Simon M. Becker

Model-based a-posteriori integration of engineering tools for incremental development processes

A-posteriori integration of heterogeneous engineering tools supplied by different vendors constitutes a challenging task. In particular, this statement applies to incremental development processes where small changes have to be propagated – potentially bidirectionally – through a set of inter-dependent design documents which have to be kept consistent with each other. Responding to these challenges, we have developed an approach to tool integration which puts strong emphasis on software architecture and model-driven development. Starting from an abstract description of a software architecture, the architecture is gradually refined down to an implementation level. To integrate heterogeneous engineering tools, wrappers are constructed for abstracting from technical details and for providing homogenized data access. On top of these wrappers, incremental integration tools provide for inter-document consistency. These tools are based on graph models of the respective document classes and graph transformation rules for maintaining inter-document consistency. Altogether, the collection of support tools and the respective infrastructure considerably leverage the problem of composing a tightly integrated development environment from a set of heterogeneous engineering tools.

A graph-based algorithm for consistency maintenance in incremental and interactive integration tools

Development processes in engineering disciplines are inherently complex. Throughout the development process, the system to be built is modeled from different perspectives, on different levels of abstraction, and with different intents. Since state-of-the-art development processes are highly incremental and iterative, models of the system are not constructed in one shot; rather, they are extended and improved repeatedly. Furthermore, models are related by manifold dependencies and need to be maintained mutually consistent with respect to these dependencies. Thus, tools are urgently needed which assist developers in maintaining consistency between inter-dependent and evolving models. These tools have to operate incrementally, i.e., they have to propagate changes performed on one model into related models which are affected by these changes. In addition, they need to support user interactions in settings where the effects of changes cannot be determined automatically and deterministically. We present an algorithm for incremental and interactive consistency maintenance which meets these requirements. The algorithm is based on graphs, which are used as the data model for representing the models to be integrated, and graph transformation rules, which describe the modifications of the graphs to be performed on a high level of abstraction.

A Delegation Based Model for Distributed Software Process Management

Complex development processes which cross organizational boundaries require specialized support by process management systems. Such processes are planned in a top-down manner. A suitable cooperation model for these processes is the delegation of process parts. Because the client and the contractor of a delegation may be independent organizations they may have diverging interest concerning autonomy of process execution, information-hiding, control, etc. We propose a concept for delegating process parts which takes these interests into account and describe how delegation is implemented in the process management system AHEAD.

Incremental Integration Tools for Chemical Engineering: An Industrial Application of Triple Graph Grammars

Triple graph grammars, an extension of pair graph grammars, were introduced for the specification of graph translators. We developed a framework which constitutes an industrial application of triple graph grammars. It solves integration problems in a specific domain, namely design processes in chemical engineering. Here, different design representations of a chemical plant have to be kept consistent with each other. Incremental integration tools assist in propagating changes and performing consistency analysis. The integration tools are driven by triple rules which define relationships between design documents.

Rule Execution in Graph-Based Incremental Interactive Integration Tools

Development processes in engineering disciplines are inherently complex. Throughout the development process, different kinds of inter-dependent design documents are created which have to be kept consistent with each other. Graph transformations are well suited for modeling the operations provided for maintaining inter-document consistency. In this paper, we describe a novel approach to rule execution for graph-based integration tools operating interactively and incrementally. Rather than executing a rule in atomic way, we break rule execution up into multiple phases. In this way, the user of an integration tool may be informed about all potential rule applications and their mutual conflicts so that he may take a judicious decision how to proceed.

Incremental and Interactive Integrator Tools for Design Product Consistency

Design processes in chemical engineering are inherently complex. Various aspects of the plant to be designed are modeled in different logical documents using heterogeneous tools. There are a lot of fine-grained dependencies between the contents of these documents. Thus, if one document is changed, these changes have to be propagated to all dependent documents in order to restore mutual consistency. In current development processes, these dependencies and the resulting consistency relationships have to be handled manually by the engineers without appropriate tool support in most cases. Consequently, there is a need for incremental integrator tools which assist developers in consistency maintenance. We realized a framework for building such tools. The tools are based on models of the related documents and their mutual relationships. Realization of integrators and their integration with existing tools is carried out using graph techniques.

Tools for Consistency Management between Design Products

The results of the IMPROVE subproject B2 (cf. Sect. 3.2) are to be transferred to industry. The corresponding transfer subproject T5 is described in this section. The main goal is to provide a universal integrator platform for the engineering solution Comos PT of our industrial partner innotec. The core results to be transferred are the integration rule definition formalism and the integrator framework including the execution algorithm. Besides evaluation in practice, the transfer subproject will also deal with major extensions. For instance, the integration rule definition formalism will be extended and repair actions to restore consistency of damaged links will be incorporated into the framework. The transfer is intended to be bidirectional, i.e. our partners knowledge will influence our research as well.

Model Dependencies, Fine-Grained Relations, and Integrator Tools

The models developed within subprojects A2 and B2 together form one of the vertical columns of the process/product model. The application domain models of A2 are refined to tool models of B2 such that integrator tools can be realized. The process of building integrators is rather well understood in general, as is the process of refining the application domain models of A2 to tool models of B2. Nevertheless, important parts are missing for a concise and layered process/product model.

Integration tools for supporting incremental modifications within design processes in chemical engineering

Publisher Summary This chapter lists a few integration tools used for supporting incremental modifications within design processes in chemical engineering. In process industries, there is a growing demand for the improvement of design processes to obtain better design results in shorter development cycles. The design results are of major interest for the top management of a chemical company because they are the basis for decisions if, when, and how to build a new plant or to modify an existing one. Current tool support is mainly characterized by numerous software tools for specific purposes or isolated parts of the design process. However, a sustainable improvement of the design process can only be achieved by the integration of application tools into a design environment. One key aspect of tool integration is the integration of the data created and used within different tools. These data are kept in separate heterogeneous documents and stored in independent files or databases.

Integration tools for consistency management between design documents in development processes

Development processes in engineering disciplines are inherently complex. Throughout the development process, the system to be built is modeled from different perspectives and on different levels of abstraction in multiple documents. They are related by manifold dependencies and need to be maintained mutually consistent with respect to these dependencies. In addition, development processes are highly incremental and iterative. Thus, tools are urgently needed which assist developers in maintaining consistency between inter-dependent documents. These tools have to operate incrementally and need to support user interactions, as the effects of changes cannot always be determined automatically and deterministically. At the Department of Computer Science 3 at RWTH Aachen University, triple graph grammars (TGG) have been invented as a formal approach to handling integration problems. During multiple research activities at the department and many other research groups, TGGs have been used as a basis to design algorithms and modeling formalisms and have been further elaborated. At the department they were implemented and enhanced in different ways for the support of rapid integration tool construction for real-world interactive development processes. This paper gives an insight into specification, algorithms, and tool construction for interactive, incremental integration and shows the application within the design process of a chemical plant executed in a commercial product.