ICSOFT-EA 2015 Abstracts

Area 1 - Enterprise Software Technologies
Full Papers Short Papers
Area 2 - Software Project Management
Full Papers Short Papers
Area 3 - Distributed and Mobile Software Systems
Short Papers
Area 4 - Software Engineering Methods and Techniques
Full Papers Short Papers

Area 1 - Enterprise Software Technologies

Full Papers
Paper Nr: 28
Title:

Towards Outsource-ability Enabled BPMN
Authors:

Mouna Rekik, Khouloud Boukadi and Hanene Ben-Abdallah
Abstract: Business process outsourcing to the Cloud is increasingly being adopted as a strategy to save costs, improve the business process performance, enhance the flexibility in responding to costumers' needs, etc. However, the adoption of an outsourcing strategy faces several challenges like the enterprise data security, vendor-lock-in and labor union. Weighing the pros and cons of outsourcing one’s business process is an arduous task. This paper provides for assistance means: it extends the BPMN language to explicitly support the specification of outsourcing criteria, and it presents an automated approach to help decision makers identify those parts of their business process that benefit most from outsourcing to the Cloud.
Download
Paper Nr: 41
Title:

A Review of Detecting and Correcting Deviations on Software Processes
Authors:

Manel Smatti, Mourad Oussalah and Mohamed Ahmed Nacer
Abstract: Deviations are known as unexpected situations that could arise during Software Process (SP) enactment. They are the difference between what is expected and what is carried out in real world. Experience has shown that the appearance of such situations is unescapable, especially within large software development projects. Moreover, their occurrence often leads to software development failure if they are not detected and corrected as soon as they appear. This paper presents a literature review of deviation problem on software processes. The most relevant approaches that have been dealing with this issue from the 90s until today are considered within this study. The main goal is to have a clear insight of what has been achieved and what worth to be considered by future works. To achieve this aim, we propose two comparison frameworks that highlight the addressed approaches from two different perspectives, how to detect deviations and how to correct them. As a result of this study, we propose a covering graph for each classification framework which puts in advance the strengths and the weaknesses of each approach.
Download
Paper Nr: 80
Title:

Cloud Description Ontology for Service Discovery and Selection
Authors:

Molka Rekik, Khouloud Boukadi and Hanêne Ben-abdallah
Abstract: Abstract: Cloud computing is a model delivery of infrastructure, platform and software services over the net. The lack of standardization of heterogeneous Cloud service descriptions makes service discovery and selection very complex tasks for Cloud users. To ease this complexity, it is crucial to describe the various Cloud service pertinent information in a homogeneous model. To provide for such model, this paper offers to contributions. First, it proposes a Cloud description ontology that integrates service descriptions obtained from heterogeneous sources. The ontology model accounts for the functional and non-functional properties, attributes and relations of infrastructure, platform and software services in order to facilitate the discovery and selection of suitable Cloud services. Second, this paper presents a qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the proposed ontology. For the qualitative evaluation, we use a reasoner to identify defects in the ontology, whilst for the quantitative evaluation we compare our search results with those obtained through a web search engine.
Download
Short Papers
Paper Nr: 69
Title:

QS Mapper: A Transparent Data Aggregator for the Quantified Self - Freedom from Particularity Using Two-way Mappings
Authors:

Rasmus Rosenqvist Petersen, Adriana Lukas and Uffe Kock Wiil
Abstract: Quantified Self is a growing community of individuals seeking self-improvement through self-measurement. Initially, personal variables such as diet, exercise, sleep, and productivity are tracked. This data is then explored for correlations, to ultimately either change negative or confirm positive behavioural patterns. Tools and applications that can handle these tasks exist, but they mostly focus on specific domains such as diet and exercise. These targeted tools implement a black box approach to data ingestion and computational analysis, thereby reducing the level of trust in the information reported. We present QS Mapper, a novel tool, that allows users to create two-way mappings between their tracked data and the data model. It is demonstrated how drag and drop data ingestion, interactive explorative analysis, and customisation of computational analysis procures more individual insights when testing Quantified Self hypotheses.
Download
Paper Nr: 78
Title:

Semantic and Structural Performer Clustering in BPMN Models Transformed into Social Network Models
Authors:

Wiem Khlif and Hanêne Ben-abdallah
Abstract: Current trends in organization restructuring focus on the social relationships among the organizational actors in order to improve the business process. Proposed business process model restructuring approaches adopt either social network discovery or rediscovery techniques. Social network discovery uses semantic information to guide the affiliation process during its analyses, whereas social network rediscovery uses structural information to identify groups in the social network. In this paper, we propose a hybrid method that exploits both knowledge discovery and rediscovery to suggest a new structure of a business process model that is based on performers clustering. Using the context concept, the proposed method applies a hierarchical clustering algorithm to determine the performer partitions; the algorithm uses two newly defined distances that account for the semantic and structural information. The method is illustrated and evaluated experimentally to analyze its performance.
Download
Paper Nr: 88
Title:

How Trajectory Data Modeling Improves Decision Making?
Authors:

Noura Azaiez and Jalel Akaichi
Abstract: The incredible progress witnessed in geographic information and pervasive systems equipped with positioning technologies have motivated the evolving of classic data towards mobility or trajectory data resulting from moving objects’ displacements and activities. Provided trajectory data have to be extracted, transformed and loaded into a data warehouse for analysis and/or mining purposes; however, this later, qualified as traditional, is poorly suited to handle spatio-temporal data features and to exploit them, efficiently, for decision making tasks related to mobility issues. Because of this mismatch, we propose a bottom-up approach which offers the possibility to model and analyse the trajectories of moving object activities in order to improve decision making tasks by extracting pertinent knowledge and guaranteeing the coherence of provided analysis results at the lowest cost and time consuming. We illustrate our approach through a creamery trajectory decision support system.
Download
Paper Nr: 8
Title:

How does Oracle Database In-Memory Scale out?
Authors:

Niloy Mukherjee, Kartik Kulkarni, Hui Jin, Jesse Kamp and Tirthankar Lahiri
Abstract: The Oracle RDBMS In-memory Option (DBIM), introduced in 2014, is an industry-first distributed dual format in-memory RDBMS that allows a database object to be stored in columnar format purely in-memory, simultaneously maintaining transactional consistency with the corresponding row-major format persisted in storage and accessed through in-memory database buffer cache. The in-memory columnar format is highly optimized to break performance barriers in analytic query workloads while the row format is most suitable for OLTP workloads. In this paper, we present the distributed architecture of the Oracle Database In- memory Option that enables the in-memory RDBMS to transparently scale out across a set of Oracle database server instances in an Oracle RAC cluster, both in terms of memory capacity and query processing throughput. The architecture allows complete application-transparent, extremely scalable and automated in- memory distribution of Oracle RDBMS objects across multiple instances in a cluster. It seamlessly provides distribution awareness to the Oracle SQL execution framework, ensuring completely local memory scans through affinitized fault-tolerant parallel execution within and across servers without explicit optimizer plan changes or query rewrites.
Download
Paper Nr: 55
Title:

ROCL: New Extensions to OCL for Useful Verification of Flexible Software Systems
Authors:

Hanen Grichi, Olfa Mosbahi and Mohamed Khalgui
Abstract: The paper deals with the verification of reconfigurable real-time systems to be validated by using the Object Constraint Language (abbrev, OCL). A reconfiguration scenario is assumed to be any adaptation of the execution to the system environment according to user requirements. Nevertheless, since several behaviors can be redundant from an execution to another, the use of OCL is insufficient to specify the constraints to be satisfied by this kind of systems. We propose an extension of OCL, named Reconfigurable OCL, in order to optimize the specification and validation of constraints related to different execution scenarios of a flexible system. A metamodel of the new ROCL is proposed with formal syntax and semantics. This solution gains in term of the validation time and the quick expression of constraints. The paper’s contribution is applied to a case study that we propose to show the originality of this new language.
Download
Paper Nr: 62
Title:

Design and Implementation of Multiple Fiber Online Monitoring of and Fault Automatic Detecting System
Authors:

Wanchang Jiang, Liang Zhao and Shengda Wang
Abstract: Optical Fiber Communication Has Widely Used in the Power System and Other Fields, as the Backbone Network and the Main Transmission Medium of the Power System, Once the Fiber Optic Communication Has Been Interrupted for a Long Time, Significant Loss Will Be Caused to the Electric Power Enterprises, to Ensure the Reliability of the Fiber Network, Monitoring Optical Fiber Is Essential, Monitoring Instruments and Systems Are Developed, the Hand-Held OTDR Can Not Monitor Muti-Fiber Online, the Fiber Core Resources Are Wastes in the Monitoring System with Alone Occupied Fiber Cores, to Overcome the Shortcomings of These Systems, using Virtual Instrument Technology, Online Monitoring and Automatic Detecting System for Multi-Fiber Is Described in This Paper, without Occupying the Working Fiber Core Alone for Monitoring, Multi-Fiber Lines Are Online Monitored Simultaneously, There Is No Need for Altering Hardware Connection, the Manual and Automatic Mode Is Designed for Convenience, Once the System Gives Alarming for Some Monitored Fiber Line, the Alarmed Fiber Core Would Be Detect Automatically, then the Detected Data Will Be Pre-Processed by the Wavelet Threshold De-Noising based Data Pre-Processing Method, and the Curve of Detection Results Is Drawn after Analysis, the Event List and Landmark List Is Designed as an Assistant Tool to Describe the Curve, Comprehensive Diagnosis Conclusion of Fault Is Implemented to Conclude the Diagnosis of the Fault, an Application Example of the System Is given, the Aim of Practicality of the System Is Realized.
Paper Nr: 68
Title:

Towards a Unified Platform for Agent-based Cloud Robotics
Authors:

Francisca Rosique, Pedro Sánchez, Diego Alonso and Juan Antonio López
Abstract: This paper describes a platform that aims to design, build, and validate a new generation of cloud robotic platforms that enable agent-based intelligent control of robots deployed in unknown and dynamic environments. The platform will consider: (1) novel techniques for programming reactive plans and robotic behaviours through missions and novel mechanisms for building new behaviours from existing ones, both for experienced and non-expert users; (2) novel multi-layered cloud platform as the infrastructure to maintain a continuous link between the robots acting on a physical environment and their agent counterparts, to provide sensor data from robots to agents, and to provide high-level autonomous decisions from agents to robots.
Download
Paper Nr: 71
Title:

Analyzing Taiwan Bridge Management System for Decision Making in Bridge Maintenance - A Big Data Approach
Authors:

Nie-Jia Yau and Yu-Han Chuang
Abstract: The Taiwan Bridge Management System (TBMS) has been online for 15 years and has an inventory of 33,275 bridges, including all kinds of bridges and culverts in Taiwan. Currently, the number of fields in all tables in the databases of TBMS is around 6,500 with more than 3 million data records in its databases. Meanwhile, bridge inspection data and maintenance data are increasing at a speed of 15,000 records annually. Thus, the TBMS databases are deemed as “Big Data.” There are more than 9,500 bridges that are over 20 years old with another 7,200 bridge having unknown built years in the TBMS. The bridges in Taiwan have stepped into the stage where maintenance is crucial and frequently required. Therefore, this research aims at analysing the database in the TBMS using “Big Data” approach for determining maintenance strategies for these bridges. This paper describes results of the first year’s research efforts. Relevant literature in bridge maintenance, prioritization, and life-cycle bridge management were firstly reviewed. Concepts, theories, techniques, and available software for analysing “Big Data” were also intensively examined and summarized. In next year, functions will be programmed and applied to the TBMS databases using appropriate “Big Data” software to obtain useful information in bridge deterioration, repair methods, and maintenance costs.
Download
Paper Nr: 92
Title:

Formalization of Secure Service Oriented Product Line
Authors:

Ines Achour, Lamia Labed and Henda Ben Ghezala
Abstract: In this work, we focus on the SOPL approach (Service Oriented Product Line) which can be used in various domains where SOA based applications are needed such as e/m government, e-business, e-learning and so on. This approach is a combination of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Software Product Line (SPL). Ensure secure services are vital in order to establish trust between users and service providers. In this context, we aim to propose guidelines for using Secure SOPL which process leads to produce secure service-oriented applications. In fact, with the diversity of the means that allow us to perform security activities, the use of Secure SOPL is difficult especially for developers whose lack experience in the security software, SPL and SOA fields which are the basis the Secure SOPL. Thus, we choose the Map formalism which is a decision-oriented model to formalize the two phases of our Secure SOPL.
Download

Area 2 - Software Project Management

Full Papers
Paper Nr: 40
Title:

Defining and Evaluating Software Project Success Indicators - A GQM-based Case Study
Authors:

Luigi Lavazza, Enrico Frumento and Riccardo Mazza
Abstract: KPI (Key Process Indicators) and success indicators are often defined in a rather generic and imprecise manner. This happens because they are defined very early in the project’s life, when little details about the project are known, or simply because the definition does not follow a systematic and effective methodology. We need to precisely define KPI and project success indicators, guarantee that the data upon which they are based can be effectively and efficiently measured, and assure that the computed indicators are adequate with respect to project objectives, and represent the viewpoints of all the involved stakeholders. A complete and coherent process for managing KPI and success indicators lifecycle –instrumented with specific techniques and tools, including the Goal/Question/Metrics (GQM) method for the definition of measures and the R statistic language and environment for analyzing data and computing indicators– was applied in the evaluation of the European research project MUSES. The MUSES case study shows that the proposed process provides an easy and well supported path to the definition and implementation of effective KPI and project success indicators.
Download
Short Papers
Paper Nr: 36
Title:

Using Property Rights Theory to Overcome Success Barriers to Software Development Project: Protection of Contractors’ Knowledge
Authors:

Cornelia Gaebert
Abstract: A fundamental tenet of the information systems discipline holds that: (a) changing requirements in software development projects (SDP) are the main reason for failure; (b) therefore, in case of such uncertainties, fixedprice contracts (FPC) are not suitable for success. Our research, informed by economic theories, compellingly illustrates that among other things changing requirements stems from missing protection on knowledge. In this paper, we present an analysis of knowledge difficult to protect. Both parties must share knowledge during the specification of requirements. However, this business knowledge is an essential intellectual property, and thus needs protection for misuse. We enact a strategy to achieve SDPs success despite these barriers. Our theoretical and empirical analysis also found that SDP success is largely an uncertainty problem between the contractors on the management level, and thus technical-organizational approaches alone are inadequate for achieving success. Based on property rights theory, we introduce two models for protecting knowledge depending on uncertainties. Our findings offer managers important insights into how they can design and enact FPC for effectively manage SDPs. Further, we show how the economic theories can enhance understanding of SDP dynamics and advance the development of a theory of effective control of SDP success.
Download
Paper Nr: 37
Title:

Who Are the Rational Actors in Software Development Projects?
Authors:

Cornelia Gaebert and Jörg Friedrich
Abstract: In the field of software development outsourcing and software project management, researchers use concepts from economic theory to describe organizations, groups, teams, and involved people as rational actors. However, they fail to justify these approaches based on an appropriate understanding of the involved social actors’ status. The question, who really can be described as a rational actor, the organizations, teams, or the individual people, and which kind of rationality they provide, remains open. We have therefore analyzed the social structure of software development projects (SDP) as described in research literature. Based on novel concepts from the field of social philosophy, we have developed a social ontology (SO) of the actors in the context of commercial SDPs. We identified different actors at several levels, with different kinds of rationality. Organizations, departments, and groups may act as rational actors if following well-defined regulations and methods. Actor classification according to the rationality of the actors’ decision-making will help understand and predict their behavior and thus provide a solid base for the application of economic concepts to software development outsourcing and software project management research.
Download
Paper Nr: 57
Title:

Establishing Construction Scheduling Progress Curve based on Buidling Information Modeling Quantity Takeoffs
Authors:

Kun-Chi Wang, Wei-Hao Wu, Pei-Yuan Hsu, Abdoul-Aziz Gansonre, Wei-Chih Wang and Cheng-Ju Kung
Abstract: A cost cumulative progress curve (called S-curve) is often used as a basis for effective schedule control which is a key to the success of construction projects. In establishing a planned S-curve of a construction project, the cost of each scheduling activity must be determined. Furthermore, the contractual costs associated with the cost items should be fully distributed to all scheduling activities. However, the relationships between scheduling activities and cost items are complex because these relationships may be 1-to-1, many-to-1 or many-to-many relations. This research proposes a searching algorithm to conduct quantity takeoffs in Revit and QTO to facilitate the establishment of the planned S-curve. The proposed search algorithm defines different search steps (using various searching parameters, such as "floor", "physical object", "cost item", and "area") to identify corresponding cost items associated with different types of activities. The benefits of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated by applying it to a high-tech facility building in northern Taiwan.
Download
Paper Nr: 91
Title:

Certification and Legislation - An Italian Experience of Fiscal Software Certification
Authors:

Isabella Biscoglio, Giuseppe Lami, Eda Marchetti and Gianluca Trentanni
Abstract: The paper introduces the Italian Fiscal Software Certification scenario. Some concepts about certification are illustrated. The cash registers, as specific kind of Fiscal Meter, are described and their adopted certification process based on Italian legislation requirements is presented as well. Finally, the new related technological challenges are discussed.
Download
Paper Nr: 64
Title:

Optimizing Construction Sequences for Secant Pile Walls
Authors:

Rong-Yau Huang, Ping-Fu Chen and Jieh-Haur Chen
Abstract: Secant pile walls are crucial in the construction of fossil-fuel power plants for water exclusion purposes. The construction time is the most critical factor that influences the entire construction project. Thus, shortening the time needed for building secant pile walls requires further investigation. Secant pile walls are not required to be constructed in any particular order; typically, site engineers assign construction crews to first build several primary bored piles, and then build secondary bored piles. However, building secant pile walls in this sequence generally requires the primary bored piles to be excessively cured and hardened. The construction of secondary bored piles in this manner thus results in construction difficulties, wasted construction time, and poor construction quality. To address this practical problem, this study adopted a genetic algorithm to investigate the optimal number of primary bored piles, the curing time, and the number of daily working hours for the construction crew. In addition, the relationship between the curing time for the primary bored piles and the construction time for the secondary bored piles was investigated by using a case study, to ensure the overall research results corresponded to practical operation. The findings of this study can facilitate the saving of construction time in the future construction of secant pile walls, enabling the whole construction project to be completed successfully and improving public welfare.
Download
Paper Nr: 75
Title:

Critical Success Factors and Barriers for Lightweight Software Process Improvement in Agile Development - A Literature Review
Authors:

Elia Kouzari, Vassilis C. Gerogiannis, Ioannis Stamelos and George Kakarontzas
Abstract: The majority of software development companies are significantly benefitted by adopting software process improvement (SPI). This has been extensively addressed both in terms of research and established standards. In particular, the need for SPI in the context of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) led a lot of researchers to focus on this area. SMEs struggle daily to survive in a very competitive environment and their distinguishing characteristics such as the small number of employees, the flat and small organizational structure and the flexibility that governs them make it hard for them to adopt and implement SPI. On the same spirit, their distinguishing characteristics are also those that make SMEs an ideal environment for the adoption of agile methodologies. The agility that governs SMEs allows flexibility in every process they apply and, thus, promotes lightweight SPI approaches in order to remain on the battle fields of competition. In this article, we examine the special characteristics SMEs have and highlight critical success factors that should be taken advantage of and barriers that could be avoided during SPI, as they are presented in the relevant literature. In addition, we examine how critical success factors of SPI could positively affect a firm’s Return on Investment and, consequently, help the firm survive in the long-term.
Download
Paper Nr: 82
Title:

A Framework to Evaluate Software Developer’s Productivity - The VALORTIA Project
Authors:

J. M. Sánchez-Begínes, F. J. Domínguez-Mayo, M. J. Escalona, M. Mejías, N. Sánchez Gómez, J. M. Bolívar, E. Morillo and P. Perejón
Abstract: Currently, there is a lack in companies developing software in relation to assessing their staff’s productivity before executing software projects, with the aim of improving effectiveness and efficiency. QuEF (Quality Evaluation Framework) is a framework that allows defining quality management tasks based on a model. The main purpose of this framework is twofold: improve an entity’s continuous quality, and given a context, decide between a set of entity’s instances on the most appropriate one. Thus, the aim of this paper is to make this framework available to evaluate productivity of professionals along software development and select the most appropriate experts to implement the suggested project. For this goal, Valortia platform, capable of carrying out this task by following the QuEF framework guidelines, is designed. Valortia is a platform to certify users' knowledge on a specific area and centralize all certification management in its model by means of providing protocols and methods for a suitable management, improving efficiency and effectiveness, reducing cost and ensuring continuous quality.
Download
Paper Nr: 84
Title:

Understanding Approval Rating of Agile Project Management Tools using Twitter
Authors:

Martina Matta and Michele Marchesi
Abstract: The role of managing a software project can be extremely complicated, requiring many teams and organizational resources. Many people are acknowledging that Agile development is helpful to business, with an high increase over the last years in the number of people who believe that Agile helps companies to complete projects faster. Since there is a multitude of available tools that supports Agile methods, in this position paper we tried to understand which tools are most looked for using Web Search media, most mentioned and most appreciated through Social media. Furthermore, we applied automated Sentiment Analysis on shared short messages of users on Twitter, one of the most popular social networks, in order to analyze automatically developers' opinions, sentiments, evaluations and attitudes.
Download

Area 3 - Distributed and Mobile Software Systems

Short Papers
Paper Nr: 94
Title:

Spatio-Temporal Normalization of Data from Heterogeneous Sensors
Authors:

Alessio Fanelli, Daniela Micucci, Marco Mobilio and Francesco Tisato
Abstract: The growing use of sensors in smart environments applications like smart homes, hospitals, public transportation, emergency services, education, and workplaces not only generates constantly increasing of sensor data, but also rises the complexity of integration of heterogeneous data and hardware devices. In order to get more accurate and consistent information on real world events, heterogeneous sensor data should be normalized. The paper proposes a set of architectural abstractions aimed at representing sensors' measurements that are independent from the sensors' technology. Such a set can reduce the effort for data fusion and interpretation. The abstractions allow to represent raw sensor readings by means of spatio-temporal contextualized events.
Download
Paper Nr: 67
Title:

Parallel Applications and On-chip Traffic Distributions: Observation, Implication and Modelling
Authors:

Thomas Canhao Xu, Jonne Pohjankukka, Paavo Nevalainen, Ville Leppänen and Tapio Pahikkala
Abstract: We study the traffic characteristics of parallel and high performance computing applications in this paper. Applications that utilize multiple cores are more and more common nowadays due to the emergence of multicore processors. However the design nature of single-threaded applications and multi-threaded applications can vary significantly. Furthermore the on-chip communication profile of multicore systems should be analysed and modelled for characterization and simulation purposes. We investigate several applications running on a full system simulation environment. The on-chip communication traces are gathered and analysed. We study the detailed low-level profiles of these applications. The applications are categorized into different groups according to various parallel programming paradigms. We discover that the trace data follow different parameters of power-law model. The problem is solved by applying least-squares linear regression. We propose a generic synthetic traffic model based on the analysis results.
Download
Paper Nr: 87
Title:

A Proposal of Web Data Mining Application for Mapping Crime Areas in the Czech Republic
Authors:

Martin Lněnička, Jan Hovad, Jitka Komárková and Miroslav Pásler
Abstract: In this paper, authors offer a new view on the issue of the geography of crime areas. The paper proposes an interface to support the decision-making process in the reasonable time. The proposed application is used to extract crime related information, find crime hotspots and present crime trends using web data mining techniques. The target area is the sum of all administrative districts of municipalities with extended powers in the Czech Republic. Every crime problem is related to some location, whether it is an address, street or district. The proposed application scans the selected mass media servers for the words connected with the crime type and the concrete municipality. This paper shows the detailed overview about the proposed and used architecture, methods and data structures.
Download
Paper Nr: 93
Title:

Iterative Mapreduce MPI Oil Reservoir Simulator
Authors:

Madina Mansurova, Darkhan Akhmed-Zaki, Adai Shomanov, Bazargul Matkerim and Ermek Alimzhanov
Abstract: Paper presents an advanced Iterative MapReduce MPI oil reservoir simulator. First we present an overview of working implementations that make use of the same technologies. Then we define an academic example of numeric problem with an emphasis on its computational features. We present a distributed parallel algorithm of hybrid solution of the problem using MapReduce Hadoop and MPI technologies and describe an improved variant of the algorithm using memory-mapped files.
Download
Paper Nr: 96
Title:

Wise Objects for Calm Technology
Authors:

Ilham Alloui, David Esale and Flavien Vernier
Abstract: In this position paper we identify the design of “wise systems” as an open research problem addressing new technology-based systems. Increasing complexity and sophistication make those systems hard to understand and to master. Human users are very often involved in learning processes that capture all their attention while being of little interest for them. To alleviate human interaction with such systems, as the foundation of our current research, we propose the concept of “wise object” as the building block. Software-based systems would then be able to autonomously learn on themselves and on the way humans use them. Humans would in turn be prompted only when necessary by the system.
Download

Area 4 - Software Engineering Methods and Techniques

Full Papers
Paper Nr: 12
Title:

Multi-dimensional Goal Refinement in Goal-Oriented Requirements Engineering
Authors:

Wataru Inoue, Shinpei Hayashi, Haruhiko Kaiya and Motoshi Saeki
Abstract: In this paper, we propose a multi-dimensional extension of goal graphs in goal-oriented requirements engineering in order to support the understanding the relations between goals, i.e., goal refinements. Goals specify multiple concerns such as functions, strategies, and non-functions, and they are refined into sub goals from mixed views of these concerns. This intermixture of concerns in goals makes it difficult for a requirements analyst to understand and maintain goal graphs. In our approach, a goal graph is put in a multi-dimensional space, a concern corresponds to a coordinate axis in this space, and goals are refined into sub goals referring to the coordinates. Thus, the meaning of a goal refinement is explicitly provided by means of the coordinates used for the refinement. By tracing and focusing on the coordinates of goals, requirements analysts can understand goal refinements and modify unsuitable ones. We have developed a supporting tool and made an exploratory experiment to evaluate the usefulness of our approach.
Download
Paper Nr: 16
Title:

Design for Excellence in the Context of Very Large-Scale Requirements Engineering
Authors:

Sanja Aaramaa, Samuli Saukkonen, Jarkko Hyysalo, Jouni Similä, Pasi Kuvaja and Markku Oivo
Abstract: The increasing complexity of software-intensive systems (SIS) has led to a completely new concept: Very Large-Scale Requirements Engineering (VLSRE), where the sheer number of requirements typically exceeds 10,000. Design for eXcellence (DfX) principles and their execution have been studied in different contexts for decades. However, DfX has not been in the focus of the Requirements Engineering (RE) process, and especially not in the VLSRE context. This paper addresses the DfX topic through an empirical study of the DfX RE-process and practices in a large global ICT organisation operating in the VLSRE mode. The result of this study is a conceptual framework that helps to overcome the challenges identified, leading towards changes in the operational procedures of the DfX RE-process, accommodating the requirements of very large-scale development. The piloting of the framework has been started in the case company, and initial feedback has been positive. The findings of this study offer new insights for scholars and practitioners.
Download
Paper Nr: 26
Title:

Integrating and Applying Architectural Design Patterns in Space Flight Software Product Lines
Authors:

Julie Street Fant, Hassan Gomaa and Robert G. Pettit
Abstract: The unmanned space flight software (FSW) domain contains a significant amount of variability within its required capabilities. Although all FSW execute commands from the ground station to control the spacecraft, there is significant amount of variability in the volume of commands that must be processed, the amount of control given to the ground station versus onboard autonomy, and the amount and type of hardware that requires controlling. This degree of architectural variability makes it difficult to develop a FSW software product line (SPL) architecture that covers the all possible variations. In order to address this challenge, this paper presents a SPL approach for FSW SPLs that manages variability at a higher level of granularity using software architectural design patterns and requires less modeling during the SPL engineering phase. Specifically it describes how variable design patterns can be interconnected to form FSW SPL software architectures. The design patterns are tailored to individual FSW applications during application engineering. The paper describes in detail the application and validation of this approach.
Download
Paper Nr: 38
Title:

A Method for Model Checking Feature Interactions
Authors:

Thomas Pedersen, Thibaut Le Guilly, Anders P. Ravn and Arne Skou
Abstract: This paper presents a method to check for feature interactions in a system assembled from independently developed concurrent processes as found in many reactive systems. The method combines and refines existing definitions and adds a set of activities. The activities describe how to populate the definitions with models to ensure that all interactions are captured. The method is illustrated on a home automation example with model checking as analysis tool. In particular, the modelling formalism is timed automata and the analysis uses UPPAAL to find interactions.
Download
Paper Nr: 49
Title:

An Approach for the Semi-automated Derivation of UML Interaction Models from Scenario-based Runtime Tests
Authors:

Thorsten Haendler, Stefan Sobernig and Mark Strembeck
Abstract: Documenting system behavior explicitely using graphical models (e.g. UML activity or sequence diagrams) facilitates communication about and understanding of software systems during development or maintenance. Creating graphical models manually is a time-consuming and often error-prone task. Deriving models from system-execution traces, however, suffers from the problem of model-size explosion. We propose a model-driven approach for deriving behavior documentation in terms of UML interaction models from runtime tests in a semi-automated manner. Key to our approach is leveraging the structure of scenario-based tests for model and diagram derivation. Each derived model represents a particular view on the test-execution trace. This way, one can benefit from derived graphical models while making the resulting model size manageable. In this paper, we define conceptual mappings between a test-execution trace metamodel and the UML2 metamodel. In addition, we provide means to turn selected details of test specifications and of testing environment into views on the test-execution trace (scenario-test viewpoint). The feasibility of our approach is demonstrated by a prototype implementation (KaleidoScope), which builds on an existing software-testing framework (STORM) and model transformations (Eclipse M2M/QVTo).
Download
Paper Nr: 90
Title:

An Approach for Automated Scenario-based Testing of Distributed and Heterogeneous Systems
Authors:

Bruno Lima and João Pascoal Faria
Abstract: The growing dependence of our society on increasingly complex software systems, makes software testing ever more important and challenging. In many domains, such as healthcare and transportation, several independent systems, forming a heterogeneous and distributed system of systems, are involved in the provisioning of end-to-end services to users. However, existing testing techniques, namely in the model-based testing field, provide little tool support for properly testing such systems. Hence, in this paper, we propose an approach and a toolset architecture for automating the testing of end-to-end services in distributed and heterogeneous systems. The tester interacts with a visual modeling frontend to describe key behavioral scenarios, invoke test generation and execution, and visualize test results and coverage information back in the model. The visual modeling notation is converted to a formal notation amenable for runtime interpretation in the backend. A distributed test monitoring and control infrastructure is responsible for interacting with the components of the system under test, as test driver, monitor and stub. At the core of the toolset, a test execution engine coordinates test execution and checks the conformance of the observed execution trace with the expectations derived from the visual model. A real world example from the Ambient Assisted Living domain is presented to illustrate the approach.
Download
Short Papers
Paper Nr: 9
Title:

Reverse Engineering an IPhone Applications using Dynamic Analysis
Authors:

Philippe Dugerdil and Roland Sako
Abstract: Mobile applications are becoming very complex since business applications increasingly move to the mobile. Hence the same problem of code maintenance and comprehension of poorly documented apps, as in the desktop world, happen to the mobile today. One technique to help with code comprehension is to reverse engineer the application. Specifically, we are interested in the functional structure of the app i.e. how the classes that implement the use cases interact. Then we adapted, to the iPhone, the code analysis technique we developed for the desktop applications. In this paper we present the reverse engineering process and tool we used to reverse engineer the code of an iPhone app and show, in a case study, how these tools are used.
Download
Paper Nr: 18
Title:

Towards Knowledge-intensive Software Engineering
Authors:

Samuel R. Cauvin, Derek Sleeman and Wamberto W. Vasconcelos
Abstract: This research explores relations between software artefacts and explicitly represented (domain) knowledge. More specifically, we investigate ways in which domain knowledge (represented as ontologies) can support software engineering activities and, conversely, how software artefacts (e.g., programs, methods, and UML diagrams) can support the creation of ontologies. In our approach, class names, and class properties are the principal entities which are extracted from both sources. We implemented a tool, called Facilitator, to support programmers and knowledge engineers when they develop ontologies or programs. This tool provides a list of connections between the ontology and Java project, and provides reasons why these connections have been identified. These connections are created by matching names, types, and superclass-subclass relationships. Facilitator provides a range of semantic web enabled functionalities.
Download
Paper Nr: 19
Title:

A Visualization Tool for Scenario-based Software Development
Authors:

Eiji Shiota and Atsushi Ohnishi
Abstract: In a scenario-based software development, a lot of scenarios should be described in order to clarify the whole behaviors of the target software. By reusing scenarios of similar software systems, it becomes more efficient to newly describe scenarios of the target software. A differential scenario includes the difference between sequences of events of the two scenarios and the difference between nouns in the scenarios. If the nouns of the two scenarios are commonly used in the two scenarios, we regard the two scenarios specify the same or similar system. If the sequences of the events of the two scenarios are corresponding each other, we regard behavior of the two scenarios are similar. In this paper, we derive differential information including different words and events from two scenarios. Then, we propose a method of scenario retrieval using differential information between two scenarios. This method enables to detect similar scenarios for a given scenario. The proposed method and a prototype system for creating and visualizing differential scenario and a retrieval system will be illustrated with examples.
Download
Paper Nr: 23
Title:

Change Effort Estimation based on UML Diagrams Application in UCP and COCOMOII
Authors:

Dhikra Kchaou, Nadia Bouassida and Hanene Ben-Abdallah
Abstract: Change impact must be accounted for during effort estimation to provide for adequate decision making at the appropriate moment in the software lifecycle. Existing effort estimation approaches, like the Use Case Point method and the COnstructive COst MOdeL, estimate the effort only if the change occurs at one level, for example when a new functionality is added (at functional level). However, they do not treat elementary changes at the design level such as the addition of a class or a sequence diagram; because they incur several modifications at different modelling levels, such changes are important to account for in effort estimation during the software development. In this paper, we take advantage of intra and inter UML diagrams dependencies, first, to assist developers in identifying the necessary changes that UML diagrams must undergo after a potential change, and secondly to estimate the necessary effort to handle any elementary change e.g. adding a class, an attribute, etc. We use our traceability technique in order to adapt the UCP and COCOMO methods to estimate the effort whenever a change occurs during the requirement or design phases.
Download
Paper Nr: 30
Title:

New Schedulability Analysis for Real-Time Systems based on MDE and Petri Nets Model at Early Design Stages
Authors:

Mohamed Naija, Samir Ben Ahmed and Jean-Michel Bruel
Abstract: Transforming a software functional model that describes the underlying application to a concurrency model is considered as a critical issue in the model-based approaches for Real-Time Embedded Systems (RTES) development process. The formal methods have proven to be useful for making the development process reliable at a high abstraction level. Based on this approach, this current research proposes a generic approach to task construction that allows early detection of unfeasible design. Having a component-oriented specification as entry, the first stage of the methodology consists in the workload model specification. The workload model represents the system end-to-end computations triggered by an external stimulus and subject to hard real-time constraints. This model is then mapped into a Petri Nets formalism to perform P-invariant method and generate all transactions in an optimized way. The refinement of the transaction set in a Schedulability Analysis Model defining an optimized threading strategy model. The latter presents the set of units of execution taken into account by the scheduler of the system and their scheduling parameters. We illustrate the advantages and effectiveness of the proposed method by constructing a concurrency model for a combined Cruise Control System and Anti-lock Braking System.
Download
Paper Nr: 43
Title:

Extending Causal Semantics of UML2.0 Sequence Diagram for Distributed Systems
Authors:

Fatma Dhaou, Ines Mouakher, Christian Attiogbé and Khaled Bsaies
Abstract: The imprecision of the definitions of UML2.0 sequence diagrams, given by the Object Management Group (OMG), does not allow the obtention of all the possible valid behaviours for a given distributed system, when communicating objects are independent. We choose the causal semantics, which is suitable for this kind of systems; we propose its extension to support complex behaviours, expressed with combined fragments. We propose the implementation of our approach with Event-B in order to check later on some properties of safety, liveness and fairness.
Download
Paper Nr: 66
Title:

Towards More Relational Feature Models
Authors:

Arnaud Gotlieb, Dusica Marijan and Sagar Sen
Abstract: Feature modeling is of paramount importance to capture variabilities and commonalities within a software product line. Nevertheless, current feature modeling notations are limited, representing only propositional formulae over attributed variables. This position paper advocates the extension of feature modeling formalisms with richer computational domains and relational operations. In particular, it proposes to extend feature modeling with finite and continuous domain variables, with first-order logic quantifiers (8;9), and with N-ary relations between features attributes, and with so-called global constraints. In order to extend the expressiveness while preserving automated analysis facilities, feature models could be semantically interpreted as first-order logic formulae (instead of propositional logic formulae), including global and continuous dependency between features. In simpler words, this paper emphasizes the importance of having more relational feature models and presents next-generation applications.
Download
Paper Nr: 76
Title:

Towards Gamification in Software Traceability: Between Test and Code Artifacts
Authors:

Reza Meimandi Parizi, Asem Kasem and Azween Abdullah
Abstract: With the ever-increasing dependence of our civil and social infrastructures to the correct functioning of software systems, the need for approaches to engineer reliable and validated software systems grows rapidly. Traceability is the ability to trace the influence of one software artifact on another by linking dependencies. Test-to-code traceability (relationships between test and system code) plays a vital role in the production, verification, reliability and certification of highly software-intensive dependable systems. Prior work on test-to-code traceability in contemporary software engineering environments and tools is not satisfactory and is limited with respect to the need regarding results accuracy, lack of motivation, and high required effort by developers/testers. This paper argues that a new research is necessary to tackle the above weaknesses. Thus, it advocates for the induction of gamification concepts in software traceability, and takes a position that the use of gamificaiton metrics can contribute to software traceability tasks in validating software and critical systems. We propose a research agenda to execute this position by providing a unifying foundation for gamified software traceability that combines self-adaptive, visualization, and predictive features for trace links.
Download
Paper Nr: 79
Title:

Designing and Describing QVTo Model Transformations
Authors:

Ulyana Tikhonova and Tim Willemse
Abstract: Model transformations are the key technology of MDE that allows for software development using models as first-class artifacts. While there exist a number of languages that are specifically designed for programming model transformations, in practice, designing and maintaining model transformations still poses challenges. In this paper we demonstrate how mathematical notation of set theory and functions can be used for informal description and design of QVTo model transformations. We align the mathematical notation with the QVTo concepts, and use this notation to apply two design principles of developing QVTo transformations: structural decomposition and chain of model transformations.
Download
Paper Nr: 83
Title:

Using GDT4MAS as a Formal Support for Engineering Multi-Agents Systems
Authors:

Bruno Mermet and Gaële Simon
Abstract: This paper focuses on multi-agent systems engineering process. An assessment of current needs in this domain, based on the analysis of systems already developed, is performed. This assessment shows that the formal verification of MAS is one of these needs. It is then shown how the formal approach GDT4MAS provides answer to many of the other needs. This approach is based on a MAS formal specification associated to a proof process allowing to establish the correctness of properties of the system. The main purpose of this paper is to show that, unlike most other formal approaches for MAS, GDT4MAS can at the same time propose formal aspects making a proof possible and contribute to different general aspects of agent-oriented software engineering, even when formal verification is not a concern.
Download
Paper Nr: 85
Title:

Design of Adaptive Domain-Specific Modeling Languages for Model-Driven Mobile Application Development
Authors:

Xiaoping Jia and Christopher Jones
Abstract: The use of a DSL is a common approach to support cross-platform development of mobile applications. However, most DSL-based approaches suffer from a number of limitations such as poor performance. Furthermore, DSLs that are written ab initio are not able to access the capabilities supported by the native platforms. This paper presents a novel approach of using an adaptive domain-specific modeling language (ADSML) to support model-driven development of cross-platform mobile applications. We will discuss the techniques in the design of an ADSML for developing mobile applications targeting the Android and iOS platforms, including meta-model extraction, meta-model elevation, and meta-model alignment. Our approach is capable of generating high performance native applications; is able to access the full capabilities of the native platforms; and is adaptable to the rapid evolutions of its target platforms.
Download
Paper Nr: 89
Title:

Opportunistic Software Composition: Benefits and Requirements
Authors:

Charles Triboulot, Sylvie Trouilhet, Jean-Paul Arcangeli and Fabrice Robert
Abstract: Traditional software development relies on building and assembling pieces of software in order to satisfy explicit requirements. Component-based software engineering simplifies composition and reuse, but software adaptation to the environment remains a challenge. Opportunistic composition is a new approach for building and re-building software in open and dynamic contexts. It is based on the ability to compose software components in a bottom-up manner, merely because they are available at a point and not because the construction of a specific software has been demanded. In this way, software emerges from the environment. This paper analyzes the advantages of such an approach in terms of flexibility and reuse, along with the requirements that an infrastructure supporting opportunistic composition should satisfy: it should be decentralized, autonomic, and dynamically adaptive. The state of the art of automatic software composition shows that few solutions are actually bottom-up, and that none of them fully satisfies the requirements of opportunistic composition.
Download
Paper Nr: 98
Title:

A UML KPI Profile for Energy Aware Design and Monitoring of Cloud Services
Authors:

Christophe Ponsard and Jean-Christophe Deprez
Abstract: ICT energy efficiency is a growing concern. Large effort has already been spent making hardware energy aware and improving hardware energy efficiency. Although effort is devoted to specific software areas like embedded/mobile systems, much remains to be done at software level, especially for applications deployed in the Cloud. In order to help Cloud application developers to learn to reason about how much energy is consumed by their application on the server-side, we propose a framework composed of (1) a Goal-Question- Metric analysis of energy goals, (2) a UML profile for relating energy requirements and associated KPI metrics to application design and deployment elements, and (3) an automated Cloud deployment of energy probes able to monitor those KPI and aggregate them back to questions and goals. The focus of this short paper is on the development of the UML profile. We detail the profile metamodel design and its implementation based on the Open Source Papyrus modeller. We also report about the application of our profile to a case study.
Download
Paper Nr: 5
Title:

Reactivity and Social Cooperation in a Multi-Robot System
Authors:

Atef Gharbi, Nadhir Ben Halima and Hamza Gharsellaoui
Abstract: Multi-Robot System (MRS) is an important research area within Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. The balancing between reactivity and social cooperation in autonomous robots is really considered as a challenge to get an effective solution. To do so, we propose to use the concept of five capabilities model which is based on Environment, Self, Planner, Competence and Communication. We illustrate our line of thought with a Benchmark Production System used as a running example to explain our contribution.
Download
Paper Nr: 13
Title:

Business Modeling of a Measurement-based Context: A Methodological Process
Authors:

Giulio D'Emilia, Gaetanino Paolone, Emanuela Natale, Antonella Gaspari and Denis Del Villano
Abstract: A measurement-based context is a working environment where measurements, i.e. quantitative information from measured quantities, represent a fundamental component and are relevant for behaviors, decisions and scenario modeling. In such a context, the Rational Unified Process has been customized in order to improve the methodological approach for the business modeling. The aspects considered concern the analysis of the involved stakeholders, the measurements concepts to be shared among them and the way this sharing can be realized for suitable use of the information deriving from measurements. The effects of this study in terms of definition of the business modeling team, insertion of some specific input documents and increase of ability of transferring the real physical meaning of the measurement information in the business modeling process are discussed. The methodological improvements contributing to an aware cooperation among stakeholders involved are argued.
Download
Paper Nr: 14
Title:

Automatic Generation of Test Data for XML Schema-based Testing of Web Services
Authors:

Dessislava Petrova-Antonova, Kunka Kuncheva and Sylvia Ilieva
Abstract: Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a widely accepted paradigm for development of distributed applications using interoperable and flexible software components. Still the preferred technology for SOA implementation is provided by the web services. Their interface as well as complex interactions are described with XML-based standards, such as Web Service Description Language (WSDL) and Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (WS-BPEL). The WSDL and WS-BPEL documents allow automation of test data generation through instantiation of the referenced XML Schemas. The approach proposed in this paper is a step towards such goal. It provides derivation of XML instances from a given XML Schema. The approach is automated in a software tool supporting data-driven test definition. The tool automatically extracts an XML Schema form a WSDL or WS-BPEL documents and generates XML messages needed for web service interactions. Since the proposed approach supports generation of both correct and incorrect XML instances, the tool is applicable to functional as well as robustness testing of web services.
Download
Paper Nr: 24
Title:

A Domain Specific Platform for Engineering Well Founded Measurement Applications
Authors:

Florent Bourgeois, Philippe Studer, Bernard Thirion and Jean-Marc Perronne
Abstract: Mobile platforms, such as smartphones, are now embedding more processing and communication capabilities than ever. They offer generally a set of standard built-in sensors to measure their surroundings and potentially increase their knowledge about the environment. Moreover their communication capabilities allow easy access to external devices and remotely accessible sensing nodes or more general services. Nevertheless, despite their obvious ability to provide rich data visualization, only a few applications propose using mobile platforms as a flexible and user-friendly measuring process assistant. This paper proposes the description of a system able to model and design mobile and well-founded domain specific measuring processes, supporting physical as well as non-physical quantities. The soundness of the application and its conformance to metrology rules is ensured through the use of quantities semantic, dimensional analysis and adherence to the representational theory of measurement. The conformance verification gives to non-metrology specialists the ability to design and configure rigorous mobile applications dedicated to assist an end-user in its usual and specific measuring needs and habits, while limiting erroneous results due to manipulation errors.
Download
Paper Nr: 24
Title:

A Domain Specific Platform for Engineering Well Founded Measurement Applications
Authors:

Florent Bourgeois, Philippe Studer, Bernard Thirion and Jean-Marc Perronne
Abstract: Mobile platforms, such as smartphones, are now embedding more processing and communication capabilities than ever. They offer generally a set of standard built-in sensors to measure their surroundings and potentially increase their knowledge about the environment. Moreover their communication capabilities allow easy access to external devices and remotely accessible sensing nodes or more general services. Nevertheless, despite their obvious ability to provide rich data visualization, only a few applications propose using mobile platforms as a flexible and user-friendly measuring process assistant. This paper proposes the description of a system able to model and design mobile and well-founded domain specific measuring processes, supporting physical as well as non-physical quantities. The soundness of the application and its conformance to metrology rules is ensured through the use of quantities semantic, dimensional analysis and adherence to the representational theory of measurement. The conformance verification gives to non-metrology specialists the ability to design and configure rigorous mobile applications dedicated to assist an end-user in its usual and specific measuring needs and habits, while limiting erroneous results due to manipulation errors.
Download
Paper Nr: 29
Title:

A Path-based Equivalence Checking Method for Petri Net based Models of Programs
Authors:

Soumyadip Bandyopadhyay, Dipankar Sarkar, Kunal Banerjee and Chittaranjan Mandal
Abstract: Programs are often subjected to significant optimizing and parallelizing transformations. It is therefore important to model parallel behaviours and formally verify the equivalence of their functionalities. In this work, the untimed PRES+ model (Petri net based Representation of Embedded Systems) encompassing data processing is used to model parallel behaviours. Being value based with inherent scope of capturing parallelism, PRES+ models depict such data dependencies more directly; accordingly, they are likely to be more convenient as the intermediate representations (IRs) of both the source and the transformed codes for translation validation than strictly sequential variable-based IRs like Finite State Machines with Datapath (FSMDs) (which are essentially sequential control data-flow graphs (CDFGs)). In this work, a path based equivalence checking method for PRES+ models is presented.
Download
Paper Nr: 52
Title:

Analysing the Reliability of Open Source Software Projects
Authors:

Lerina Aversano and Maria Tortorella
Abstract: Evaluation of software quality is one of the main challenges of software engineering. Several researches proposed in literature the definition of quality models for evaluating software products. However, in the context of Free/Open Source software, differences in production, distribution and support modality, have to be considered as additional quality characteristics. In particular, software reliability should be taken into account before selecting software components. In this direction, this paper evolves a quality model for Free/Open Source Software projects, called EFFORT – Evaluation Framework for Free/Open souRce projects for including reliability aspects and presents an empirical study aimed at assessing software reliability and its evolution along the software project history.
Download
Paper Nr: 53
Title:

Modeling Traceability for Heterogeneous Systems
Authors:

Nasser Mustafa and Yvan Labiche
Abstract: In System Engineering, many systems encompass widely different domains of expertise; there are several challenges in relating these domains due to their heterogeneity and complexity. Although, literature provides many techniques to model traceability among heterogeneous domains, existing solutions are either tailored to specific domains (e.g., Ecore modeling languages), or not complete enough (e.g., lack support to specify traceability link semantics). This paper proposes a generic traceability model that is not domain specific; it provides a solution for modeling traceability links among heterogeneous models, that is, systems for which traceability links need to be established between artifacts in widely different modeling languages (e.g., UML, block diagrams, informal documents). Our solution tackles the drawbacks of existing solutions, and incorporates some of their ideas in an attempt to be as complete as possible. We argue that our solution is extensible in the sense that it can adapt to new modeling languages, new ways of characterizing traceability information for instance, without the need to change the model itself.
Download
Paper Nr: 54
Title:

Extracting Knowledge for Searching for and Identifying Hazards on Construction Site
Authors:

Ren-Jye Dzeng and Yi-Cho Fang
Abstract: The construction industry accounts for a high number of accidents. Although identifying hazards before construction starts or during construction is widely employed to prevent accidents, it typically fails because of insufficient safety experience. The experience helps in training novice inspectors, although extracting and describing tacit knowledge explicitly is difficult. This study created a 3-D virtual construction site, and designed a hazard-identification experiment involving 14 hazards (e.g., falls, collapses, and electric shocks), and an eye-tracker was used to compare the search patterns of the experienced and novice workers. The results indicated that experience assisted the experienced workers in assessing hazards significantly faster than the novice workers could; however, it did not improve the accuracy with which they identified hazards, indicating that general work experience is not equivalent to safety-specific experience, and may not necessarily improve workers’ accuracy in identifying hazards. Nevertheless, the experienced workers were more confident in identifying hazards, they exhibited fewer fixations.
Download
Paper Nr: 61
Title:

GR-TNCES: New Extensions of R-TNCES for Modelling and Verification of Flexible Systems under Energy and Memory Constraints
Authors:

Oussama Khlifi, Olfa Mosbahi, Mohamed Khalgui and Georg Frey
Abstract: This study deals with the formal modeling and verification of Adaptive Probabilistic Discrete Event Control Systems (APDECS). A new formalism called Generalized Reconfigurable Timed Net Condition Event Systems (GR-TNCES) is proposed for the optimal functional and temporal specification of APDECS. It is composed of behavior and control modules. This formalism is used for the modeling and control of unpredictable as well as predictable reconfiguration processes under memory and energy constraints. A formal case study is proposed to illustrate the necessity of this formalism and a formal verification based on the probabilistic model checker Prism.
Download
Paper Nr: 72
Title:

Using Aspect-Oriented Approach for Software Product Line Development
Authors:

Lei Tan and Yuqing Lin
Abstract: Software Product Line Engineering (SPLE) is a software development paradigm to improve systematic software reuse. SPLE is intended to develop a set of similar software systems which share great commonalities within a particular application domain. There are two key assets underpin Software Product Line (SPL) development: feature model and reference architecture. To deal with complex crosscutting behaviors in SPL and also manage the impact of Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs), we propose an aspect-oriented framework in this paper. The proposed framework is able to improve the modeling of interrelationships between design factors and representation of the variabilities in product families. We introduce a small case study to illustrate our approach at the end.
Download
Paper Nr: 86
Title:

Usability Evaluation Methods for Spatial Information Visualisation - Case Study: Evaluation of Tourist Maps
Authors:

Pavel Sedlák, Jitka Komárková, Miloslav Hub, Stanislav Struška and Miroslav Pásler
Abstract: Many decisions are influenced by location. Geoinformation technologies together with digital data are today very often used to support spatially-oriented decisions. Another reliable way of spatial information presentation is represented by analogue maps. This contribution describes utilization of software engineering methods in cartography to evaluate and improve quality of maps. Authors have long experience with utilization of usability evaluation of Web based geographic information systems. They propose utilization of suitable methods to evaluate usability of analogue maps. Usability of analogue tourist maps of attractive areas of the Czech Republic was evaluated by means of proposed methods. Maps published by the most famous publishers in the Czech Republics, i. e. maps published by Kartografie Praha, a. s., SHOCart, spol. s r. o., Klub českých turistů o. s. and Geodézie On Line were evaluated. Usability User Testing and Heuristic Evaluation were used as methods for usability evaluation. The main results of case studies are briefly described in the paper. Results of one case study are processed by multi-criteria decision making methods. Benefits and weaknesses of used methods derived from author experience are stated in the end.
Download