Derek Coleman

Introducing Objectcharts or how to use Statecharts in object-oriented design

A notation called Objectcharts for specifying object classes is introduced. An Objectchart diagram is an extended form of a Statechart, which characterizes the behavior of a class as a state machine. The Objectchart transitions correspond to the state-changing methods that the class provides and those that it requires of other classes. Object attributes and observer methods annotate Objectchart states. Firing and postconditions are used to specify the effect of transitions on class attributes. The Objectchart notions is described through the development of an alarm clock application. How Objectcharts can be used to find subtyping inheritance relationships between classes and a systematic approach for evolving Objectchart specifications are shown. >

Graphical specification of object oriented systems

The graphical notation Objectcharts, introduced in this paper, allows a developer to precisely specify the behaviour of object classes and to reason about the behaviour of particular configurations of objects. Objectcharts combine object oriented analysis and design techniques and Harels statecharts to give a diagrammatic specification technique for object oriented systems.

Formal specification and design time testing

It is shown how design time testing can be used in conjunction with formal specification. Emphasis is placed on the benefits of using an executable specification language OBJ, of having a design controlled by requirements specification, and of adherence to the regularity and uniformity hypotheses in dynamic validation. It is shown that such an approach offers positive benefits by providing early design validation and a controlled, disciplined design process. >

Automation Controller for Operational IT Management

Controllers in computer systems have mainly been explored for automating regulative tasks such as admission control or resource supply control. The majority of IT management tasks, however, relies on discrete management states and coordinated transitions between those states. The paper shows how the concept of a feedback system can also be applied to automate operational management tasks. The paper introduces the concept and a realization of an IT management automation controller, which operates on discrete management states expressed as a pair of models for desired and observed state. Models are represented as a special form of place-transition nets (PTN or Petri nets). Controller logic directly executes PTN in order to achieve and maintain alignment between desired and observed state in a managed domain. In contrast to workflow systems, PTN combine the description of state and actions in one model (graph). Three operational database management tasks have been implemented as a proof of concept in a blade server automation infrastructure using the management automation controller.

Management middleware for enterprise grids

Management continues to be a problem for grids. A diversity of systems is in use. Their integration into more comprehensive management solutions that would simplify management, address the scale of grids and enable a higher degree of automation is difficult. This paper presents a management middleware that normalizes management for enterprise grids. Management tasks are rendered as autonomous services following a model-based approach. The paper first introduces the problem domain of managing enterprise grids and then describes the approach to a solution. The concept of a service delivery controller (SDC) is introduced that allows describing management tasks in terms of desired and observed state models, based on which a controller function autonomously performs tasks. The implementation of SDC inform of the SDC toolkit is discussed next. The SDC toolkit is based on the Globus Toolkit GT4. It extends GT4 by the standard for Web services distributed management (WSDM) and SDC-specific capabilities. Finally, a scenario is described where the developed approach and implementation have been applied to management of the Oracle 10g (grid) database system.

Platform for Delivering IT Management Services

One of the grand challenges in enterprise IT management is the simplification and automation of management tasks. This challenge is driven by customer demand for lowering cost and improving ROI. This paper presents a platform developed by HP through which management tasks can be delivered as composable services. The platform incorporates architectural patterns from service-oriented architecture (SOA), is based on Web services management standards and supports model-based automation and composition of management services. To demonstrate the platform, three automation use cases have been realized where different management systems from different vendors had to cooperate: HP blade infrastructure automation (Intel-based systems), enterprise manager from oracle, and a service catalog and a coordinator that were specifically built

Integrating analysis and design methods (abstract)

Integrating Analysis and Design MethodsDerek Coleman & Paul Jeremaes, HP Labs, England Most of those who practice object-oriented analysis and designdo not follow any standard method exactly, but combine differenttechniques to suit their own unique requirements. Each methodemploys its own set of models, notations, and processes, so it canbe difficult to combine them. This tutorial shows how to design amethod by providing a framework for understanding and evaluatingcurrent methods, applying it to three recent methods (OMT (Rumbaughet al), Responsibility Driven Design/CRC cards, Booth 91 Method),and combining them to produce a new method, FUSION, that builds ontheir best aspects. The tutorial introduces a set of criteria for evaluating methodsfrom the viewpoint of the object-oriented concepts they support,the kinds of models and notations they employ and the process stepsthat they recommend. The criteria provides a way to understand theunderlying similarities and differences between methods. The criteria were developed as part of a program to assess whatkind of method should be made available to HP engineers, which ledto the development of the FUSION method. The tutorial ends with abrief account of the usefulness of FUSION in practice.