A Model Driven Reverse Engineering framework for extracting business rules out of a Java application
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Transcript of A Model Driven Reverse Engineering framework for extracting business rules out of a Java application
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© 2009 IBM Corporation
A Model Driven Reverse Engineering framework for extracting business
rules out of a Java application
Valerio Cosentino - IBM, AtlanMod, INRIA & EMN, Nantes - [email protected] Cabot - AtlanMod, INRIA & EMN, Nantes - [email protected] Albert – IBM - [email protected] Bauquel – IBM - [email protected] Perronnet – IBM - [email protected]
RuleML 2012, Montpellier, France – 29 August
2 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Outline
Introduction– Context & problem– Example– Business rule extraction process
Framework overview– Model discovery– Variable classification– Business rule identification– Business rule representation
Conclusion & Future work
3 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Introduction - context & problem
Context: every organization needs to periodically reevaluate and evolve its company policies enforced in its Information System (IS) by means of a set of business rules
4 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Introduction - context & problem
Context: every organization needs to periodically reevaluate and evolve its company policies enforced in its Information System (IS) by means of a set of business rules
Business rule: – « Relevant action aiming at constraining some precise aspect of a
business »– Key component for ISs
5 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Introduction - context & problem
Context: every organization needs to periodically reevaluate and evolve its company policies enforced in its Information System (IS) by means of a set of business rules
Business rule: – « Relevant action aiming at constraining some precise aspect of a
business »– Key component for ISs
Problem: policies and rules must be aligned at all time, but in most of ISs business rules are scattered among the source code.
6 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Introduction - context & problem
Context: every organization needs to periodically reevaluate and evolve its company policies enforced in its Information System (IS) by means of a set of business rules
Business rule: – « Relevant action aiming at constraining some precise aspect of a
business »– Key component for ISs
Problem: policies and rules must be aligned at all time, but in most of ISs business rules are scattered among the source code.
Hard to find the business rules within the IS even for small application
7 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Introduction - context & problem
Context: every organization needs to periodically reevaluate and evolve its company policies enforced in its Information System (IS) by means of a set of business rules
Business rule: – « Relevant action aiming at constraining some precise aspect of a
business »– Key component for ISs
Problem: policies and rules must be aligned at all time, but in most of ISs business rules are scattered among the source code.
Hard to find the business rules within the IS even for small applicationHard to evolve (quickly and safely) company policies
8 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Introduction - example
We use as running example a small application representing the predator-prey problem. The application simulates the behaviour of animals (foxes, rabbits, birds) and humans (hunters) in a meadow. Each actor animal or human can act and move according to its nature.Two different functionalities are implemented in this application: one represents the business logic and describes how predator-prey interactions affect the population size. The second one is used to store statistical information about the actors participating in the simulation
9 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Introduction - example
10 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Introduction - example
Rules modeling the application: – Hunters:
Never die Hunt animals
– Rabbits & Birds: Can die by being eaten by foxes, hunted by hunters, of
starvation, old age or overcrowding Can breed when they reach their breeding age Eat grass
– Foxes: Can die by being eaten by hunters, of starvation, old age or
overcrowding Can breed when they reach their breeding age Eat rabbits and birds
11 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Introduction - example
Rules modeling the application: – Hunters:
Never die Hunt animals
– Rabbits & Birds: Can die by being eaten by foxes, hunted by hunters, of
starvation, old age or overcrowding Can breed when they reach their breeding age Eat grass
– Foxes: Can die by being eaten by hunters, of starvation, old age or
overcrowding Can breed when they reach their breeding age Eat rabbits and birds
12 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Introduction – example rules are scattered in the source code
old age
starvation
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Introduction - example
rabbit killed by a fox
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Introduction - example
rabbit killed by a hunter
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Introduction - example
overcrowding
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Introduction - business rule extraction process
Business rule extraction (BREX) process: – Allows extracting business rules out of an IS, isolating the code
segments which are directly related to business– Three major activities:
Variable Classification → finds variables related to domain/business concepts and hintining at BRs
Business rule identification → collects chunks of code related to the variables identified in the previous step
Business rule representation → presents the extracted BRs by means of artifacts (graphs, textual representations, …)
17 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Introduction - business rule extraction process
Business rule extraction (BREX) process: – Allows extracting business rules out of an IS, isolating the code
segments which are directly related to business– Three major activities:
Variable Classification → finds variables related to domain/business concepts and hintining at BRs
Business rule identification → collects chunks of code related to the variables identified in the previous step
Business rule representation → presents the extracted BRs by means of artifacts (graphs, textual representations, …)
Model Driven Engineering techniques:– Abstract & homogeneous representation– Modular solving process– Non-intrusive solution
18 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Framework overview - model discovery
A new operation (Model Discovery) is added to the BRE process to move the problem from a grammarware technological space to the modelware one.– Input: source code– Output: platform specific model (PSM)
Modisco discovery component(http://www.eclipse.org/MoDisco/)
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Framework overview - variable classification
Variables Classification identifies the domain variables together with their containing classes – Input: PSM– Output: model containing all domain's classes and their inner
variables
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Framework overview - variable classificationeach link represents a type dependency.ex.: the link connecting Simulator and AnimatedView means that the class Simulator uses the type AnimatedView
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Framework overview - variable classificationthe algorithm starts from the classes
containing a graphical import (awt, swing, ..)
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Framework overview - variable classification
for each of those classes, a set of connected classes is calculated (recursively)
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Framework overview - variable classification
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Framework overview - variable classificationthe green set (business domain) contains the classes representing the logic modelling how
the actors act/interact each other
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Framework overview - variable classificationfor the same application we may find several
business domains (in blue the classes related to the stats of the simulation)
26 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Framework overview - variable classification - metamodel
For each class in a group, its variables are classified in:– Single-access: class attributes occurring at most once on the left
side of an assignment– Multi-access: class attributes occurring more than once on the left
side of an assignment– Potentials: variables declarated in methods and occurring on the left
side of an assignment
27 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Framework overview - variable classification - metamodel
For each class in a group, its variables are classified in:– Single-access: class attributes occurring at most once on the left
side of an assignment– Multi-access: class attributes occurring more than once on the left
side of an assignment– Potentials: variables declarated in methods and occurring on the left
side of an assignment
– Traceability: relates the classified variables to the source code
28 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Framework overview - business rule identification
29 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Framework overview - business rule identification
Domain model extraction:– Input: PSM, the domain variables model– Output:
Model conforming to the Business Object Model/Vocabulary [BOM/VOC] metamodel of IBM WebSphere ILOG Jrules
– Extracts method signatures and class attributes from the classes containing the domain variables identified in the variables classification step
– Provides a default vocabulary for these entities to be reused in the description of the business rules
– The user can tune the process and define its verbalization
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Framework overview - business rule identification
Domain model extraction:
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Framework overview - business rule identification
Slicing operation:– Input: PSM, a variable i contained in the domain variables model– Output:
PSM enriched with annotations (PSMA) on all the statements, variable declarations and methods relevant for i
32 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Framework overview - business rule identification
Slicing operation:– Input: PSM, a variable i contained in the domain variables model– Output:
PSM enriched with annotations (PSMA) on all the statements, variable declarations and methods relevant for i (ex: alive)
33 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Framework overview - business rule identification
Slicing operation:– Input: PSM, a variable i contained in the domain variables model– Output:
PSM enriched with annotations (PSMA) on all the statements, variable declarations and methods relevant for i
A statement is marked as « Rule » if it modifies the value of the variable i
Alive is the name of the variable we are slicing
Id to identify each business rule
The granularity index is the distance of a statement from the statement that modifies the value of the variable i
34 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Framework overview - business rule identification
Slicing operation:– Input: PSM, a variable i contained in the domain variables model– Output:
PSM enriched with annotations (PSMA) on all the statements, variable declarations and methods relevant for i
A method is marked as «Related» if it contains a rule statement
35 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Framework overview - business rule identification
Slicing operation:– Input: PSM, a variable i contained in the domain variables model– Output:
PSM enriched with annotations (PSMA) on all the statements, variable declarations and methods relevant for i
36 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Framework overview - business rule identification
Slicing operation:– Input: PSM, a variable i contained in the domain variables model– Output:
PSM enriched with annotations (PSMA) on all the statements, variable declarations and methods relevant for i
A statement containing a method invocation that allows reaching the statement that modifies the value of the variable i is annoted as «Rule»
37 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Framework overview - business rule identification
Slicing operation:– Input: PSM, a variable i contained in the domain variables model– Output:
PSM enriched with annotations (PSMA) on all the statements, variable declarations and methods relevant for i
38 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Framework overview - business rule identification
Slicing operation:– Input: PSM, a variable i contained in the domain variables model– Output:
PSM enriched with annotations (PSMA) on all the statements, variable declarations and methods relevant for i
39 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Framework overview - business rule identification
Slicing operation:– Input: PSM, a variable i contained in the domain variables model– Output:
PSM enriched with annotations (PSMA) on all the statements, variable declarations and methods relevant for i
40 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Framework overview - business rule identification
41 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Framework overview - business rule identification
42 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Framework overview - business rule identification
A variable declaration is marked as «RELATED-VARIABLE» if it is used inside a «Related» or «Rule» statement.
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Framework overview - business rule identificationA method is annotated as «Reachable» if one of its invocations occurs in a «Related» statement or in another «Reachable» method.
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Framework overview - business rule identification
45 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Framework overview - business rule identification
This attribute defines the distance from the method containing the «Rule» statement
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Framework overview - business rule identification
47 © 2009 IBM Corporation
Framework overview - business rule identification
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Framework overview - business rule identification
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Framework overview - business rule identification
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Framework overview - business rule identification
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Framework overview - business rule identification
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Framework overview - business rule identification
the slicing generates annotations even for the classes outside the business domain
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Framework overview - business rule identification
Business rules model extraction:
once the slicing operation is over, two options are proposed:1 - regenerating the application putting as comments the slicing annotations2 – executing the business rules model extraction, reducing the slicing information just for the classes inside the business domain (green or blue set)
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Framework overview - business rule identification
Business rules model extraction:– Input: Domain model and PSM enriched with annotations (PSMA) on
all the statements, variable declarations and methods relevant for i– Output:
Business rule model for the variable i
– PSMA contains information of classes outside the business domain. The domain model is used to exclude them
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Framework overview - business rule identification
Classes related to the variable alive:
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Framework overview - business rule identification
Classes outside the domain:
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Framework overview - business rule identification
Classes inside the domain:
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Framework overview - business rule identification
Intersection with the domain classes:
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Framework overview - business rule identification - metamodel
Structure represents the statements annotated as
« Related »
following and follower represent the granularity value
RelatedVariable represents Variable Declaration
annotated as « RELATED-VARIABLE »
ReachableMethod represents methods annotated as
« Reachable »Action represents the
statements annotated as « Rule »
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Framework overview - business rule identification - metamodelall the elements of this metamodel are Traces, that means that for each of them we know exactly the relative Java source code element.In this way we implement the traceability of the extracted business rules
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Framework overview
Business rules representation:
Business rules representation provides human-understandable artifacts (text and graph) for the extracted BRs.– Input: domain model (optional), business rule model-i– Output: text or graph
2 kind of representation are provided (text or graph) and for each of them the domain model vocabulary can be used
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Framework overview
Text:
text representation without model domain vocabulary information
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Framework overview
Graph:
graph representation with model domain vocabulary information
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Conclusion & Future work
MDE benefits:– Non-intrusive approach– Modular framework– Internal/external representation of BRs– Traceability
Test on a real use case:– IBM Rational Programming Patterns :
> 5000 classes, 476 system variables Variable classification step improved with new heuristics Optimization of the slicing operation
Future works:– Extend the framework to other languages– Identify BRs in the other layers composing an application
– Rational Programming Patterns :
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