Ralf Gitzel

Using established Web Engineering knowledge in model-driven approaches

A lot of research is currently conducted in the field of Model-Driven Development (MDD), especially regarding its applications to specific domains. Another field that enjoys a great amount of popularity is the Web. As a result, one of the domains MDD is applied to quite frequently is that of Web Applications. However, Web Engineering differs significantly from general Software Engineering and a number of well-established non-MDD solutions already exist in that field. This leads to several interesting questions, which have been left unanswered so far. In this paper, we address this shortcoming by analyzing whether the problems encountered in the field of Web Engineering can really be solved with MDD approaches. We also answer the questions whether MDD will be able to solve these problems better and/or cheaper than traditional Web Engineering approaches and whether the current Web MDD propositions live up to this potential. While answering these questions, we will show that there exists a great synergy between the two groups and that the success of MDD in the Web domain will depend on exploiting the strengths of both.

Ontological Extension to the MOF Metamodel as a Basis for Code Generation

This article describes the ontological metamodel extension for generative architectures (OMEGA), an extension to the Meta Object Facility metamodel which allows non-linear metamodeling. The article begins with a discussion of non-linear metamodeling in general and briefly describes several options available to the designers of a metamodeling framework supporting orthogonal metamodeling. In the light of these options, we then explain the design of OMEGA and discuss its advantages and application to code generation. We also explain the open questions and extensively discuss related work.

Seamless maintenance — Integration of FDI Device Management & CMMS

Field devices belong to the primary assets of an industrial plant. From the perspective of plant asset management, Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) and Device Management Systems (DMS) share some responsibility for the well-being of these devices. CMMS and DMS reside on the opposite ends of the automation pyramid, have very different scopes, and there are multiple CMMS vendors that a DCS vendor might decide to support. Also, for each customer plant, the device/asset bases for both systems must be connected. The main goal is to avoid media breaks and offer a seamless workflow for the DCS users. In this article, we show how Field Device Integration (FDI) technology can serve to achieve and extend the deep, seamless integration of current solutions [2] through loose, light-weight coupling of DCS and CMMS.

Design and implementation of a leasing service for CORBA-based applications

The leasing concept enjoys increasing popularity, in the context of distributed systems - a prime example for this is Jini. In this paper, we present a service that realises the leasing concept for the CORBA environment. We discuss various resource management techniques with regard to CORBA and detail their advantages and disadvantages. The focus of this work, however, is the description of the design and implementation of our CORBA leasing service. Special care was taken to incorporate existing types defined in the CORBA services specification to allow users familiar with other CORBA services to quickly grasp the newly-introduced leasing service.

Combining Architecture-based Software Reliability Predictions with Financial Impact Calculations

Software failures can lead to substantial costs for the user. Existing models for software reliability prediction do not provide much insight into this financial impact. Our approach presents a first step towards the integration of reliability prediction from the IT perspective and the business perspective. We show that failure impact should be taken into account not only at their date of occurrence but already in the design stage of the development. First we model cost relevant business processes as well as the associated IT layer and then connect them to failure probabilities. Based on this we conduct a reliability and cost estimation. The method is illustrated by a case study.

Techniques for Efficient Resource Management for Context-Sensitive Mobile Applications

Context-sensitive mobile applications require a certain amount of flexibility due to the fact that they have to provide services for many different situations. The limited resources available make resource management a major challenge in such applications. In this paper, we present different techniques for the efficient use of resources of mobile devices. These techniques support the development of adaptable and flexible context-sensitive applications.

Generating Families of Business Components from Metamodel Hierarchies

Model-driven software development (MDSD) has gained acceptance in the software development industry over the last few years. Current approaches to MDSD favor targeting particular domains over general-purpose modeling and code generation solutions. The OMEGA toolset provides an infrastructure for the rapid development of domain-specific modeling and code generation facilities. It is based on the concept of metamodel hierarchies. In this paper we propose an extension to the OMEGA approach that is targeted at enabling the evolutionary development of families of business components by introducing additional model types. The paper provides an overview of the OMEGA approach and describes the integration of family and feature models as configuration data to the OMEGA code generator and the expected benefits. A short outlook at the end of the paper outlines future work on this matter

ViDiO-Visual Distribution of Objects

The authors present a tool: Visual Distribution of Objects (ViDiO), for graphical deployment of CORBA objects. It allows easy association of hosts with IDL interfaces and produces client, server, and object code in Java based on the drawn diagram and provided XML based templates. It is based on a library designed for platform independent display of computer networks.

Towards a software failure cost impact model for the customer: an analysis of an open source product

While the financial consequences of software errors on the developers side have been explored extensively, the cost arising for the end user has been largely neglected. One reason is the difficulty of linking errors in the code with emerging failure behavior of the software. The problem becomes even more difficult when trying to predict failure probabilities based on models or code metrics. In this paper we take a first step towards a cost prediction model by exploring the possibilities of modeling the financial consequences of already identified software failures. Firefox, a well-known open source software, is used as a test subject. Historically identified failures are modeled using fault trees. To identify expenses, usage profiles are employed to depict the interaction with the system. The presented approach demonstrates the possibility to model failure cost for an organization using a specific software by establishing a relationship between user behavior, software failures, and cost. As future work, an extension with software error prediction techniques as well as an empirical validation of the model is aspired.

Experiences with hierarchy-based code generation in the J2EE context

OMEGA is a model-driven code generation approach based on Executable UML enhanced with extension information provided by metamodel hierarchies. It is domain-specific but can easily incorporate new or related domains. In this experience report, we describe the challenges encountered during the implementation of a code-generation facility for the J2EE platform.