Bruno González-Baixauli

Aspects across Software Life Cycle: A Goal-Driven Approach

Goal modeling fits model-driven engineering (MDE) in that it captures stakeholder concerns and the interdependencies using concepts that are much less bound to the underlying implementation technology and are much closer to the problem languages. Aspect-oriented software development (AOSD) provides language constructs to facilitate the representation of multiple perceptions and to alleviate tangling and scattering concerns. Synthesis of AOSD and MDE not only manages software complexity but also improves productivity, as well as model quality and longevity. In this paper, we propose a model-driven framework for tracing aspects from requirements to implementation and testing, where goal models become engineering assets and straightforward model-to-code transformation bridges the gap between domain concepts and implementation technologies. We test our hypotheses and evaluate the frameworks applicability and usefulness with a case study of an open-source e-commerce platform written in PHP.

Requirements Variability Support Through MDA™ and Graph Transformation

One of the most important factors of success in the development of a software product line is the elicitation, management, and representation of variability. Feature models, are used as a key artifact to express requirements variability and are the basis for the domain architecture design. In this context, this article explores the possible advantages of Model Driven Engineering (MDE) and shows an automated transformation from the feature model to the architecture model. This transformation is understood as a graph transformation process because it offers a natural way to represent model transformations. The transformation is applied by the definition of a simple context-sensitive graph grammar where production rules are obtained from metamodels of both feature and architecture models.

Eliciting Non-Functional Requirements Interactions Using the Personal Construct Theory

Complex goal oriented information models such as i* and the non functional requirements framework bring up the need to model relationships between goals. In particular when dealing with non-functional goals, also known as softgoals, the modeler faces the problem of how to elicit the complex web of intertwined relationships that exist between them. We tackle this problem by using the personal construct theory (PCT), a well known work in cognitive science. We describe the results of applying PCT to the problem of finding relationships between nonfunctional goals. The process is a heuristic one, and our results, so far, are positive

Transparency versus security: early analysis of antagonistic requirements

Information systems designers have been increasingly convinced about the importance of dealing with quality issues at early stages of development. Over the landscape of quality issues, several proposals have been published as to help with respect to security. On the other hand, designers do also need to care about other quality issues; for instance, transparency. Transparency is the quality of having open information to the public. At first, the general intuition is that security and transparency conflict, but how should designers deal with these antagonistic issues? Departing from the use of the Non-Functional Requirements Framework we propose a process, based on Personal Construct Theory, to perform early analysis of antagonistic design issues. Having early analysis of antagonistic quality issues makes it possible for informed decision to be taken early on during IS design. We use the election domain to illustrate the application of our proposal.

Applying Personal Construct Theory to Requirements Elicitation

One of the main approaches to Requirements Engineering is Goal-Oriented Requirement Engineering. This approach, based in Artificial Intelligence models, argues that goals are a natural and high level abstraction concept to elicit and represent requirements. Another advantage of goals is that they help non-functional requirements representation and reasoning. Although the goal oriented approach helps in representation and analysis, the problem of eliciting goals and their refinement is not trivial. In this article, we explore several applications to goal elicitation using a psychological theory: the Personal Construct Theory (PCT). This theory, stated by Kelly in 1955, can be used to elicit goals and their relationships. The choice of this theory is based in that it has a statistical base, therefore it is more precise and user independent than others. Finally, PCT can be amenable to automation by means of the Repertory Grid technique, widely studied in the Knowledge eliciting field.

Requirements variability models: meta-model based transformations

One of the most important factors of success in the development of a software product line is the elicitation, management, and representation of variability. In this context, this article explores the possible advantages of adoption of the Model Driven Engineering (MDE) paradigm in the variability specification. Feature graphs and Goal models can be considered special models in the context of MDE. The global picture is a sequence of models from requirements to features, and from both of these to architecture (a UML model). The transformation process is based on the respective meta-models. The conclusion is positive as the introduction of MDE raises the abstraction level in the instantiation process of the product line. More effort is needed to further evaluate some of the ideas related to automated transformations: in particular, the traceability register is essential if we want to exploit their possible benefits.

Product Line Development of Web Systems with Conventional Tools

Development of software product lines is a challenge for small organizations. Although the use of feature models is necessary to manage variability, we propose to use conventional tools for the rest of development activities. Traceability between the features and the UML architectural models is achieved by means of the package merge mechanism of UML 2. A similar strategy is applied at the implementation level, using packages of partial classes. The combination of these techniques and conventional IDE tools make the developments of product lines easier as it removes the need for specialized tools and personnel. This article reports a successful experience with these techniques in the domain of web applications.

Requirements Engineering and Aspects

A fundamental problem with requirements engineering (RE) is to validate that a design does satisfy stakeholder requirements. Some requirements can be fulfilled locally by designed modules, where others must be accommodated globally by multiple modules together. These global requirements often crosscut with other local requirements and as such lead to scattered concerns. We explore the possibility of borrowing concepts from aspect-oriented programming (AOP) to tackle these problems in early requirements. In order to validate the design against such early aspects, we propose a framework to trace them into coding and testing aspects. We demonstrate the approach using an open-source e-commerce platform. In the conclusion of this work, we reflect on the lessons learnt from the case study on how to fit RE and AOP research together.

Development of a Family of Personalized Mobile Communicators

People with communication problems can use personal communicators as a low-cost help in their everyday life. The diversity of individual situations has guided us towards a solution based on the software product line paradigm. Multiple options can be easily incorporated to each product, allowing the adequate customization of the final application to the disability of each concrete person. Software product lines are a proven development paradigm in industrial environment but its application in small organizations is not easy. Our approach uses the UML package merge mechanism to manage the variability in the product line requirement, design and implementation models. The structure of the feature models is directly reflected in the relationships between packages in the architectural models, so that the traceability of configuration decisions is straightforward. A similar strategy is applied at the implementation level, using packages of partial classes. The combination of these techniques and the conventional IDE tools make the developments of product lines in small organizations easier as it removes the need for specialized tools and personnel. This article reports the successful experience on the development of a family of personalized communicators as a software product line representative of the mobile systems domain.

Software process and reuse: A required unification

Conventional software processes such as the Unified Process do not include reuse techniques among their disciplines. In this article, we present an extension of the Unified Process that introduces software reuse with minimal disturbance by means of the definition of a new process for product line engineering and the adaptation of standard disciplines for specific product construction. This proposal reduces the money and time costs related to the progressive introduction of software reuse in an organization. Some tools that provide support to the process, including a requirement reuse tool and a repository of reusable elements, have been developed.