A Taxonomy of Metamodel Hierarchies

In the context of software engineering and model-driven development in particular, metamodeling gains more and more importance. So far, no classifying study of theoretical metamodeling concepts and hierarchy design options has been conducted in order to establish a comprehensive set of interrelated design variables, i.e. a coherent design space. A well-designed metamodeling hierarchy is essential to avoid problems not easily noticeable, like ambiguous classification and the replication of concepts. This study aims at exploring the theoretical foundation and providing a taxonomy or a design space for constructing tailor-made metamodel hierarchies for specific problems areas and domains

On assumptions in optimisation of warranty policies

Optimisation of warranty policy has been a hot research topic in both operations research and statistics communities since warranty providers hope to balance cost-benefit analysis in the nowadays competitive market. Some assumptions are inevitably needed for such research. Most of the existing publications, however, make assumptions that may not be true in practice, based on which biased decision may be made. This paper discusses pitfalls in the assumptions, which include causes of warranty claims, pattern of warranty claims, warranty claim models, field reliability vs product reliability, the relationship between usage and age in 2-dimensional warranty. A real-world example is used to elaborate the arguments

PPPJ special issue–Foreword

Abstract included in text

A Data Quality Metrics Hierarchy for Reliability Data

In this paper, we describe an approach to understanding data quality issues in field data used for the calculation of reliability metrics such as availability, reliability over time, or MTBF. The focus lies on data from sources such as maintenance management systems or warranty databases which contain information on failure times, failure modes for all units. We propose a hierarchy of data quality metrics which identify and assess key problems in the input data. The metrics are organized in such a way that they guide the data analyst to those problems with the most impact on the calculation and provide a prioritised action plan for the improvement of data quality. The metrics cover issues such as missing, wrong, implausible and inaccurate data. We use examples with real-world data to showcase our software prototype and to illustrate how the metrics have helped with data preparation. Using this way, analysts can reduce the amount of wrong conclusions drawn from the data to mistakes in the input values

Towards A Software Failure Cost Impact Model for the Customer An Analysis of an Open Source Product

ABSTRACT While the financial consequences of software errors on the developer's side have been explored extensively, the costs arising for the end user have been largely neglected. One reason is the difficulty of linking errors in the code with emerging failure behavior of the software. The problem becomes even more difficult when trying to predict failure probabilities based on models or code metrics. In this paper we take a first step towards a cost prediction model by exploring the possibilities of modeling the financial consequences of already identified software failures. Firefox, a well-known open source software, is used as a test subject. Historically identified failures are modeled using fault trees. To identify costs, usage profiles are employed to depict the interaction with the system. The presented approach demonstrates the possibility to model failure cost for an organization using a specific software by establishing a relationship between user behavior, software failures, and costs. As future work, an extension with software error prediction techniques as well as an empirical validation of the model is aspired

A Taxonomy of Metamodel Hierarchies

In the context of software engineering and model-driven development in particular, metamodeling gains more and more importance. So far, no classifying study of theoretical metamodeling concepts and hierarchy design options has been conducted in order to establish a comprehensive set of interrelated design variables, i.e. a coherent design space. A well-designed metamodeling hierarchy is essential to avoid problems not easily noticeable, like ambiguous classification and the replication of concepts. This study aims at exploring the theoretical foundation and providing a taxonomy or a design space for constructing tailor-made metamodel hierarchies for specific problems areas and domains. Categories and Subject Descriptors D.2.2 [Software Engineering]: Design Tools and Techniques – computer-aided software engineering, object-oriented desig

Model driven software development using a metamodel based extension mechanism for UML

Software development is inherently difficult because of the complexity of the task and the high level of change that occurs during its lifecycle. Attempts to solve these problems have raised the level of abstraction dramatically. Nevertheless, recent propositions have generated much skepticism. Approaches such as visual languages or CASE tools have not fundamentally changed the state of the practice in software development, mostly due to the cost involved in producing the code generation modules. In this book, this problem is analyzed and a new extension mechanism for UML is presented. More suitable than UML Profiles to allow the creation of hierarchical domain extensions, it can be used to facilitate domain-specific model-driven development and thus reduce the total development cost

Relationship Between the Standard Compliance of IDL-Compilers and Interoperability of CORBA-based Applications

Ever since the introduction of version 2.0 of the CORBA specification, that architecture enjoys ever-increasing popularity. There are two reasons for this, both due to the underlying principles of CORBA – easy interoperability between different ORB products and the possibility of cooperation with other (sub)systems. However, for the first advantage to come to bear, it is paramount that the IDL specification is accurately implemented by the ORB products. In this paper we examine the IDL compilers of different ORB products with regard to standard compliance and discuss the problems arising from deviance