Hans-Peter Steiert

Towards Generating Object-Relational Software Engineering Repositories

Nowadays the complexity of design processes, no matter which design domain (CAD, software engineering, etc.) they belong to, requires system support by means of so-called repositories. Repositories help managing design artifacts by offering adequate storage and manipulation services. One among several important features of a repository is version management. Current repository technology lacks in adequately exploiting database technology and in being adaptable to special application needs, e. g. support of application-specific notions of versioning. For that reason, we propose new repository technology, which is not completely generic (as current repositories are), but exploits generic methods for generating tailored repository managers. Furthermore, we show that new, object-relational database technology is extremely beneficial for that purpose.

Agile processes through goal- and context-oriented business process modeling

Todays methods for business process modeling like extended event-process-chains only allow the definition of static graph structures. They are not flexible enough for instance to model the change management process of the Mercedes Car Group (MCG) since it requires dynamic selection of process variants, process schema evolution and their (partial) propagation on running workflows, arbitrary dynamic process jumps and changes, etc. We have developed an approach for modeling agile processes based on goals and context rules, which enables the required flexibility. Additionally it is possible to map such a process model to a run-time infrastructure for process execution.

GENERATING VERSIONING FACILITIES FOR A DESIGN-DATA REPOSITORY SUPPORTING COOPERATIVE APPLICATIONS

Nowadays the complexity of design processes, no matter which design domain (CAD, software engineering, etc.) they belong to, requires system support by means of so-called repositories. Repositories help managing design artifacts by offering adequate storage and manipulation services. Some of the most important features of a repository are version management and activity management. Versioning comprises the specification, storage, and maintenance of versioned design objects whereas activity management is responsible for cooperation control, designflow management and management of design transactions processing versioned design objects. Regarding these issues (version and activity management) repository technology, as we think, should not only provide pre-defined services, but should be flexible enough to reflect different application needs. For that reason, we propose to provide repository managers by generic methods, i.e. by generating the corresponding functionality. In this paper, we consider a representative cooperation model, which is based on versioning services, in order to identify the major data manipulation and activity control needs of cooperative design applications. We will focus on the data manipulation needs by introducing our generative approach for customizing versioning facilities. Additionally, we will outline our ideas of applying a generative approach also for the provision of tailored activity control services. Thus, the paper wants to show that by exploiting generic methods and reuse as well as the extensibility properties of new object-relational database technology, repository managers can be flexibly tailored to special application needs and, thereby, applications do not have to be forced to deal with systems only providing pre-defined services.

Engineering-IT in der Automobilindustrie – Wege in die Zukunft

ZusammenfassungDie Kernsysteme in Großunternehmen sind in der Regel schon viele Jahre im Einsatz und über viele heterogene Schnittstellen miteinander verbunden. Dies beeinträchtigt massiv die Wartung und Weiterentwicklung und erhöht das Risiko bei Releasewechseln. Eine Neuimplementierung ist meist teuer und langwierig, der Business-Case dafür ist kaum darstellbar. Serviceorientierte Architekturen (SOA) können die Basis einer stufenweisen, kostenoptimierten und risikoarmen Erneuerung der IT-Landschaft bilden. Die Einführung von SOA ist nur zum Teil eine technische Herausforderung. Vielmehr müssen Organisation und Geschäftsprozesse mitbetrachtet und bereits in der frühen Phase angepasst werden. Der richtige Zuschnitt der Services und ein gestuftes Vorgehen bei der Frontend- und Backend-Integration ermöglichen ,,Quick Wins“. Darüber hinaus erfordert die nachhaltige Umsetzung konzeptionelle Schärfe und Weitsicht, technische Exzellenz und einen langen Atem. Am Beispiel der Engineering-IT bei Daimler wird der Weg zu einer strategischen Ausrichtung auf Basis einer SOA gezeigt. Inhalte sind die Entwicklung des strategischen Ansatzes, der Aufbau einer Governance-Struktur, die Weiterentwicklung der internen Geschäftsprozesse sowie die Entwicklung und Einführung eines geschäftsprozessorientierten gemeinsamen Engineering Clients und eines Engineering Service Bus.

Managers Don’t Code: Making Web Services Middleware Applicable for End-Users

Today’s web-pages are primarily designed for occasional usage. Professional users therefore use special applications that use Web Services increasingly. As the number of internet-users grows we argue that there is a disregarded growing gap between these professional- and occasional-users we refer to as experienced users. For this group of users with little or no programming-skills web-pages are inefficient but professional applications would be inexpedient. In this paper we describe how to make Web Services applicable for experienced web users. To support single Web Service calls efficiently we present a keyboard-controlled browser-embedded console with command auto-completion that wraps Web Services. To support multiple calls and automation we present a web-based IDE that allows visual composition of Web Service calls and simple control-structures that can be used on demand without installation and programming-skills.

Extending an ORDBMS: the statemachine module

Extensibility is one of the mayor benefits of object-relational database management systems. We have used this system property to implement a StateMachine Module inside an object-relational database management system. The module allows the checking of dynamic integrity constraints as well as the execution of active behavior specified with the UML. Our approach demonstrates that extensibility can effectively be applied to integrate such dynamic aspects specified with UML statecharts into an object-relational database management system.

To a man with an ORDBMS everything looks like a row in a table

In large software projects it is required to manage all project-related artefacts in a shared database in order to support cooperation of developers and reuse of design. Unfortunately, such projects have to be supported by various development tools using proprietary strategies for storing their persistent data. Since we need a strong query language to analyse the project-related data we choose an object-relational database system (ORDBMS) as an integration platform. We discuss the possibilities of how to integrate external data in an ORDBMS. Further, we introduce a reference architecture for discussing the architectural options of an ORDBMS-based integration environment. Finally, we present our own system.

Data managment for engineering applications

Current database technology has proven to fulfill the requirements of business applications, i.e., processing a high number of short transactions on more or less simple-structured data. Unfortunately, the requirements of engineering applications are quite different. A car’s bill of material, for example, is a deep tree with many branches at every level. Data objects become even more complex if we consider the engineered design objects themselves, as for example a gear box with its parts and how they are related to each other. Supporting complex data objects has many implications for the underlying data management system. It needs to be reflected at nearly any layer, from the API down to the storage system. Besides complex objects, the way design objects are processed in engineering applications differs from business applications. Because engineering is an explorative task, the concept of short transactions does not fit here. Working with design objects is a task of days, which leads to a different programming model for engineering applications. In addition, the data management system needs to support versioning of objects and configuration management. Furthermore, engineering is done in a collaborative team. Hence, sharing of design objects in a team is necessary while, at the same time, their collaborative work has to be synchronized. All those special requirements have to be considered in data management systems for engineering applications. In this contribution, the special requirements, as sketched above, are characterized. Also the approaches developed to cope with these requirements will be described.

Chapter 106 – Extending an ORDBMS: The StateMachine Module

Extensibility is one of the mayor benefits of object-relational database management systems. We have used this system property to implement a StateMachine Module inside an object-relational database management system. The module allows the checking of dynamic integrity constraints as well as the execution of active behavior specified with the UML. Our approach demonstrates that extensibility can effectively be applied to integrate such dynamic aspects specified with UML statecharts into an object-relational database management system.

Extending an ORDBMS

Extensibility is one of the mayor benefits of object-relational database management systems. We have used this system property to implement a StateMachine Module inside an object-relational database management system. The module allows the checking of dynamic integrity constraints as well as the execution of active behavior specified with the UML. Our approach demonstrates that extensibility can effectively be applied to integrate such dynamic aspects specified with UML statecharts into an object-relational database management system.