SB Program University of Jyväskylä 1 An Introduction to Component reuse: conceptual foundations...

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University of Jyväskylä 1

An Introduction toComponent reuse: conceptual

foundations and its applications in the metamodelling based system analysis

and design environment

Zheying Zhang

Research seminar on Software Business

5/2/2003

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Outline

Introduction Background and terminologies Current situation of the reuse support in ISD Research questions Research methodology Thesis structure and a short summary of each chapter Conclusion and discussions

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Introduction

Zheying Zhang– Researcher in metaPHOR research group since 1997

• Researcher in RAMSES project (1/1999-4/2000)• Licentiate thesis accepted in 9/2001

– Researcher in SB program since 11/2001 • Research• Dissertation is going to be ready in 2003

– Assistant professor since 1/2003• Teaching • Thesis supervising• Research and dissertation work

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MetaPHOR research group

Metamodeling, Principles, Hypertext, Objects and Repositories (http://metaphor.it.jyu.fi)

Two experimental and commercial metaCASE tools: MetaEdit & MetaEdit+

Research topics– Application principles, tool architectures and technical solutions for

configurable metaCASE environments– Investigate, analyze and understand the evolution of knowledge and

knowledge representations – Hypertext and traceability support in systems development, process

support and enactment environments– Reuse of software and design artifacts both at the design and metadesign

levels– Visual and 3D user interfaces and their modeling in CASE

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RAMSES project

RAMSES stands for Reuse in Advanced Method Support EnvironmentS.

Goals– Building theoretical background on component reuse– Engineering the principles for component definition, search,

management and retrieval– Building the automated tools support for component reuse and

field testing

Founded by Tekes, National Technology Agency, metaCASE consulting, and Nokia Mobile Phone.

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Licentiate Thesis - Research questions

Title: Component-based reuse in a metaCASE environment

Theoretical foundation of RAMSES project Research questions

– Q1: How can we define a conceptual framework that supports systematic reuse in a metaCASE environment?

– Q2: What is the generic model of reusable components in a metaCASE environment?

– Q3: What is the needed functionality of an integrated metaCASE environment that supports systematic reuse?

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Licentiate Thesis - Contents

Chp1 Introduction -- Q1 Chp2 Conceptual frameworks for systematic reuse in a metaCASE

environment -- Q1– A framework for component reuse in a metamodelling based system

development -- REJ 6(2), 2001 Chp3 Component 3C model expanded from (Tracz 1990) – Q2

– Defining components in a metacase environment – CAiSE*00 Chp4 Prototype of component 3C model and its application in system

analysis and design – Q2&3– Using component for system analysis and design in a metaCASE

environment -- working paper Chp5 prototype of component search tool in MetaEdit+ -- Q3

– Enhance component reuse by using search techniques -- IRIS23

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Dissertation - Plan

Further study the component model– Specifying the context aspect of the component model

Empirically study– The usability and influence of the component functionality on the

system analysis and design phases of the product development life cycle

Validate and refine the concept and content aspects of the component model on component functionality in MetaEdit+

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Dissertation - Title

Component Reuse

Conceptual Foundations and its Applications in the Metamodelling based System Analysis and Design Environment

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Licentiate thesis requirements

Capability to formulate and solve a scientific problem Communicate it in a style which is acceptable Length 80-200 pages normally three articles and an introduction

-- Licentiate seminar 1998, Kalle Lyytinen

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PhD thesis requirements

Sufficient scholarly contribution to the scientific knowledge Author’s skills in using scientific research methods Communicate the results in a manner which is acceptable

within the scientific community Size: 4-6 articles or 120-300 pages Capability to show independent contribution

– Some articles must be written alone (minimum 2)– Unified theme– “Committee proof” by refereed publications


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PhD thesis work

Management of PhD work through Thesis Proposal– Guides your own work– Communicates others what you want to achieve (sponsors,

colleagues, supervisor)– Serves as a contract between you and your supervisor


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PhD proposal

Incremental refinement, proposal must be finished within the first 2-3 years

Continually revised Not the same as ”starting from scratch several times” Good proposal is your best help in achieving your goal


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PhD proposal structure (Davis & Parker)

Summary Problem, hypothesis or question Importance of the topic Prior research to the topic Research approach / methodology Limitations / key assumptions Expected contribution to knowledge Content outline


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Outline


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Basic Concepts

Information system development (ISD) CASE and metaCASE tools Component based systems engineering (CBSE) Reuse in ISD

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How can we think of systems development?

It is the change process covering – the real world: field of

phenomena

– conceptualizations of the real world: conceptual structure

– descriptions of the conceptualizations: a description language

in order to represent – target systems in a complete

and unambiguous way.

FOD

TS Implementation

Mapping

Reverse

Conceptulization

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How can we think of systems development? (Cont.)

Notion– Reality

– Conceptual structure

– Description language

– Target systems

Example– A real XYZ inventory system

– Ideas of material flows, information flows and their interactions

– Work-flow notation (or ER, DFD, UML notation)

– Representation of XYZ inventory system in a work-flow notation

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Information Systems Development (ISD)

Information system development is a change process taken with respect to a number of object systems in set of environments by a development group to achieve or maintain some objectives held by some stakeholders.

-- (Lyytinen 1987)

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Object systems– Identify a target of change– Arbitrary boundary set by purpose and objectives

Change process– A set of development activities– A procedure, possibly with a prescribed notation, perform the

change process (development activity) (Brinkkemper 1996)– Combined techniques form an approach to performing an ISD

project, called a method

Environment– A web of conditions and factors which surround development

processes and affect the development group and its change process, including labor, economy, technology/infrastracture, normative, stakeholders …

Development group– Formally organized group with mutual expectations, punishments

and rewards, positions, roles, authority, or responsibility

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Objectives– intensions in systems development: What is good, how one

should behave

Stakeholders– can set claims about the object systems and their properties– driven by specific interests and goals– can be grouped as

• Internal stakeholders (users, management, organizational units)

• External stakeholders (clients, government bodies, professional associations, computer manufactures, software house, etc.)

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Information systems development method

Definition – Information systems development method is an organized

collection of concepts, beliefs, values, and normative principles (knowledge) supported by material resources to carry out changes in object systems in an effective and systematic manner (Lyytinen 1987).

Purpose– To enable / support change processes– Achieve some process goals or product goals set by the

stakeholders

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Use of methods and ISD life-cycle

Business process re-engineering and development– business modeling, process modeling, work flow modeling, task structure

Requirements engineering– brain-storming, interviews, requirements analysis methods, requirements

review methods System analysis and design

– data modeling, structured analysis and design, OO analysis and design Construction

– mapping from high level language to machine language, version control Operation and maintenance

– Version control, configuration management, reverse engineering

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Basic Concepts


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CASE - an acronym with many interpretations ...

Computer EngineeringSoftware[Software] System[Information] Systems

AssistedAidedAutomated

“CASE is use of computer-based support in the software development process” (SEI, 1996)

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What is a CASE tool?

CASE tool supports several fixed conceptual structures (system description languages) (and associated processes and validity criteria)

“A CASE tool is a software environment that assists systems analysts and designers in specifying, analyzing, designing and maintaining an information system.” (Loucopoulos, 1992)

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The emergence of CASE technology

CASE tool is– a stand-alone tool to help automate program diagramming and

documentation (early 80’s)– including automatic checks of designs (mid 80’s)– an integrated environment for a model editor, a document

generator, a code generator, and repository CASE tool automates time-consuming aspect of the

systems development process including– drawing diagrams– cross-checking of concepts across the system models– generating system documents, code structure, and database

schemas

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Tool support for models

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Models and visual modeling

A model is a representation of the conceptualization of the real world A model is a representation of your problem domain and software

system A model contains classes, logical packages, objects, operations,

component packages, components, processors, devices, and the relationships between them

A model also contains diagrams and specifications

Visual modeling gives you a graphical representation of the structure and interrelationships of a system by constructing models of your design

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Example – CASE tool

MetaEdit+ offers CASE tool support for the defined method. It provides diagramming editors, browsers, generators, multi-user support, etc

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CASE tool Use

Organizations in a rapid changing market requires CASE tools can – flexibly create and modify the conceptual structure

• Hardly any project applies OMT as Rumbaugh et al. originally defined

• In practice 88% methods are always customized for local needs (Hardy et al.)

– be used in specific application domains

When the conceptual structures can be modified easily we talk of metaCASE tool

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Meta-

Meta (Greek), ”X about x” ”X behind x” meta-level techniques support abstract principles behind

certain phenomena

MetaCASE MetaCASE is an area of CASE, in which information

system development method support is generated from metamodels

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What is a metaCASE tool?

A metaCASE tool is software tool that supports the design and generation of CASE tools

A metaCASE tool facilitates the design and specification of a method whose full and formal definition is not readily available.

Design and specification of a method – method engineering

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Tool support for metamodels

Metamodels are conceptual models of methods (Brinkkemper 1990)

Metamodels can be roughly divided into process and product models– Meta-process model: conceptualization, formalization and

abstraction of modelling process• e.g. DFD, AD

– Meta-data model: conceptualization, formalization and abstraction of representations or concepts involved in methods

• e.g. ERD, CD

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Metamodelling

Metamodelling is the process of specifying a metamodel using a metamodelling language

Method engineering is a metamodelling process to specify and integrate a method into a metamodel from the perspectives of concepts, properties, rules, and generators.

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Model and metamodel

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Modeling and metamodeling

Metamodelling and modeling in a metaCASE environment (after (Brinkkemper 1990))

Metamodelling language

Modelling language

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What is a metaCASE tool? - Example

MetaEdit+ Method workbench is a tool for designing your method; its concepts, rules, notations and generators. The method definition is stored as a metamodel to the MetaEdit+ repository.

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What is a metaCASE environment?

MetaCASE environment is a system which supports metamodeling in the same environment as modelling, and itself produces the metamodel and inputs it to the metaCASE tools.

MetaEdit+ metaCASE tool allows you to design your method and use it.

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Basic Concepts


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Why component?

Essential techniques for managing system complexity - modularity and separation of concerns

Increased understanding and awareness of distributed computing and movement from mainframe-based systems toward client/server computing have fuelled that ISD is a set of separable, interacting sub-systems development rather than monolithic

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Why component? – business objectives

Changes in business requirements– “Make the most of what you have”

• Integrated business processes– “Exploit new opportunities”

• Electronic commerce, E-business– “Build for change”

• Flexible information systems

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Why component? – technology trends

Systems are not build from scratch or standalone– Application assembly and extension

New technology are appearing all the time – Technology independency

Systems are constructed from many pieces – Component design focus

The resulting distributed systems are complex – Architecture visualization

Advance in application architecture – Mainframe client/server internet/network … …

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What is a component?

A constituent part – Merriam-Webster online A software component is a unit of composition with

contractually specified interfaces and explicit context dependencies only. A software component can be deployed independently and is subject to composition by third parties. -- (Szyperski, 1998)

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Characteristics of component

Packaging perspective - reuse– A component as the unit of packaging, distribution, or delivery

Service perspective - interface– A component as the provider of services

Integrity perspective - replacement– A component as a data integrity or encapsulation boundary

-- Sterling software (Short 1997)

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Component based development

Emerged in 1990 as a reuse-based approach Motivation: OO development had not led to extensive

reuse as originally suggested Component based development

– A software development approach where all aspects and phases of the development lifecycle, including requirements analysis, architecture, design, construction, testing, deployment, the supporting technical infrastructure, and the project management are based on components.

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CBD Activities and Artifacts

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Scope of component-based design and techniques

(Sterling Software, 1999)

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Component based systems engineering (CBSE)

CBSE is a process that emphasizes the design and construction of systems using reusable components

CBSE is changing the way large systems are developed. CBSE embodies the ”buy, do not build” philosophy espoused by

some engineers CBSE shifts the emphasis from programming to composing IS Implementation has given way to integration as the focus

The foundation of CBSE is the assumption that there is sufficient commonality in many large IS to justify developing reusable components to exploit and satisfy that commonality

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Basic Concepts


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Software reuse

In most engineering disciplines, systems are designed by composing existing components that have been used in other systems

Software engineering has been more focused on original development but it is now recognized that to achieve better software, more quickly and at lower cost, we need to adapt a design process that is based on systematic reuse

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Reuse – past and present

Reuse is both an old and a new idea. Programmers have reused ideas, abstractions and processes since the earliest days of computing

First introduced by McIlroy in 1968 to solve the problem of software crisis (McIlroy 1969) (Krueger 1992)

The early approach to reuse is ad hoc. Today, complex, high quality information systems must be

built in very short time periods. This mitigates towards a more organized approach to reuse.

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What is reuse?

Reuse – use again after processing -Webster Reuse in ISD starts from software reuse, which applies

existing software and design artifacts to deliver new applications, or to maintain the old ones

Reusable asset – A collection of related software work products that may be reused from one application to another

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Features of reuse

Is a long-term strategy Is driven by business decisions Must be integrated in the software/system development

process reuse adoption is part of process improvement Is an investment Strongly depends on organization structure and,

ultimately on people Is more effective within a domain

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Benefits of reuse

Increased reliability– Components exercised in working systems

Reduce process risk– Less uncertainty in development costs

Effective use of specialists– Reuse components instead of people

Standards compliance– Embed standards in reusable components

Accelerated development– Avoid original development and hence speed-up production

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Type of reuse

Ad-hoc reuse– No plan, no defined process

Opportunistic reuse– No standard process– The software developer identifies the need and browse the

repository to find the needed assets

Systematic reuse– Well-planned, cost-effective, and productive– The purposeful creation, management, support, and reuse of

assets (Jacobson et al. 1997)– Requires long-term management support and years of investment

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Levels of reuse

Specification– e.g. Spec. documents, project plans

Design– e.g. design patterns, domain models– Less implementation, portable and reusable, provide greater

savings

Code– e.g. class libraries, functional units performing business tasks

Test– e.g. test cases and data– Results in more reliable system

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Reusable assets

Off-the-shelf (COTS)– Assets identified as being of potential interest, which may come

from a variety of local and remote sources, selected or concerned at the requirements analysis stage

Qualified – Assets assessed by software engineers to ensure that not

only functionality, but also performance, reliability, usability, and other quality factors conform to the requirements of the system/product to be built

Adapted – Assets adapted to modify (wrapping) unwanted or

undesired characteristics

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Reusable assets (Cont.)

Assembled – Assets integrated into an architectural style and

interconnected with an appropriate system infrastructure that allows the assets to be coordinated and managed effectively.

Updated– Replacing existing software as new versions of assets

become available

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Outline


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Current situation, related research and research problems

Reuse technology – current reuse support in ISD Current tools support for component reuse Research problems

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Current reuse support in ISD

A technique supporting reuse may consist of both developing for reuse and developing with reuse – e.g. product line engineering

Reuse techniques– Object oriented techniques– Design patterns– Application frameworks– Agent-based systems– Architectures– Domain-specific modeling– Component-based development

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Comparison of reuse techniques (part)

Strength Weakness

OOT Enhances modularity and information hiding

Requires significant modeling effort

Design patterns

Facilitate retrieval of design solutions, provide guidelines for the development process

Implementation from scratch

Frameworks Domain specific semi-complete applications to be customized

Requires high expertise and deep understanding of the framework design

Software Agents

Highly customizable and adaptable, allow easy reconfiguration of complex system

Not yet mature and consolidated technology

Architectures Allow formal verification of structural properties. Simplify the reuse of technical and business objects

No guidance for choosing the right architecture

-- (Ezran, 1998)

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Domain-specific modeling (DSM)

Domain - a problem space for a family of applications with similar requirements, a set of related systems with commonality

DSM - the process to understand the customer’s requirements within the domain and represent the requirements in the form of logical models (Sodhi and Sodhi 1998)

DSM allows developers to concentrate on the required functionality and shift the focus from code to design

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DSM environment

DSM environment consists of– Domain-specific modeling language

• operates on domain concepts, not on code• limited variation space

– Domain-specific code generator• generates products described by the models• variation for output formats

– Domain framework• supports code generation• primitive services and components on top of the platform

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Benefits of DSM

Captures domain knowledge (as opposed to code)– Uses domain abstractions – Applies domain concepts and rules as modeling constructs– Narrow down the design space– Focus on single range of products

BenefitsApply familiar terminologySolve the RIGHT problems!Solve problems only ONCE! – model-driven reuse

--- MetaCASE Consulting, 2001

Faster development of quality products!

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Modeling domain vs. modeling codeDomain

IdeaFinishedProduct

Sol

ve p

robl

em in

dom

ain

term

sAssembler

Map to code, implement

UML ModelMap to UML

Generate,Add bodies

ComponentsDomainModel

Generate callsto components

No map!

CodeMap to code, implement

--- MetaCASE Consulting, 2001

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Summary of DSM

Expected benefits– make a product family explicit– leverage the knowledge of the family to help developers– substantially increase the speed of variant creation– ensure that the family approach is followed de facto– The amount of expert resources needed to build and maintain a

DSM does not grow with the size of product family and/or number of developers

Problems– Organizational changes (introduction, diffusion)

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Component-based development

A software development approach where all aspects and phases of the development lifecycle, including requirements analysis, architecture, design, construction, testing, deployment, the supporting technical infrastructure, and the project management are based on components.

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Why component based development

Reuse Deal with change Manage complexity Create commerce in component

-- (SEI, 2002)

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Why component based development - Reuse

Expected benefits– “The rewards of theft over honest toil” (Will Tracz)

Problems– It is not as easy as it sounds– Planned component reuse never seems to happen

• Cost of developing reusable components requires an asset be reused 2.5 times to recover the added cost

– Sound modest, but it was not happening• Lots of organizational/cultural resistance

– We know what we want, we can do it better– We’ll spend all our time trying to figure out how to use it

-- (SEI, 2002)

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Why component based development - Dealing with change

Expected benefits– Component leads to linear cost of change i.e., requirements

become modular by virtue of components

Problems– It is not as easy as it sounds

• Component are not as modular as they seem – they interact i.e. are co-dependent

• Interface languages are not expressive enough to hide all the properties that might be sources of dependency

-- (SEI, 2002)

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Why component based development - Managing complexity

Expected benefits– Components hide complexity for distribution (i.e. black boxes)

Problems– It is not as easy as it sounds

• Complex component functionality (feature-richness) still leads to complex interfaces

• Interface languages are not expressive enough, so hidden properties accumulate and lead to unanticipated interactions

-- (SEI, 2002)

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Why component based development - Commerce of components

Expected benefits– Shorten design-to-production cycles– Provide current technology solutions– …

Problems– Be careful for what you wish … …– The market yields components that are … …

• Complex• Idiosyncratic• Unstable

– See previous two slides -- (SEI, 2002)

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Systematic reuse obstacles - nontechnical

Organizational– One project at a time– Managerial

• Attitude: fear and mistrust• Lack of knowledge

Business– Reuse takes capital and founding

Psychological– Cognitive barriers

• Notations and representations

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Systematic reuse obstacles - technical

Engineering– Lack of suitable component– Lack of flexibility in potentially reusable components– Lack of tools– Lack of standard– Cognitive barriers

Process support

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Reuse technology – current reuse support in ISD Current tools support for component reuse Research problem definition

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Reuse supported tools

Many tools on the market with slogans to support CBD and thereby reuse

Most of the tools support enterprise modeling, code generation, and round-trip engineering

We analyze 6 typical commercial tools in COMBO project: MetaEdit+, ObjectiF, Paradigm Plus, Rose 98, Select Family, Together Solo

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Results of tool survey

We can obtain some insights into the various ways in which technologies support reuse

But it still lacks an integrated reuse environment and an approach to systematic reuse – Limited understanding of reusable assets/components– Insufficient support for systematic reuse– Limited modeling technique support

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Result 1: Limited understanding of reusable assets/components

Most tools regard only code as a reusable asset Reusing design artifacts at stages earlier than

implementation has greater potential leverage because of their greater expressive power

Reusing design artifacts at stages earlier than implementation can further trigger code reuse

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Result 2: Insufficient support for systematic reuse Current reuse support tools are mainly subject to ad hoc/opportunistic

reuse Most tools support CBD which can bring benefits to reuse, but none takes

reuse as their mission The supporting tools should have a generic framework to guide the

systematic reuse process:– Reusable assets creation process

• domain analysis and modeling, component development, and asset evolution

– Reusable assets management process• asset acquisition, asset cataloging, asset metrics collection, and library

operations such as library support procedures, library access control, configuration management, as well as reuse promotion

– Reusable assets utilization process• asset requirement determination, asset selection, adaptation, and integration

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Result 3: Limited modeling technique support

Most tools lacks method engineering support and only provide limited notations (e.g. UML) for system modeling

88% (Hardy, Thompson et al. 1995; Russo and Wynekoop 1995) of the organizations adapt the method-in-house, and 38% (Hardy, Thompson et al. 1995) of organizations have developed their own method

Lacks data transmission support between tools

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Summary of tool survey

Most tools cannot provide an ideal environment that facilitates systematic reuse processes throughout the ISD lifecycle, and lack flexible support for various system development methods

One solution is to expand the functionality of current metaCASE environments by adding systematic reuse support

The metaCASE environment can be further tailored for a specific application domain to support reuse in a product family

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Reuse technology – current reuse support in ISD Current tools support for component reuse Research problem definition

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Research problems

The dissertation aims towards a metaCASE environment, which would support systematic reuse in both the method engineering and systems engineering process.

Q1: How can we utilize different reuse techniques and define a conceptual framework that supports systematic reuse in a metaCASE environment?

Q2: What is the generic model of reusable components in a metaCASE environment?

Q3: What is the needed functionality of an integrated metaCASE environment that supports systematic reuse?

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Research environment

MetaEdit+ - an industry strength metaCASE environment MetaEdit+ provides tools for

– environment management– model editing– repository browser– and method workbench

Systematic reuse support is insufficient in MetaEdit+ Component is not clearly defined in both metamodelling

level and model level, which hinders systematic reuse.

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Outline


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Multi-methodological research approach

Theory building– development of new ideas and concepts, and construction of

conceptual frameworks, new methods, or models Experimentation

– research strategies such as laboratory and field experiments Observation

– empirical methodologies such as case studies, field studies, and sample surveys that are unobtrusive research tasks

System development– constructive process consisting of stages like concept design,

constructing the architecture of the system, prototyping, product development, and technology transfer

-- (Nunamaker and Chen 1991)

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ObservationCase studies,

Survey studies,Field studies

ExperimentationField experimentsLab experiments

Theory buildingConceptual frameworks

Mathematic modelsMethods

System DevelopmentPrototyping,

Product development,Technology Transfer

-- A Multi-Methodological Approach to Research Work (Nunamaker and Chen 1991)

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Observation

Provides an overview of the state of the art– Interviews – by RAMSES project– Survey of (meta)CASE Tools – by COMBO student project

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Theory building

A systematic reuse architecture in the metaCASE environment– studies the reuse possibilities and types of reuse from both

metamodelling (method construction) and modeling (system development) aspects

A complete reuse activities in a reuse framework A 3C component model

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Systems development

Prototype of component construction– Component definition tool

Prototype of component retrieval – Component search tool– Component library

Prototype of component integration– Component integrated into a domain specific design architecture

(defined in experiment case)

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Experiments

A laboratory experiment has been carried out to study the usability of components in metamodelling supported system analysis and design environment

Testing case: user interface design of certain functions of a mobile phone

The experimental metaCASE environment is MetaEdit+

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Experiments (Cont.)

Selecting a tool and a testing case

Preparing for a testing case

Designing the experiment

Conducting the experiment

Developing the testing case by using the selected tool

Experiment design

Pilot study

Recruiting and training participants

Conducting the experiment and analyzing data

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Outline

Introduction Background and terminologies Current situation of the reuse support in ISD Research questions Research methodology Thesis structure and a short summary of each

chapter Conclusion and discussions

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Dissertation

Component Reuse -- Conceptual Foundations and its Applications in the Metamodelling based System Analysis and Design Environment

made up of 6 separate papers published or submitted for publication

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Thesis structure - table of contents

Chp1 IntroductionChp2 A Framework for Component Reuse in a Metamodelling Based

Software Development (REJ, 6(2) 2001)Chp3 Defining Components in a MetaCASE Environment (CAiSE*00)Chp4 Component modeling for system analysis and design (ICSR7

2002 Workshop on Component-based Software Development Processes)

Chp5 Component Context Specification and Representation in a MetaCASE Environment (submitting to REJ)

Chp6 Component analysis in the metamodelling based information systems development (OOPSLA2001 workshop on DSVL)

Chp7 Implementation and Evaluation of Component Reuse in Metamodelling Supported System Analysis and Design (Working paper)

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Thesis structure - Summary of the research questions and their handling

Research Question Research Methodology

Chapter

Q1: Conceptual framework

Observation and Theory building

Chp 1 & 2

Q2: Component model Theory building, Prototyping, Laboratory experiment

Chp 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7

Q3: Needed facilities Prototyping, Laboratory experiment

Chp 1, 5 & 7

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Chapter 2 – Abstract (A Framework for Component

Reuse in a Metamodelling Based Software Development )

This chapter aims at suggesting a component reusability framework that can address issues related to design artifact and method component reuse in the lifecycle of systems development. In particular, it seeks to demonstrate how reuse “ideas” can be implemented in an industry strength environment called MetaEdit+. Our strategy to meet these goals is the following. We first develop a general framework for metamodelling based component reuse. This framework considers reuse from the perspectives of a systems development lifecycle, modeling levels, reuse situation types, component granularity, and reuse activities. The framework is then used to analyze support functionality within a metaCASE environment, and to suggest how reuse activities can be integrated into method engineering processes and associated tasks of defining development processes and their technical facilitation.

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General architecture for reuse

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Reuse Framework

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Chapter 3 – Abstract (Defining Components in a

MetaCASE Environment )

This chapter suggests component based approach helps unify design artefacts into components with explicit interfaces and meaningful context descriptions. We describe a method artifact from three perspectives: concept, content, and context. We create a component concept by using a hierarchical facet-based schema, and represent contextual relationship types by using definitional and reuse dependency, usage context, and implementation context links. This is the first attempt to explicitly define components into a metaCASE environment.

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Component model and its presentation in UML notation

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Chapter 4 – Abstract (Component modeling for system

analysis and design)

Taking into account the features of components and its involved metaCASE environment, This chapter improves the concept and text aspect of the component model by adding more supplementary information and offering more flexibility in its interface description. Such a component model and the associated functionality for component classification and retrieval greatly enhance the possibilities of incorporating reuse and components into the early phases of systems development practice.

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3C Component model

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Chapter 5 – Abstract (Component Context

Specification and Representation in a MetaCASE Environment)

This chapter specifies the context aspect of the component model. It presenting and exemplifying the frameworks of component context and its hypertext representation in MetaEdit+. It addresses the possible linking of contextual knowledge to components, including the conceptual dependencies of component construction, reuse, and implementation, as well as the reasoning and rationale behind design and reuse processes. Furthermore, it illustrates the hypertext approach to contextual knowledge representation, which provides ways for users to express, explore, recognize, and negotiate their shared context.

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Chapter 6 – Abstract (Component analysis in the

metamodelling based information systems development)

This chapter presents the component taxonomy in the metamodelling based systems development environments, such as MetaEdit+. It elaborates on the aspects of structure, functionality, supporting environment, and reusability to analysis and compare between code component, model component, and metamodel component. Through comparison, it presents the current state of component based development in metaCASE environments, and reveals the difficulties and research directions in further research of component based metaCASE environment.

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Chapter 7 – Abstract (Implementation and Evaluation of Component Reuse in Metamodelling Supported System Analysis

and Design) The last chapter presents an empirical study of component-

based reuse in systems analysis and design. Based on the conceptual framework and 3C component model built in the prior chapters, a testing case is developed and the laboratory experiment is designed to study the usability of components in system analysis and design and the supporting functionality provided by a metaCASE environment. MetaEdit+ is used in the experiment.

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Conclusions

Contribution and limitations– … …

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Interesting research topics - Reuse and agile approach

Will reuse be a suitable strategy for project teams taking an agile approach to software development?

A lot of work has been done in the context of software reuse on heavyweight domain engineering method; however, there are also approaches such as Extreme Programming (XP), agile modelling, domain specific language that put emphasize on evolution, flexibility, and responsiveness rather than proactive and preplanned generalization. These approaches have been useful at either creating reusable components or at least made it so that systems can quickly evolve and adapt to changing user requirements.

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Interesting research topics – Requirements reuse

How to apply a reuse based approach to the early phases of systems development, reusing requirements? (http://giro.infor.uva.es/docpub/Doc-Workshop.pdf)

Framework? Process? Techniques? … …

SB Program


Interesting research topics

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SB Program University of Jyväskylä 1 An Introduction to Component reuse: conceptual foundations...

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