Marko Palviainen

The reliability estimation, prediction and measuring of component-based software

Reliability is a key driver of safety-critical systems such as health-care systems and traffic controllers. It is also one of the most important quality attributes of the systems embedded into our surroundings, e.g. sensor networks that produce information for business processes. Therefore, the design decisions that have a great impact on the reliability of a software system, i.e. architecture and components, need to be thoroughly evaluated. This paper addresses software reliability evaluation during the design and implementation phases; it provides a coherent approach by combining both predicted and measured reliability values with heuristic estimates in order to facilitate a smooth reliability evaluation process. The approach contributes by integrating the component-level reliability evaluation activities (i.e. the heuristic reliability estimation, model-based reliability prediction and model-based reliability measuring of components) and the system-level reliability prediction activity to support the incremental and iterative development of reliable component-based software systems. The use of the developed reliability evaluation approach with the supporting tool chain is illustrated by a case study. The paper concludes with a summary of lessons learnt from the case studies.

Towards ontology-driven development of applications for smart environments

In the environments where heterogeneous devices need to share information, utilize services of each other, and participate as components in various smart applications, it is common to rely on the advantages of the semantic data model and ontologies. Our work extends this approach so that also the process of software development for such environments is ontology-driven. The goals are to raise the level of abstraction of smart application development, to enable development by non-programmers, and to partially automate the development to make it easier and faster. In this paper, we describe the Smart Modeller that consists of 1) a design tool that enables the developer to graphically create a model of a smart space application and 2) a framework that provides core interfaces for extensions supporting both the model and ontology-driven development. These extensions enable: ontology-based creation of model elements, discovery and reuse of both the software components and partial models through a repository mechanism, and generation of executable programming code for models.

Requirements of an Open Data Based Business Ecosystem

Emerging opportunities for open data based business have been recognized around the world. Open data can provide new business opportunities for actors that provide data, for actors that consume data, and for actors that develop innovative services and applications around the data. Open data based business requires business models and a collaborative environment-called an ecosystem-to support businesses based on open data, services, and applications. This paper outlines the open data ecosystem (ODE) from the business viewpoint and then defines the requirements of such an ecosystem. The outline and requirements are based on the state-of-the-art knowledge explored from the literature and the state of the practice on data-based business in the industry collected through interviews. The interviews revealed several motives and advantages of the ODE. However, there are also obstacles that should be carefully considered and solved. This paper defines the actors of the ODE and their roles in the ecosystem as well as the business model elements and services that are needed in open data based business. According to the interviews, the interest in open data and open data ecosystems is high at this moment. However, further research work is required to establish and validate the ODE in the near future.

Trustworthiness Evaluation and Testing of Open Source Components

The use of Open Source Components (OSCs) is rapidly increasing in software systems. One of the biggest obstacles for the use of OSCs is the fact that the software integrators can not be sure of the quality of the components. Thus, it is the responsibility of the integrators to perform the quality evaluation. When building products using OSCs, the integrators should have a clear method and tools that facilitate and automate the evaluation work. Our contribution is a method and tooling for trustworthiness evaluation and testing of OSCs. The method provides clear guidelines to assist the integrators to perform the evaluation in their own software development environment. The tooling assists in the technical trustworthiness evaluation, containing tools for reliability analysis and testing. The tools are independent, co-operating in the open source context.

A semi-automatic end-user programming approach for smart space application development

Abstract This article describes a semi-automatic end-user programming approach that: (i) assists in the creation of easy-to-apply Semantic End-User Application Programming Interfaces(S-APIs) for the APIs of legacy software components; and (ii) enables the usage of S-APIs in command-oriented and goal-oriented end-user application programming. Furthermore, a reference implementation is presented for the approach that provides visual programming tools and an agent-based execution environment for smart space applications. The use of the approach is exemplified and tested in a case study in which S-APIs are created for a home automation system and for a personal assistant application, and then utilized in end-user programming performed in desktop and mobile environments.

Framework for End-User Programming of Cross-Smart Space Applications

Cross-smart space applications are specific types of software services that enable users to share information, monitor the physical and logical surroundings and control it in a way that is meaningful for the users situation. For developing cross-smart space applications, this paper makes two main contributions: it introduces (i) a component design and scripting method for end-user programming of cross-smart space applications and (ii) a backend framework of components that interwork to support the brunt of the RDFScript translation, and the use and execution of ontology models. Before end-user programming activities, the software professionals must develop easy-to-apply Driver components for the APIs of existing software systems. Thereafter, end-users are able to create applications from the commands of the Driver components with the help of the provided toolset. The paper also introduces the reference implementation of the framework, tools for the Driver component development and end-user programming of cross-smart space applications and the first evaluation results on their application.

Architecture for end-user programming of cross-smart space applications

This paper presents an architecture and execution components that assists the end-user programming of smart space applications that integrate the information/computing capabilities of different software products via smart spaces. Before end-user programming activities, the software professionals must focus on the more difficult tasks and develop easy-to-apply Driver components for the APIs of existing software systems. Thereafter, end-users are able to create applications from the commands of the Driver components with the help of the provided toolset. The paper introduces a reference implementation for the architecture and tools for the Driver component development and end-user programming of smart space applications.

Towards User-Driven Cyber-Physical Systems—Strategies to Support User Intervention in Provisioning of Information and Capabilities of Cyber-Physical Systems

The provisioning of information and capabilities of a Cyber-Physical System (CPS) can be performed directly in the CPS or in external applications and services. A Cyber Physical Production System (CPPS) can be seen to be an example of an evolving CPS, where new elements such as machines can be added to produce desired products. Human interaction with the CPPS can be reorganized among users that participate in the constantly evolving production tasks. This all requires solutions that enable the users to affect provisioning of information and capabilities of CPPS in different kinds of tasks. This chapter outlines an example of a user-driven CPPS and strategies for enabling user intervention in the behaviour of cyber-physical systems and in the behaviour of applications and services that are based on cyber-physical systems. In addition, we outline an architecture for user-driven CPSs that offers support for the proposed user intervention strategies.