Component-based Development Process Research Articles

Architecture-Based Reliability Prediction with the Palladio Component Model

With the increasing importance of reliability in business and industrial software systems, new techniques of architecture-based reliability engineering are becoming an integral part of the development process. These techniques can assist system architects in evaluating the reliability impact of their design decisions. Architecture-based reliability engineering is only effective if the involved reliability models reflect the interaction and usage of software components and their deployment to potentially unreliable hardware. However, existing approaches either neglect individual impact factors on reliability or hard-code them into formal models, which limits their applicability in component-based development processes. This paper introduces a reliability modeling and prediction technique that considers the relevant architectural factors of software systems by explicitly modeling the system usage profile and execution environment and automatically deriving component usage profiles. The technique offers a UML-like modeling notation whose models are automatically transformed into a formal analytical model. Our work builds upon the Palladio Component Model (PCM), employing novel techniques of information propagation and reliability assessment. We validate our technique with sensitivity analyses and simulation in two case studies. The case studies demonstrate effective support of usage profile analysis and architectural configuration ranking, together with the employment of reliability-improving architecture tactics.

Round-trip support for extra-functional property management in model-driven engineering of embedded systems

ContextIn order for model-driven engineering to succeed, automated code generation from models through model transformations has to guarantee that extra-functional properties specified at design level are preserved at code level. ObjectiveThe goal of this research work is to provide a full round-trip engineering approach in order to evaluate quality attributes of the embedded system by code execution monitoring as well as code static analysis and then provide back-propagation of the resulting values to modelling level. In this way, properties that can only be roughly estimated statically are evaluated against observed values and this consequently allows to refine the design models for ensuring preservation of analysed extra-functional properties at code level. MethodFollowing the model-driven engineering vision, (meta-) models and transformations are used as main artefacts for the realisation of the round-trip support which is finally validated against an industrial case study. ResultThis article presents an approach to support the whole round-trip process starting from the generation of source code for a target platform, passing through the monitoring of selected system quality attributes at code level, and finishing with the back-propagation of observed values to modelling level. The technique is validated against an industrial case study in the telecommunications applicative domain. ConclusionPreservation of extra-functional properties through appropriate description, computation and evaluation makes it possible to reduce final product verification and validation effort and costs by generating correct-by-construction code. The proposed round-trip support aids a model-driven component-based development process in ensuring a desired level of extra-functional properties preservation from the source modelling artefacts to the generated code.

Blackboard architecture to integrate components and agents in heterogeneous distributed eLearning systems: An application for learning to program

To build complete and complex eLearning systems, eLearning engineers are used to applying standards that facilitate sharing information as well as distributed service-oriented architectures that provide reuse and interoperability by means of component integration. These concepts lead us to a Component-based Development Process that will allow us to implement tools that give full support to the teaching/learning process, taking advantage of the synergy effect created by the integration of the different components. Thus, throughout this article we analyse the proposals from the most relevant consortia concerned with eLearning standards, showing their service oriented approaches and the middleware technologies which can be used to implement them. This analysis will demonstrate that the use of middleware technologies that use the definition of services’ interface can limit the reuse and interoperability requisites desired by the main standards consortia. Then, we will show a proposal which tries to solve this shortfall, using a blackboard-based architecture for integrating and communicating heterogeneous distributed components, as well as a user environment that also allows us to perform component integration. As an example, we will demonstrate how we have built an application for learning to program by applying our approach and following a Component-based Development Process to implement different components (services, agents, clients, etc.) that integrate it. Hence, we will argue that using blackboard architecture and a Component-based Development Process helps us to solve the identified shortcomings.

Integrating Refinement into Software Development Tools

It is a challenge for automatic tool support to formal design by refinement transformations. In this paper, we bring this matter to the attention of the research community and discuss a component-based model transformational approach for integrating refinement into software development tools. Models, their consistency and correctness, in an object-oriented and component-based development process are defined in rCOS, that is a refinement calculus recently developed at UNU-IIST. Correctness preserving transformations between models are formalized and proved as refinement rules in rCOS. In this paper, we will discuss on how these transformations can be implemented in the relations language of Query/View/Transformation (QVT) standardized by OMG.

A reusable software component-based development process model

The concept of component-based development (CBD) is widely used in software (SW) development. CBD facilitates reuse of the existing components with the new ones. The well known architectures of CBD are ActiveX, common object request broker architecture (CORBA), remote method invocation (RMI) and simple object access protocol (SOAP). The objective of this paper is to support practice of CBD by comparing it with traditional software development. This paper also evaluates object oriented (OO) process model and proposes a novel process model for CBD. The importance of repository has also been discussed.

Leveraging Semantic Web technologies for business component specification

Although component-based development (CBD) is among the predominant software engineering paradigms today, numerous issues still remain preventing business component marketplaces from taking off. For example, it is state of the practice to apply different notations and modeling languages for the specification of different aspects of a business component. Besides the fact that there is a lack of standards for holistic approaches to multi-faceted business component specification, the individual specification techniques very often are not powerful enough to allow for the reliable and efficient discovery and retrieval of matching components or the automatic deduction of statements about the semantic and syntactic compatibility of components for application composition. In this article, we argue that CBD processes can greatly benefit from the use of Semantic Web technologies for business component specification. The Resource Description Framework (RDF), for example, can provide a means to integrate existing specification approaches and add new value by superimposing a common knowledge representation layer on all specification artifacts, thus enabling semantic queries and reasoning about the properties of business components.

Leveraging Semantic Web Technologies for Business Component Specification

Although component-based development (CBD) is among the predominant software engineering paradigms today, numerous issues still remain preventing business component marketplaces from taking off. For example, it is state of the practice to apply different notations and modeling languages for the specification of different aspects of a business component. Besides the fact that there is a lack of standards for holistic approaches to multi-faceted business component specification, the individual specification techniques very often are not powerful enough to allow for the reliable and efficient discovery and retrieval of matching components or the automatic deduction of statements about the semantic and syntactic compatibility of components for application composition. In this article, we argue that CBD processes can greatly benefit from the use of SemanticWeb technologies for business component specification. The Resource Description Framework (RDF), for example, can provide a means to integrate existing specification approaches and add new value by superimposing a common knowledge representation layer on all specification artifacts, thus enabling semantic queries and reasoning about the properties of business components.

A systematic approach for structuring exception handling in robust component-based software

Component-based development (CBD) is recognized today as the standard paradigm for structuring large software systems. However, the most popular component models and component-based development processes provide little guidance on how to systematically incorporate exception handling into component-based systems. The problem of how to employ language-level exception handling mechanisms to introduce redundancy in componentbased systems is recognized by CBD practitioners as very difficult and often not adequately solved. As a consequence, the implementation of the redundant exceptional behaviour causes a negative impact, instead of a positive one, on system and maintainability. In this paper, we propose an approach for the construction of dependable component-based systems that integrates two complementary strategies: (i) a global exception handling strategy for inter-component composition and (ii) a local exception handling strategy for dealing with errors in reusable components. A case study illustrates the application of our approach to a real software system.

Component-based Development Process and Component Lifecycle

In recent years component-based development has become an established approach. Component-based Software Engineering (CBSE) that deals with the entire lifecycle of component-based products has been focused on technologies related to design and implementation of software components and systems built from software components. The experience has shown that pure technologies alone are not enough. A CBSE approach requires certain changes in development and life cycle processes. However, very few CBSE works, either research or practical, have addressed these topics. This paper describes principle differences of component-based and non- component based processes. Also we give an overview of a case study from a company that applies component-based approach.

A systematic approach for structuring exception handling in robust component-based software

Abstract Component-based development (CBD) is recognized today as the standard paradigm for structuring large software systems. However, the most popular component models and component-based development processes provide little guidance on how to systematically incorporate exception handling into component-based systems. The problem of how to employ language-level exception handling mechanisms to introduce redundancy in componentbased systems is recognized by CBD practitioners as very difficult and often not adequately solved. As a consequence, the implementation of the redundant exceptional behaviour causes a negative impact, instead of a positive one, on system and maintainability. In this paper, we propose an approach for the construction of dependable component-based systems that integrates two complementary strategies: (i) a global exception handling strategy for inter-component composition and (ii) a local exception handling strategy for dealing with errors in reusable components. A case study illustrates the application of our approach to a real software system.

A Method and Tool for Identifying Domain Components Using Object Usage Information

To enhance the productivity of software development and accelerate time to market, software developers have recently paid more attention to a component-based development (CBD) approach due to the benefits of component reuse. Among CBD processes, the identification of reusable components is a key but difficult process. Currently, component identification depends mainly on the intuition and experience of domain experts. In addition, there are few systematic methods or tools for component identification that enable domain experts to identify reusable components. This paper presents a systematic method and its tool called a component identifier that identifies software components by using object-oriented domain information, namely, use case models, domain object models, and sequence diagrams. To illustrate our method, we use the component identifier to identify candidates of reusable components from the object-oriented domain models of a banking system. The component identifier enables domain experts to easily identify reusable components by assisting and automating identification processes in an earlier development phase.

Creating the OOSPICE model architecture—A case of reuse

AbstractThe OOSPICE project aims at creating a capability assessment package for component‐based development (CBD), which complements and extends the ISO 15504 technical report (SPICE) and its pending standard. In addition, it will offer support for process definition, creation and tailoring in the CBD domain. The major deliverables are a process reference model for CBD, a process assessment methodology, a new CBD methodology and supporting toolset, and an underpinning CBD process metamodel. Here, we evaluate the various terminologies in current usage in OO, CBD, capability assessment and the ISO standards, and then describe the important architectural framework of the project, which brings together the two previously disparate fields of process and methodology metamodeling with capability assessment and improvement. Additionally, we show how elements of preexisting standards, such as ISO 15504 and ISO 12207, as well as elements of existing OO process metamodels can be successfully reused to create a standard for this new focus on component‐based systems development. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Automatic ObjectPascal Code Generation from Catalysis Specifications


 
 
 This paper presents a Component-based Framework Development Process, of the Cardiology Domain. The Framework, called FrameCardio, was developed in 4 steps: 1- Problem Domain Definition, 2-Components Specifications, 3-Components Internal Design and 4-Components Implementation. In the first step the framework requirements were identified, based on experiences in the development of a cardiology system with 320 classes. The main models specified in this step are the Use Cases, Actions and Collaborations Models. In the Component Specification step component external behaviors were defined with their responsibilities, operations and interfaces. The main models are the Types Model, that describes an object external behavior, regardless of implementation decisions, and the Component Interactions that details the behavior of each case used in the Sequence Diagrams. Right after, in the third step, the Specified Components are refined, considering the implementation technologies. Among the models of this step, the components Classes Diagram, Components and the Component Packages stand out. The modeling was supported by a CASE tool. Finally, in the Components Implementation step the components code was generated in the ObjectPascal language, using a Transformation System.
 FrameCardio was structured in layers and organized in components packages, available in the CASE tool, to be reused by the applications. In the same way as in the development of FrameCardio, the Transformation System is used to generate the ObjectPascal code of the applications. A Cardiology domain Application is presented to show Framework components reuse.
 
 

Assessing important factors that support component‐based development in developing countries

Most developing countries (DCs) have yet to fully benefit from the many advances in the information technology (IT) field because of specific problems experienced by these countries. Examples include a lack of systems infrastructure and resources to invest in IT. Component‐Based Development (CBD) offers a number of benefits that the DCs can tap into, such as reducing development and maintenance costs and improving reuse across projects. CBD entail purchasing a number of off‐the‐shelf software components, each satisfying some part of the requirements of the system and integrating these components into the required system. This paper will discuss the findings of a survey conducted in a specific developing country (Zambia) to assess important factors that support the CBD process. The results suggests that, although CBD has great potential for DCs there are some social and technical factors that need to be addressed by organisations in DCs for this to be fully realised. For example, the results show that from the social point of view there is lack of management support for CBD and from the technical point of view that organisations were not familiar with the technology for integrating components.

Component-based development, CORBA and RM-ODP

As a means of maximising reuse, component-based application development is a laudable objective. CORBA is an influential component model already adopted by the computing industry. The nature of a typical CORBA development process is examined. There is a discussion of the requirements for a more complete component-based application development method, and focus on the shortcomings encountered when applying CORBA outside such a framework. The ISO RM-ODP standard is introduced, its relevance is highlighted, and the issue of reuse in relation to both CORBA and RM-ODP is reviewed. It is concluded that, in order to successfully model the business domain, component models such as CORBA need to be integrated into a component-based application development process which takes account of a broader context such as that provided by RM-ODP.

Family traits in business objects and their applications

The business information system of the future will take the form of a swarm of business objects that are event-driven, concurrently executing, and running in a heterogeneous distributed environment. The inherent complexity of the business-object development process requires a difficult-to-find combination of skills in its developers. This complexity needs to be reduced to enable the participation of typical developers and to yield more successful projects. Fortunately, there are many common aspects among business objects. This paper describes a development approach that exploits these commonalities, reducing complexity through systematically defined, separate layers. The approach was developed in a research effort performed by the Application Development Effectiveness practice of the IBM Consulting Group in the Netherlands. It was subsidized by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs as an information technology innovation project. A “proof of concept” was obtained in a joint project with Rabobank in the Netherlands. The result is a component-based development process with well-defined reuse points and rapid-application-development (RAD) characteristics. With this approach, robust business objects can be developed and tested individually and concurrently in large teams, then dynamically assembled into business applications and work-flows as desired.