Myron Hecht

Dynamic COQUALMO: Defect Profiling over Development Cycles

Various techniques have been used for managing software quality, including those that predict defect counts over time. This paper introduces a simulation model based on COQUALMO, which can be calibrated to organizational process performance for estimating counts of residual defects. This simulator has the additional benefit of producing a set of estimated defectivity profiles over a software development cycle. Such a set of profiles can be used to support quality management decisions regarding the amount and level of defect removal activities to be applied during a development cycle.

OFTT: a fault tolerance middleware toolkit for process monitoring and control Windows NT applications

Describes OFTT (OLE Fault Tolerance Technology), a fault tolerance middleware toolkit running on the Microsoft Windows NT operating system that provides the required fault tolerance for networked PCs in the context of industrial process monitoring and control applications. It is based on the Microsoft Component Object Model (COM) and consists of components that perform checkpoint-saving, failure detection, recovery and other fault tolerance functions. The ease with which this technology can be incorporated into an application represents the primary innovation. It is hoped that, by making fault tolerance more compatible with standard software architectures, more reliable PC-based monitoring and control systems can be built conveniently.

Using an assurance case to support independent assessment of the transition to a new GPS ground control system

We describe a specific application of assurance cases to the problem of ensuring that a transition from a legacy system to its replacement will not compromise mission assurance objectives. The application in question was the transition of the Global Positioning System (GPS) to a new ground-control system. The transition, which took place over five days, required uninterrupted control of the GPS satellite constellation while control was transferred from a 1970s-era mainframe to a distributed architecture. We created an assurance case so that the procedural documentation we had could be restructured into a form amenable to analysis. The analysis concluded that there were no major hazards; this conclusion was validated by a successful transition.

Automated generation of failure modes and effects analysis for a medical device

A method of generating Failure Modes and Effects Analysis using SysML Block Definition Diagrams and Internal Block Diagrams is described. Additional annotations describing the failure propagation or transformation between neighboring components can be contained either within properties of the connections between blocks or in an external data file. An external Java program traverses the Internal Block Diagram based on the defined nearest neighbor failure propagations to generate the Failure Modes and Effects Analysis. The technique is demonstrated on a microprocessor-controlled medical infusion pump published by the Object Management Group as a SysML challenge problem. The resulting analysis showed that without addition of failure detection features, the challenge problem design contained multiple high severity failure modes that had previously not been identified.

Big Data on Clouds (BDOC)

Big data is the term for a collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using on-hand database management tools or traditional data processing applications. This chapter articulates some of the success enablers for deploying big data on clouds (BDOC), in the context of some historical perspectives and emerging global services. The chapter considers cloud and mobile applications, complex heterogeneous enterprises, and discusses big data availability for several commercial providers. In addition, the chapter offers some legal insights for successful deployment of BDOC. The chapter, in particular, highlights the emergence of emerging hybrid BDOC management roles, the development and operations (DevOps), and site reliability engineering (SRE). Finally, it highlights science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) talent cultivation and engagement, as an enabler to technical succession and future success for global enterprises of BDOC.

15. Big Data on Clouds (BDOC)

Big data is the term for a collection of data sets so large and complex that it becomes difficult to process using on-hand database management tools or traditional data processing applications. This chapter articulates some of the success enablers for deploying big data on clouds (BDOC), in the context of some historical perspectives and emerging global services. The chapter considers cloud and mobile applications, complex heterogeneous enterprises, and discusses big data availability for several commercial providers. In addition, the chapter offers some legal insights for successful deployment of BDOC. The chapter, in particular, highlights the emergence of emerging hybrid BDOC management roles, the development and operations (DevOps), and site reliability engineering (SRE). Finally, it highlights science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) talent cultivation and engagement, as an enabler to technical succession and future success for global enterprises of BDOC.

Defectivity profiling with dynamic COQUALMO: An explication and product quality retrospective

A software development organizations process trustworthiness can be enhanced through development project retrospectives or postmortems, which seek to produce lessons from mistakes and successes in the project performance. Tool support for such retrospectives is usually limited to qualitative analysis. A new model, Dynamic COQUALMO, offers quantitative support through a defectivity profile that can be calibrated to a projects actual profile of defects found over time. The model inputs can then be varied to represent alternative project decisions and conditions, providing a basis for estimating the effects of project improvements on product quality. This paper describes Dynamic COQUALMO and demonstrates its use in a project retrospective. Copyright