Grammatically driven class derivation (extended abstract)

This effort sets out to outline a research domain of academic and commercial relevance as well as the establishment of a possible research trend in the field of software engineering. The OO approach has established itself as a widespread and effective paradigm for modern software development. Many aspects of OO development are methodologically supported and procedural and representation standards are clearly defined. Certain activities within OO development remain suited for both automated and manual interpretations. It is also a fact that many system descriptions start off as natural language accounts of business processes, rather than semi-formalised data-flow or use-case models. It is therefore being proposed that a direct-from-text reliable and complete conversion method with governing standards can be defined to automate as necessary the class derivation activity, therefore decreasing the overall development effort and error-introduction probability without effecting objectivity within the OO development process. Such a conversion method would also allow more accurate rapid prototype generation at the earliest development stages. In theory, this would enable developers to automatically generate better quality “first-cut” GUI prototypes directly from textual system descriptions.peer-reviewe

A framework for an adaptive virtual learning environment

This paper is actually an adapted M.Sc. proposal. Work on this degree has only just start so there are no results to be presented. However, during the CSAW presentation further details will be given about research problems and how they will be solved.peer-reviewe

An enterprise integration project management framework

This paper is actually an adapted M.Sc. proposal. Work on this degree has only just start so there are no results to be presented. However, during the CSAW presentation further details will be given about research problems and how they will be solved.peer-reviewe

Measuring the functionality of online stores

This paper makes a case for the need of a framework which can be used to measure the functionality delivered by electronic commerce (e-commerce) systems. Such a framework would be helpful in areas such as cost prediction, effort estimatation, and so on. The paper also goes on to propose such a framework, based on the tried and tested methods of function points and object points.peer-reviewe

An ontology of security threats to web applications

As the use of the internet for commercial purposes continues to grow, so do the number of security threats which attempt to disrupt online systems. A number of these threats are in fact unintended. For example, a careless employee might drop a cup of coffee onto essential equipment. However, when compared to the brick and mortar world, the internet offers would-be attackers a more anonymous environment in which to operate. Also, the free availability of hacking tools makes it possible even for the curious teenager to carry out dangerous attacks. Despite this ever-present threat however, it is all too often the case that security is dealt with (if at all) after a web application has been developed. This is mainly due to our software development heritage whereby companies prefer to focus on the functionality of new systems because that provides an immediate return on investment. As a precursor to proposing an framework for building security into web applications, this paper presents an ontology of threat to web applications. The thinking behind this is that much the same as in the military world, one needs to have as much intelligence about the enemy as possible, the same can be argued in the case of online security threats. Such an ontology would enable stake holder in online applications to take less of a reactive stance but instead be more proactive by being aware what’s out there.peer-reviewe

Formal verification of enterprise integration architectures

This is a near-finished paper to be presented in an international research conference. Weak Bisimulation is a process calculus equivalence relation, applied for the verification of communicating concurrent systems [Miln 99]. In this paper we propose the application of Weak Bisimulation for Enterprise Application Integration verification. Formal verification is carried out by taking the system specification and design models of an integrated system and converting them into value passing CCS (Calculus of Communicating Systems) processes. If a Weak Bisimulation relation is found between the two models, then it could be concluded that the EI Architecture is a valid one. The formal verification of an EI Architecture would give value to an EI project framework, allowing the challenge of cumbersome and complex testing typically faced by EI projects [Khan 05], to be alleviated, and thus increasing the possibility of a successful EI project, delivered on time and within the stipulated budgeted costs. This paper shows the applicability of value passing CCS (or equivalent) formal notation to model the EI systems characteristics, as well as investigates into the computation complexity of available weak bisimulation algorithms, in order to analyze the applicability of this proposition in real life.peer-reviewe

Manufacturing production line modelling and classification of associated np-hard problems

Optimisation of production lines is known to be NP-Hard in the general case so many near-optimal approximation algorithms have been researched to overcome the challenge. In this paper we describe an approach to modelling production lines using a graph theoretic model. In particular, we focus on single machine and job shop problems. We show that the model can be extended to open shop problems. We also discuss how the model can be used to classify scheduling problems from the generated models.peer-reviewe

Towards effectively appraising online stores

This paper introduces research being carried out into the measurement of the quality of e-commerce systems. Considerable work has been done on software metrics in the last few decades but e-commerce specific metrics seem only applicable to already deployed systems. It is proposed that a set of metrics is needed, which can be applied from the earlier stages of E-Commerce system development to improve risk management. This paper attempts to appraise e-commerce systems by proposing a set of essential attributes for an e-commerce site to succeed. This paper also serves as groundwork for future e-commerce metrication work based on these same attributes.peer-reviewe

A software development framework for hardware centric applications: an architectural perspective

Throughout the history of Software Engineering, software development has been looked at from various perspectives, in terms of: usability, suitability for proposed problem, speed of development, relevance to real world scenarios, as well as in terms of the hardware that it needs to manifest itself in the real world. This paper delves deeper into the aspect of the actual core concept in software engineering: that of mapping software onto hardware[1], focused specifically on Hardware Centric systems (HCS), (systems where the hardware dictates to an influential level, the actual nature of the software); examining the various frameworks and concepts that exist for displaying this mapping from an architecture point of view, so as to establish if there is a need for a more complete and/or effective framework. It also proposes a roadmap proposal for a base architecture framework for the development of Hardware Centric applications, which will then be employed to determine if a suitable framework already exists.peer-reviewe

Data processing : challenges and tools

Data has grown at incredible rates these last few year, especially with the increasing popularity of social media and video streaming services such as YouTube. This paper looks at some of the challenges associated with the acquisition and processing of data. These challenges defer from the opportunities that can be exploited from the acquired data and are areas that can benefit from scientific research. In particular, the need to process large amounts of data in real-time is becoming a critical need in many areas such as social network trends, website statistics and intrusion detection in large data centres.peer-reviewe