections work, and whether some defect detection techniques might be more cost-e ective than others. In this article we ask some questions about measuring e ectiveness of software inspections and determining how much they really cost when their e ect on the rest of the development process is considered. Finding answers to these questions will enable us to improve the e ciency of software development.