A Model-Based Approach to Impact Analysis Using Model Differencing

Impact analysis is concerned with the identification of consequences of changes and is therefore an important activity for software evolution. In modelbased software development, models are core artifacts, which are often used to generate essential parts of a software system. Changes to a model can thus substantially affect different artifacts of a software system. In this paper, we propose a modelbased approach to impact analysis, in which explicit impact rules can be specified in a domain specific language (DSL). These impact rules define consequences of designated UML class diagram changes on software artifacts and the need of dependent activities such as data evolution. The UML class diagram changes are identified automatically using model differencing. The advantage of using explicit impact rules is that they enable the formalization of knowledge about a product. By explicitly defining this knowledge, it is possible to create a checklist with hints about development steps that are (potentially) necessary to manage the evolution. To validate the feasibility of our approach, we provide results of a case study.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, In: Proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Software Quality and Maintainability (SQM), ECEASST Journal, vol. 65 201

Towards Product Lining Model-Driven Development Code Generators

A code generator systematically transforms compact models to detailed code. Today, code generation is regarded as an integral part of model-driven development (MDD). Despite its relevance, the development of code generators is an inherently complex task and common methodologies and architectures are lacking. Additionally, reuse and extension of existing code generators only exist on individual parts. A systematic development and reuse based on a code generator product line is still in its infancy. Thus, the aim of this paper is to identify the mechanism necessary for a code generator product line by (a) analyzing the common product line development approach and (b) mapping those to a code generator specific infrastructure. As a first step towards realizing a code generator product line infrastructure, we present a component-based implementation approach based on ideas of variability-aware module systems and point out further research challenges.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Model-Driven Engineering and Software Development, pp. 539-545, Angers, France, SciTePress, 201

Scaling the Management of Extreme Programming Projects

XP is a code-oriented, light-weight software engineering methodology, suited merely for small-sized teams who develop software that relies on vague or rapidly changing requirements. Being very code-oriented, the discipline of systems engineering knows it as approach of incremental system change. In this contribution, we discuss the enhanced version of a concept on how to extend XP on large scale projects with hundreds of software engineers and programmers, respectively. Previous versions were already presented in [1] and [12]. The basic idea is to apply the "hierarchical approach", a management principle of reorganizing companies, as well as well-known moderation principles to XP project organization. We show similarities between software engineering methods and company reorganization processes and discuss how the elements of the hierarchical approach can improve XP. We provide guidelines on how to scale up XP to very large projects e.g. those common in telecommunication industry and IT technology consultancy firms by using moderation techniques.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure