Inverse software configuration management

Software systems are playing an increasingly important role in almost every aspect of today’s society such that they impact on our businesses, industry, leisure, health and safety. Many of these systems are extremely large and complex and depend upon the correct interaction of many hundreds or even thousands of heterogeneous components. Commensurate with this increased reliance on software is the need for high quality products that meet customer expectations, perform reliably and which can be cost-effectively and safely maintained. Techniques such as software configuration management have proved to be invaluable during the development process to ensure that this is the case. However, there are a very large number of legacy systems which were not developed under controlled conditions, but which still, need to be maintained due to the heavy investment incorporated within them. Such systems are characterised by extremely high program comprehension overheads and the probability that new errors will be introduced during the maintenance process often with serious consequences. To address the issues concerning maintenance of legacy systems this thesis has defined and developed a new process and associated maintenance model, Inverse Software Configuration Management (ISCM). This model centres on a layered approach to the program comprehension process through the definition of a number of software configuration abstractions. This information together with the set of rules for reclaiming the information is stored within an Extensible System Information Base (ESIB) via, die definition of a Programming-in-the- Environment (PITE) language, the Inverse Configuration Description Language (ICDL). In order to assist the application of the ISCM process across a wide range of software applications and system architectures, die PISCES (Proforma Identification Scheme for Configurations of Existing Systems) method has been developed as a series of defined procedures and guidelines. To underpin the method and to offer a user-friendly interface to the process a series of templates, the Proforma Increasing Complexity Series (PICS) has been developed. To enable the useful employment of these techniques on large-scale systems, the subject of automation has been addressed through the development of a flexible meta-CASE environment, the PISCES M4 (MultiMedia Maintenance Manager) system. Of particular interest within this environment is the provision of a multimedia user interface (MUI) to die maintenance process. As a means of evaluating the PISCES method and to provide feedback into die ISCM process a number of practical applications have been modelled. In summary, this research has considered a number of concepts some of which are innovative in themselves, others of which are used in an innovative manner. In combination these concepts may be considered to considerably advance the knowledge and understanding of die comprehension process during the maintenance of legacy software systems. A number of publications have already resulted from the research and several more are in preparation. Additionally a number of areas for further study have been identified some of which are already underway as funded research and development projects

Making Movies: Watching Software Evolve through Visualisation

This paper introduces an innovative visualisation technique for exposing the software defects that develop as a software project evolves. The application of this technique to a large-scale industrial software project is described together with the way in which the technique was modified to enable integration with the software configuration management process. The paper shows how a number of forces acting on the project can be equated to changes in the visualisations and how this can be used as a measure of the quality of the software

Principles for setting air quality guidelines to protect human health in Australia

The current air quality framework to mitigate against the health effects of exposure to air pollution within Australia relies on national environmental protection standards — set out under the National Environmental Protection (Ambient Air Quality) Measure (the ambient air quality NEPM) — and the jurisdictional requirements for monitoring and reporting exceedances.1, 2 The ambient air quality NEPM sets reportable limits for key criteria air pollutants.1 Criteria air pollutants are those that are legislated internationally as measures of air quality and include particulate matter (PM), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide, ozone, sulfur dioxide (SO2) and lead1 (Box). Air toxics are non-criteria air pollutants that are considered to pose a hazard to human health.7 Air toxics are legislated under a separate NEPM which has the goal of generating baseline data for later development of standards for five compounds: benzene, benzo(a)pyrene, formaldehyde, toluene and xylenes.7 The air toxics standards, based on the gathered baseline data, were due to be set in 20127 but are yet to be reviewed