Khalid T. Al-Sarayreh

A standards-based reference framework for system portability requirements

In the system requirements phase, the non-functional requirements (NFR) are often captured only generically at a fairly high level, and they do not yet include the levels of detail necessary for the system engineers to allocate them as specific functionalities to be handled either by the software or the hardware, or a specific combination of the two. The European ECSS series of standards for the aerospace industry includes portability requirements as one of sixteen types of non functional requirements (NFR) for embedded and real-time software. A number of portability-related concepts are dispersed throughout the ECSS, IEEE-830, ISO 9126, ISO 24765, and ISO 2382-1 standards to describe, at varying levels of detail, the various types of candidate portability requirements at the system, software, and hardware levels. This paper organizes these dispersed portability concepts and terms into a standards-based reference framework of system portability requirements. The availability of this framework can facilitate the early identification and specification of the system portability NFR and their detailed allocation as specific portability functions to be handled by the specified allocation to hardware or software, or a specific combination of the two. The approach selected in this research for the structure of this reference framework is based on the generic model of software proposed in the COSMIC-ISO 19761 model, thereby allowing the functional size of the portability requirements allocated to software to be measured.

Measurement of software requirements derived from system reliability requirements

Reliability is typically described initially as a non functional requirement at the system level. Systems engineers must subsequently apportion these system requirements very carefully as either software or hardware requirements to conform to the reliability requirements of the system. A number of concepts are provided in the ECSS, ISO 9126, and IEEE standards to describe the various types of candidate reliability requirements at the system, software, and hardware levels. This paper organizes these concepts into a generic standards-based reference model of the requirements at the software level for system reliability. The structure of this reference model is based on the generic model of software requirements proposed in the COSMIC -- ISO 19761 model, thereby allowing the measurement of the functional size of such reliability requirements implemented through software.

A Generic Model for the Specification of Software Interface Requirements and Measurement of Their Functional Size

The European ECSS-E-40 series of standards for the aerospace industry includes interfaces as one of 16 types of non functional requirement (NFR) for embedded and real-time software. An interface is typically described at the system level as a non functional requirement, and a number of concepts and terms are provided in that series to describe various types of candidate interfaces. This paper collects and organizes these interface-related descriptions into a generic model for the specification of software interface requirements, and to measure their functional size for estimation purposes using the COSMIC ISO 19761 standard.

A standards‐based model of system maintainability requirements

The nonfunctional requirements (NFR) are often captured only generically at a fairly high level, and they do not include the levels of detail necessary at this stage for the system engineers to allocate them as specific functionalities to be handled either by the software or the hardware, or a specific combination of the two. The European Cooperation for Space Standardization (ECSS) series of standards for the aerospace industry includes maintainability requirements as one of 16 types of NFR for embedded and real‐time software. A number of maintainability‐related concepts are dispersed throughout the ECSS, ISO 9126, and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers standards to describe, at varying levels of detail, the various types of candidate maintainability requirements at the system, software, and hardware levels. This paper organizes these dispersed maintainability concepts into a standards‐based reference model of system maintainability requirements. The availability of this reference model can facilitate the early identification of the system maintainability‐NFR and their detailed allocation as specific maintainability functions to be handled by the specified allocation to hardware or software, or a specific combination of the two. In the absence of such a reference model, these NFR are typically handled in practice much later on in the software development life cycle, when at system testing time, users and developers find out that a number of maintainability requirements have been overlooked and additional effort has to be expended to implement them. The approach adopted in this research for the structure of this reference NFR model is based on the generic model of software functional requirements proposed in the COSMIC – ISO 19761 model, thereby allowing the functional size of such maintainability requirements allocated to software to be measured. Copyright

Early identification, specification and measurement for data definition and database requirements

The European ECSS series of standards for the aerospace industry includes data definition and database requirements as one of sixteen types of non functional requirement (NFR) for embedded and real time software. A number of data definition and database related concepts are dispersed throughout the ECSS standards to describe at varying levels of details the various types of candidate data definition and database requirements at the system, software, and hardware levels. This paper organizes these dispersed data definition and database concepts into a generic standards-based reference model of system data definition and database requirements.

Resource trading in cloud environments for profit maximisation using an auction model

Cloud computing is a promising computing paradigm for trading computing resources over internet. We consider the approach where the cloud provider (CP) rents free processors for its clients. Maximising reward is the key objective for the CP. The optimisation problem of renting processors on the cloud is a complex and challenging task. In addition to consider the requirements of the CP and clients, the commercialisation of clouds requires policies that take into account the economic concerns for the CP and clients. Within this context, we propose an optimal auction based on the concept of virtual valuation for renting processors. The concept of virtual valuation is used in our auction mechanism. Numerical analysis stresses the ability of our approach to maximise the CPs reward under varying cloud environment conditions.

A standards-based framework of software configuration derived from system requirements

The European ECSS series of standards for the aerospace industry includes system configuration requirements as one of sixteen types of Non-Functional Requirement NFR for embedded and real time software. A number of concepts are provided in the ECSS, ISO standards to describe the various types of candidate configuration requirements at the system, software and hardware levels. This paper organises these dispersed configuration concepts into a standards-based framework of system configuration requirements allocated to software. The availability of this framework at the functional and service levels can facilitate the early identification, specification and measurement of the system configuration-NFR and their detailed allocation as specific configuration functions to be handled by the specified allocation to hardware or software or in a specific combination of both. In the absence of such standards-based framework and detailed model, such NFR requirements are typically handled in practice much later on in the software development life cycle when at system testing time, users and developers find out that a number of configuration requirements have been overlooked and additional work has to be expanded to implement them.

A standard-based reference framework for system operations requirements

European series of standards for the aerospace industry, includes system operations requirements as one of 16 types of NFRs for embedded and real-time systems. A number of concepts are provided in the ECSS and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers IEEE standards to describe the various types of candidate operations requirements at the system, software and hardware levels. In the absence of such a generic and detailed model, these NFRs are typically handled much later on in the software development life cycle, when, at system testing time, users and developers may discover that a number of system operations requirements have been overlooked and additional work is required to implement them. This paper organises these dispersed operations concepts into a standards-based reference framework of system operations requirements.

A Standard Based Reference Framework for System Adaptation and Installation Requirements

The European standards for the aerospace industry (ECSS series) include system adaptation and installations requirements as one of sixteen types of non functional requirements (NFR) for embedded and real-time software. A number of concepts are provided in the ECSS, ISO 9126 and IEEE standards to describe the various types of candidate adaptation and installation requirements at the system, software, and hardware levels. This paper collects and organizes these adaptation and installation-related descriptions into a generic model for the specification of software adaptation and installation requirements, and to measure their functional size for estimation purposes using the COSMIC ISO 19761 standard.

A generic measurement model for system data definition and database requirements

Data definition and database requirements are considered one of the 16 types of Non-Functional Requirements NFRs for embedded and real-time software at the system level, which may lead to specific reference database models and standard data definitions. According to ECSS standards series, a reference model for a standard data definition and database requirement could be defined by the data requirements and the corresponding mission data provided by a supplier to a customer. A number of concepts and terms are provided to describe various types of candidate system model objects, which are composed of the data model requirements and data mission. This paper organises these data definitions and database-related requirements into a generic model of the requirement for software data definition and database; this generic model corresponds to a standard-based framework for modelling software-NFR for data definitions and database. This size may be used next to improve software project estimates.