Gerald C. Gannod

Using the inverted classroom to teach software engineering

An inverted classroom is a teaching environment that mixes the use of technology with hands-on activities. In an inverted classroom, typical in-class lecture time is replaced with laboratory and in-class activities. Outside class time, lectures are delivered over some other medium such as video on-demand. In a three credit hour course for instance, contact hours are spent having students actively engaged in learning activities. Outside of class, students are focused on viewing 3-6 hours of lectures per week. Additional time outside of class is spent completing learning activities. In this paper we present the inverted classroom model in the context of a software engineering curriculum. The paper motivates the use of the inverted classroom and suggests how different courses from the Software Engineering 2004 Model Curriculum Volume can incorporate the use of the inverted classroom. In addition, we present the results of a pilot course that utilized the inverted classroom model at Miami University and describe courses that are currently in process of piloting its use.

A framework for classifying and comparing software reverse engineering and design recovery techniques

Several techniques have been suggested for supporting reverse engineering and design recovery activities. While many of these techniques have been cataloged in various collections and surveys, the evaluation of the corresponding support tools has focused primarily on their usability and supported source languages, mostly ignoring evaluation of the appropriateness of the by-products of a tool for facilitating particular types of maintenance tasks. In this paper, we describe criteria that can be used to evaluate tool by-products based on semantic quality, where the semantic quality measures the ability of a by-product to convey certain behavioral information. We use these criteria to review, compare, and contrast several representative tools and approaches.

Specifying Semantic Web Service Compositions using UML and OCL

The semantic web promises to bring automation to the areas of web service discovery, composition and invocation. In order to realize these benefits, rich semantic descriptions of web services must be created by the software developer. A steep learning curve and lack of tool support for developing such descriptions thus far have created significant adoption barriers for semantic web service technologies. In this paper, we present a model-driven architecture based approach for specifying semantic web service compositions through the use of a UML profile that extends class and activity diagrams. This profile is used in transformations that facilitate automatic construction of OWLS specifications from UML diagrams. Conditions required by the composition, such as those on control constructs, are specified using OCL and transformed into SWRL during the construction process.

A Self-Healing Framework for Web Services

Ajax-based web applications are designed to mimic more traditional desktop applications and require quick response times from the underlying Web services. However, since availability and performance of Web services cannot be guaranteed, response time and overall performance of Ajax-based applications can vary. In this paper we describe a framework for developing autonomic self-healing Web service-based applications that rely on the notion of differentiated services (i.e., services that provide common behavior with variable quality of service) in order to maintain required performance characteristics. We present the expected impact of the framework through the use of a theoretical QN model, demonstrate the framework with an example, and provide an evaluation of the technique.

An architecture-based approach for synthesizing and integrating adapters for legacy software

In software organizations there is a very real possibility that a commitment to existing assets will require migration of legacy software towards new environments that use modern technology. One technique that has been suggested for facilitating the migration of existing legacy assets to new platforms is via the use of the adapter design pattern, also known as component wrapping. We describe an approach for facilitating the integration of legacy software into new applications using component wrapping. That is, we demonstrate the use of a software architecture description language as a means for specifying various properties that can be used to assist in the construction of wrappers. In addition, we show how these wrapped components can be used within a distributed object infrastructure as services that are dynamically integrated at runtime.

Abstraction of formal specifications from program code

A description is presented of the development of the tool AUTOSPEC (automated specification), which abstracts formal specifications from program code. The abstraction process can incorporate domain-specific information supplied interactively by the user, as necessary. The abstraction algorithms and a discussion of the use of formal methods and object-oriented techniques for the development of AUTOSPEC are given. Implementation-specific information is given and related work is described.<<ETX>>

An automated tool for analyzing Petri nets using Spin

The Spin model checker is a system that has been used to model and analyze a large number of applications in several domains including the aerospace industry. One of the novelties of Spin is its relatively simple specification language, Promela, as well as the powerful abilities of the model checker. The Petri net notation is a mathematical tool for modeling various classes of systems, especially those that involve concurrency and parallelism. The Honeywell Domain Modeling Environment (DOME) is a tool that supports system design using a wide variety of modeling notations, including UML diagrams and Petri nets. We describe a tool that supports the use of the Spin model checker to analyze and verify Petri net specifications that have been constructed using the DOME tool. In addition to discussing the translation of Petri nets into Promela, we present several example Petri net specifications as well as their analysis using Spin.

Facilitating the Specification of Semantic Web Services Using Model-Driven Development

The Semantic Web promises automated invocation, discovery, and composition of Web services by enhancing services with semantic descriptions. An upper ontology for Web services called OWL-S has been created to provide a mechanism for describing service semantics in a standard, well-defined manner. Unfortunately, the learning curve for semantic-rich description languages such as OWL-S can be steep, especially given the current state of tool support for the language. This paper describes a suite of automated software tools that we have developed to facilitate the construction of OWL-S specifications. The tools operate in two stages. In the first stage, a model-driven architecture technique is used to generate an OWL-S description of a Web service from a Unified Modeling Language (UML) model. This allows the developer to focus on creating a model of the Web service in a standard UML tool, leveraging existing knowledge. In the second stage, an interactive approach for generating groundings is used. This paper describes both tools and demonstrates how the use of lightweight interactive tools facilitates creation of OWL-S specifications.

A Two-Phase Approach to Reverse Engineering Using Formal Methods

Reverse engineering of program code is the process of constructing a higher level abstraction of an implementation in order to facilitate the understanding of a system that may be in a “legacy” or “geriatric” state. Changing architectures and improvements in programming methods, including formal methods in software development and object-oriented programming, have prompted a need to reverse engineer and re-engineer program code. This paper presents a two-phase approach to reverse engineering, the results of which can be used to guide the re-implementation of an object-oriented version of the system. The first phase abstracts formal specifications from program code, while the second phase constructs candidate objects from the formal specifications obtained from the first phase.

Communication genres: Integrating communication into the software engineering curriculum

One way to improve the communication abilities of new software engineering graduates in the workplace is to integrate communication more effectively in the software engineering curriculum. But faculty typically conceive of communication as outside their realm of expertise. Based on the results of an NSF-funded project, we use theories of situated learning and genre to make the case that communication is integral to software engineering and that faculty are in the best position to guide students in becoming better communicators in the field. We identify software engineering genres and show how those genres may be used to integrate communication in the classroom and throughout the curriculum.