Sang-Yoon Min

Tailoring and verifying software process

Process tailoring and verification are very important since project-specific processes are tailored from an organizational process standard and many quality assurance activities are based on the process standard. However, existing research does not provide a systematic method for process tailoring and verification. In this paper, we propose a systematic method for formalizing a process standard clearly with encapsulated reusable process modules for tailoring and verifying tailored process. AAG (activity artifact graph) is used to represent and tailor each process module. Additionally, a prototype tool is implemented to support the proposed method. We believe that the proposed method is helpful in tailoring a process standard and verifying a tailored process.

SoftPM: a software process management system reconciling formalism with easiness

Various formal approaches to process modeling and analysis have been proposed. With the emerging importance of practicality in this field, easiness in adopting formal technology should be taken into account. In this paper, we propose a PSEE calledSoftPM that is based on a high level Petri net formalism for process modeling. To overcome the difficulty in using this formalism, SoftPM exploits a multi-level modeling mechanism for the representation of software processes. SoftPM supports three different levels for process representation. They are cognitive, MAM net, and Pr/T net. Each level has different roles in SoftPM. The cognitive-level modeling provides the means of getting free from difficulties in manipulating the modeling formalism. MAM net takes the role of core modeling formalism in SoftPM. Finally, Pr/T nets support the low-level modeling formalism as an existing Petri-net class. Moreover, SoftPM offers various analysis techniques to aid managerial decision making, as well as conventional Petri-net analysis techniques. Using a Java-based thin client/server architecture, SoftPM smoothly supports execution at distributed heterogeneous platforms over the Internet. q 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Safety Verification of Ada95 Programs Using Software Fault Trees

Software fault tree is a graphical analysis technique that is based on the concept of axiomatic verification. A template-based approach to software fault tree analysis was proposed for Ada83 programs. For the past years since this approach, no noticeable extensions or revisions on the template-based software fault tree analysis have been proposed while the target language has been evolved into Ada95. In this paper, we examine the validness of the original Ada83 analysis templates to determine which of them are still applicable to Ada95 programs considering major changes from Ada83 to Ada95. In addition, we propose newly required templates as well as the necessary modification of the original Ada83 templates in order to cope with the changes. We demonstrate the use of our proposed templates with an example program.

Object-oriented model refinement technique in software reengineering

Software reengineering for object-oriented rearchitecturing offers an exciting opportunity in migrating old legacy systems to evolvable systems in a disciplined manner. In the twofold-strategy software reengineering for object-oriented rearchitecturing, one of the problems to be solved is to derive a proper object-oriented model from the output of reverse engineering and the output of forward engineering. In general, the outputs of forward and reverse engineering can be inconsistent in their abstract levels, the amount of design information, naming conventions, and structures. In this paper we present an Object-oriented model Refinement Technique (ORT) to build a final object model in the twofold-strategy software reengineering. We first organize the information gained from reverse engineering into specification information tree, and then compare the entities in the specification information tree with the information from forward engineering using tree-structured data dictionary to produce the final model. We demonstrate the usability of ORT by an example.

Aspect-Oriented Design (AOD) Technique for Developing Distributed Object-Oriented Systems over the Internet

While software development techniques for identifying specifying, and analyzing functional requirements of software systems are quite mature, existing traditional design methods are not mature enough to capture non-functional requirements such as concurrency, performance, fault tolerance, distribution, and persistence of a software application. Very recently, Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) approach has been introduced to provide an implementation-level programming framework for separately developing basic functionalities and non-functionalities of a software application. However, this is just an implementation-level approach. There are still needs for supporting AOP concepts at the design level, and for providing the traceability between the design model and the implementation model. In this paper, we propose an approach called Aspect-Oriented Design (AOD), which supports the concept of AOP at design level, for developing distributed object systems over the Internet. We also demonstrate the usability of the proposed approach with Multi-media Video Conference Systems (MVCS) example.

Management of Workflow over the Web Supporting Distributed Process Evolution

With the emergence of the Internet, the Web became a widely-used collaboration environment for business process activity. Business process itself is a very evolable entity. In this paper, we introduce a workflow management system called SoftPM/W 2 for the business processes over the Web. For efficient workflow management, SoftPM/W 2 provides integrated formal representation of business process elements, generation of business data model from business process model, a view-based mechanism for distributed evolution, and unique evolution control mechanism.

An approach to software process management based on formal process modeling and analysis

In process-driven software development environment, process management plays an important role during the process execution. In order to achieve effective management of software processes, managerial decision makings on development process need to be based on the analysis of the software processes regarding the development environment. In this paper we propose a new approach to process management through the formal process modeling and analysis techniques, called MAM nets based on Pr/T net formalism. For the effective modeling and analysis, MAM nets provide high-level modeling constructs for both process activities and human resources. MAM nets not only support the standard Petri-net analysis techniques but also provide additional analysis techniques as well as the process enactment mechanism for the effective management of software processes.

Semi heuristic optimization off search algorithm for satellite broadcasting receiver: Reducing channel setting time

The purpose of this paper is to reduce the time that the receiver device takes to find the transmission frequency for the initial channel setting of receiving devices such as Digital TV which uses satellite broadcast. We propose two search algorithms based on the frequency allocation information of the transmission frequency of SCRs (Satellite Channel Routers) device. For all frequency combinations that a device can have, we compared the performance of the proposed algorithm and analyze the performance of the algorithm, which can help to reduce the channel setting time noticeably.

Process instance management facilities based on the meta process models

In the field of software process management, many studies have proposed a variety of process management technologies. However, most of the process management technologies have treated managerial analysis facilities for software process instances too lightly. It results in less attention from industry. To overcome the problem, we propose the process instance management facilities in the structural and behavioral aspects based on the meta process models. The meta process models consist of the two types of models: meta structural model and the meta behavioral model. Based on the meta process models, a process model is developed and two types of process instance models are generated using the process model: the structural instance model and the behavioral instance model. For the structural instance model, we adopt process slicing. On the other hands, we use several analysis techniques for the behavioral instance model. The proposed approach enables a project manager to analyze structural and behavioral properties of a process instance and allows a project manager make use of the formalism for the management facilities without knowledge for the formalism.

Model-Based Project Process Analysis Using Project Tracking Data

In software process improvement, accumulating and analyzing the historical data from past projects are essential work. However, setting up the systematic and logical measurement and analysis program is very difficult. Many mature organizations have their own measurement program for the process improvement. However, most of them are based on the statistical metrics-driven approach that consequently limits logical reasoning on the detailed analysis on the process. In this paper, we propose a process analysis approach called MPAF(Model-based Process Analysis Framework), based on formal process modeling. In MPAF, the corresponding formal process instance model is recovered through data gathering from a project execution. Various formal analysis can be performed on the recovered and reconstructed process instance model for diagnosing the vitality of the project. We also performed experimental case study by applying MPAF to real world industry projects.