Thomas Philip

Requirement error abstraction and classification: an empirical study

Software quality and reliability is a primary concern for successful development organizations. Monitoring and controlling quality by helping developers detect as many faults as possible is a subjective and intricate approach. Due to the inherent difficulties and limitations, additional methods are required to obtain a more complete solution to the software quality problem. This paper analyzes the software quality problem from a different perspective involving a step back from faults to focus on the fundamental causes of faults. The first step in this direction is the application of the Error Abstraction Process (EAP) to the requirements phase of the software lifecycle to develop a Requirement Error Taxonomy (RET). This paper presents an empirical study on the application of the EAP and RET to requirement documents in a controlled classroom setting. The results show that the EAP significantly improves the productivity of subjects, that the RET is useful for improving software quality, that it provides useful insights into the requirements document, and that various context variables also impact the results. These results are promising and are important to motivate further investigation, to refine the RET, and to derive more formalized tools and methods for assisting developers. The result of this investigation will be a sound verification process for requirements phase.

USE OF OPTICAL AND IMAGING TECHNIQUES FOR INSPECTION OF OFF-LINE JOULE-HEATED MELTER AT THE WEST VALLEY DEMONSTRATION PROJECT

The West Valley melter has been taken out of service. Its design is the direct ancestor of the current melter design for the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant. Over its eight years of service, the West Valley melter has endured many of the same challenges that the Hanford melters will encounter with feeds that are similar to many of the Hanford double shell tank wastes. Thus, inspection of the West Valley melter prior to its disposal could provide valuable — even crucial — information to the designers of the melters to be used at the Hanford Site, particularly if quantitative information can be obtained. The objective of Mississippi State University’s Diagnostic Instrumentation and Analysis Laboratory’s (DIAL) efforts is to develop, fabricate, and deploy inspection tools for the West Valley melter that will (i.) be remotely operable in the West Valley process cell; (ii.) provide quantitative information on melter refractory wear and deposits on the refractory; and (iii.) indicate areas of heterogeneity of deposits, requiring more detailed characterization. A collaborative arrangement has been established with the West Valley Demonstration Project (WVDP) to inspect their melter.Copyright

A reengineering framework for small scale software

Reengineering software is approached in different ways, even though the basic process remains the same: reverse engineering followed by forward engineering. Tools are available to aid during reverse engineering and reengineering. This paper presents a framework we used to reengineer a small scale software system from a partial structured implementation to an object-oriented implementation. The framework uses function matrix to organize the extracted abstractions, algorithm tables, and data dictionary during its initial phase. Components for the target system object model are retrieved from the matrices and the dictionary. An empirical reuse metric was applied to the matrix to identify reusable parts. Application of this framework is also discussed.

Interfacing a laser induced breakdown spectroscopy system with a plasma torch control computer for hazardous waste process control

Toxic metal emissions from various waste processing off-gas systems present a potential health hazard The measurement of toxic metals in real-time in stack emissions is required to control the quantities of these species emitted into the atmosphere. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a laser based optical diagnostic technique which has been used to detect certain atomic and molecular species in various environments. The toxic metal concentration in stack emissions can be monitored in realtime with LIBS to provide necessary control for the waste treatment process. This paper describes the details of interfacing LIBS with a plasma torch control system during a plasma torch waste treatment test with simulated surrogate feed The results of this test are also presented.

A prototype approach to instrument network software (abstract only)

This paper presents the prototype approach used in the development of a distributed instrumentation network and the benefits derived from it. Each node in the network is a dedicated microcomputer which is used for instrument control, data acquisition, and preliminary data analysis. Data is saved on a mass storage at the control node. General purpose interface bus (IEEE488) is used in the network. A prototype was developed primarily to study the feasibility of the system and get user recommendation for change in requirements. Due to inherent characteristics of this language the prototype was compact and the development was fast. Only two of the seven nodes were included in the prototype. Due to the success of the prototype the actual system is currently being developed. The prototype was helpful in several ways. Many of the techniques used in the prototype are adapted to the actual system, which is in a different computer and language. In a small scale project with low staffing and tight time schedules this is found to be a more practical approach. This work is supported by DOE Contract DE-AC02-80ET15601.

Design of a microprocessor based programmable system to process temperature information from a hot surface

A CDP1802 microprocessor based stand-alone system (target system) has been designed to control a two-color pyrometer (TCP) system remotely and to process the temperature information from a simulated magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) test facility, at Mississippi State University. The analog signals from two pyrometer detectors are digitized and the temperature and emissivity of the surface are computed. The results are displayed on a 20-column printer. Data at various emissivity settings are collected with the help of a stepper motor. The measurements may be done individually or in a continuous mode. A sequence of events may be programmed into the system through a 4×4 key matrix. Software has been developed in FORTH, a highly structured language. The system design and development has been accomplished through stepwise refinement.