ICSOFT-PT 2016 Abstracts

Area 1 - Models
Full Papers Short Papers
Area 2 - Aspects
Full Papers Short Papers
Area 3 - Services
Short Papers
Area 4 - Context
Full Papers Short Papers

Area 1 - Models

Full Papers
Paper Nr: 3
Title:

Handcrafting a Triple Graph Transformation System to Realize Round-trip Engineering Between UML Class Models and Java Source Code
Authors:

Thomas Buchmann and Sandra Greiner
Abstract: Model transformations are a mandatory requirement for model-driven development, a software engineering discipline, which has become more and more popular during the last decade. Over the years, the concept of unidirectional model transformations and corresponding tool support reached maturity since these kind of transformations are widely used in model-driven engineering, mainly for forward engineering and code generation. In incremental and iterative software engineering processes, forward engineering may be too restrictive since it resembles waterfall-like processes. Thus, bidirectional transformations are required, which aim to provide support for (incrementally) transforming one or more source model to one or more target model and vice versa from only one transformation description. However, they seem to be rarely used in modeldriven software development as adequate tool support is missing. On the other hand, programming languages nowadays provide support for higher-level features like closures or lambda expressions which allow to describe transformation patterns in a declarative way. In this paper, we present an approach for round-trip engineering between UML class models and Java source code, which is realized with a triple graph transformation system written in the Xtend programming language.
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Paper Nr: 12
Title:

From Natural-language Regulations to Enterprise Data using Knowledge Representation and Model Transformations
Authors:

Deepali Kholkar, Sagar Sunkle and Vinay Kulkarni
Abstract: Enterprises today face an unprecedented regulatory regime and are increasingly looking to technology to ease their regulatory compliance concerns. Formal approaches in research focus on checking compliance of business processes against rules, and assume usage of matching terminology on both sides. We focus on run-time compliance of enterprise data, and the specific problem of identifying enterprise data relevant to a regulation, in an automated manner. We present a knowledge representation approach and semi-automated solution using models and model transformations to extract the same from distributed enterprise databases. We use a Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Rules (SBVR) model of regulation rules as the basis to arrive at the necessary and sufficient model of enterprise data. The approach is illustrated using a real-life case study of the MiFID-II financial regulation.
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Short Papers
Paper Nr: 4
Title:

Collaborative and Distributed Management of Versioned Model-driven Software Product Lines
Authors:

Felix Schwägerl and Bernhard Westfechtel
Abstract: Software Product Line Engineering promises a significant gain in productivity, yet with the addition of new challenges one of which is the increased complexity of collaborative development. This paper presents an approach to distributed and collaborative product line engineering based on a filtered editing framework that has been extended by multi-user support. Using filtered editing, the product line is developed in a single-version view in a local workspace and transparently organized in a local repository. The contributed conceptual extension orchestrates the evolution and synchronization of different copies of the repository. This way, local transactions realized by check-out and commit are complemented by remote transactions using the operations pull and push. The proposed approach has been implemented as an extension to the model-driven tool Super- Mod backed by a REST-based web service, evolving the toolset to a distributed product line version control system. We discuss relevant design decisions and illustrate our contributions by several examples.
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Paper Nr: 8
Title:

Linear Software Models: Modularity Analysis by the Laplacian Matrix
Authors:

Iaakov Exman and Rawi Sakhnini
Abstract: We have recently shown that one can obtain the number and sizes of modules of a software system from the eigenvectors of the Modularity Matrix weighted by an affinity matrix. However such a weighting still demands a suitable definition of an affinity. This paper obtains the same results by means of a Laplacian Matrix, directly based upon the Modularity Matrix without the need of weighting. These formalizations are different alternatives leading to the same outcomes based upon a central idea: modules are connected components. The important point is that, independently of specific advantages of given techniques, there is just one single unified algebraic theory of software composition – the Linear Software Models – behind the different approaches. The specifics of the Laplacian Matrix technique, after its formal enunciation, are illustrated by calculations made for case studies.
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Paper Nr: 10
Title:

A Simulation-based Aid for Organisational Decision-making
Authors:

Souvik Barat, Vinay Kulkarni, Tony Clark and Balbir Barn
Abstract: Effective decision-making of modern organisation often requires deep understanding of various aspects of organisation such as organisational goals, organisational structure, business-as-usual operational processes. The large size of the organisation, its socio-technical characteristics, and fast business dynamics make this endeavor challenging. Industry practice relies on human experts for comprehending various aspects of organisation thus making organisational decision-making a time-, effort- and intellectually-intensive endeavor. This paper proposes a model-based simulation approach to organisational decision-making. We illustrate how this is applied to a real life problem from software service industry.
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Paper Nr: 11
Title:

Towards Enabling Mobile Domain-specific Modelling
Authors:

Diego Vaquero-Melchor, Antonio Garmendia, Esther Guerra and Juan de Lara
Abstract: Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) promotes an active use of models in all phases of software development. In this paradigm, the design and usage of Domain-Specific Languages (DSL) for modelling in a certain application area is frequent. While in MDE, modelling has been traditionally supported by desktop computers, in this position paper we analyse useful scenarios for modelling using mobile devices, like smartphones or tablets. Moreover, we present a working architecture and a prototype tool, called DSL-comet, which enable collaborative mobile modelling and integrate seamlessly desktop and mobile graphical modelling environments.
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Paper Nr: 14
Title:

Software Theory of the Forbidden in a Discrete Design Space
Authors:

Iaakov Exman
Abstract: There have been many formulations of “theories” of software systems with a variety of techniques, scopes and degrees of sophistication. But, one element is almost universally absent in all these theories: a clear delimitation of what is forbidden in terms of design. This absence is somewhat surprising, as in other engineering disciplines there are obvious forbidden domains. This paper proposes that in addition to common quality criteria for scientific theories – such as formality, universality and precision – an acceptable software theory should clearly demarcate the forbidden in contrast to the possible. This goal is attainable in small and discrete design space as it limits the amount of subspace search. Algebra is argued to be the mathematical field suitable to characterize forbidden domain boundaries, in particular using an eigenvectors approach. Boundaries are illustrated by a case study.
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Paper Nr: 16
Title:

An Implementation of a QoE Evaluation Technique Including Business Model Parameters
Authors:

Diego Rivera, Ana R. Cavalli, Natalia Kushik and Wissam Mallouli
Abstract: The expansion of Internet-based services has increased the need to ensure a good quality on them. In this context, a preliminary work we developed exposes a Quality of Experience (QoE) evaluation framework based on the mathematical formalism of EFSMs, which includes business-related variables into the prediction analysis. In this paper, we present an implementation of this QoE evaluation framework using the Montimage Monitoring Tool (MMT). The implementation presented in this paper is based on three main algorithms: (1) generation of the traces of a given length of the EFSM-based OTT model, (2) computation of the QoE for each trace using a suitable QoE model, and (3) computation of the number of configurations reachable from the initial state of the EFSM. We use this implementation to calculate the amount of configurations captured by the model of a real OTT service, analyzing how this value varies with respect to the depth (trace length) of the analysis and which is the distribution of the QoE values of the computed configurations. This information will enable the service provider to characterize the QoE of all possible scenarios and to introduce changes if required, in order to maximize the revenues provided by the chosen business model and the QoE of end-users.
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Paper Nr: 13
Title:

Towards an ASM-based Characterization of the Deadlock-freedom Property
Authors:

Alessandro Bianchi, Sebastiano Pizzutilo and Gennaro Vessio
Abstract: The present paper investigates the effectiveness of the Abstract State Machine (ASM) formalism into studying the deadlock-freedom property in distributed systems. To this end, the well-known Dining Philosophers prob-lem, prone to deadlock, is here modeled through ASMs and deadlock is studied. The experience suggests a provisional reformulation of the classic necessary conditions for deadlock in terms of ASMs.
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Area 2 - Aspects

Full Papers
Paper Nr: 5
Title:

An Approach to Add Multi-tenancy to Existing Applications
Authors:

Uwe Hohenstein and Preeti Koka
Abstract: Multi-tenancy, i.e., sharing resources amongst several tenants, is a key element to make SaaS profitable by saving resources and operational costs. This paper considers multi-tenancy in the context of Cloud migration and presents an approach to let existing applications become multi-tenant. The novelty of this approach is that no reengineering and modification of the application’s source code is required. Adding some new components is sufficient to achieve tenant management, authentication, tenant isolation, and also customization. Using a case study, the paper demonstrates in detail how to benefit from aspect-orientation, particularly the AspectJ language, in this respect and concludes with experiences.
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Paper Nr: 9
Title:

Incremental Modular Testing for AOP
Authors:

André Restivo, Ademar Aguiar and Ana Moreira
Abstract: By designing systems as sets of modules that can be composed into larger applications, developers unleash a multitude of advantages. The promise of AOP (Aspect-Oriented Programming) is to enable developers to organize crosscutting concerns into separate units of modularity making it easier to accomplish this vision. However, AOP does not allow unit tests to be untangled, which impairs the development of properly tested independent modules. This paper presents a technique that enables developers to encapsulate crosscutting concerns using AOP and still be able to develop reusable unit tests. Our approach uses incremental testing and invasive aspects to modify and adapt tests. The approach was evaluated in a medium scale project with promising results. Without using the proposed technique, due to the presence of invasive aspects, some unit tests would have to be discarded or modified to accommodate the changes made by them. This would have a profound impact on the overall modularity and, in particular, on the reusability of those modules. We will show that this technique enables proper unit tests that can be reused even when coupled with aspect-oriented code.
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Short Papers
Paper Nr: 18
Title:

Reducing Static Dependences Exploiting a Declarative Design Patterns Framework
Authors:

Mario Luca Bernardi and Marta Cimitile
Abstract: Object Oriented Design Patterns (DPs) are recurring solutions to common problems in software design aiming to improve code reusability, maintainability and comprehensibility. Despite such advantages, the adoption of DPs causes the presence of crosscutting code increasing, significantly, the code duplication and the dependencies between systems. The main idea of this research is that code crosscutting can be reduced by the integration of Model Driven Development (MDD) techniques with Aspect Oriented Programming (AOP). According to this, an approach based on a Domain Specification Language (DSL) to to define declaratively the structure of DPs and their adoption on classes to declarative, is proposed. The approach aims to support aspects derivation to compose, at run time, AOP-based version of the specified DPs. The approach has been applied in a case study where the developed supporting framework was used in a concrete refactoring scenario, and a subsequent maintenance task. The results from the case study are presented and discussed.
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Area 3 - Services

Short Papers
Paper Nr: 1
Title:

Balancing between Local and Global Optimization of Web Services Composition by a Fuzzy Transactional-aware Approach
Authors:

Fatma Rhimi, Saloua Ben Yahia and Samir Ben Ahmed
Abstract: The tremendous growth in the amount of available web services due to the proliferation of paradigms such as Big Data and Cloud Computing has raised many challenges in service computing. When there are multiple web services that offer the same functionalities, we need to select the best one according to its non-functional criteria (e.g. response time, price, reliability) while guaranteeing a global optimization. Many approaches have been introduced to tackle this problem. However, most of them neglected users preferences, which can be very vague and imprecise, in the selection process. Besides, transactional properties that can insure a reliable achievement of the composition are rarely considered. This paper suggests a solution to this challenge by modelling users uncertain preferences with fuzzy sets. We then compute the set of Skyline services which are the best candidates in the search space with fuzzy dominance relationship and fuzzy similarity measures. Finally we inject transactional properties in order to guarantee a global optimization with a successful achievement of the composition process. Experimental evaluation demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed concept and the efficiency of our implementation.
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Paper Nr: 6
Title:

Semantic Networks – Based Approach for Web Services Management
Authors:

Hassina Nacer and Taous Iggui
Abstract: As commonly assumed in literature, Web services are software components of distributed applications which provide services to other applications by using standard Internet technologies (XML, SOAP, WSDL, UDDI). In this paper, we propose a novel semantic network-based approach for Web services management in order to facilitate the Web services composition. For answering complex needs of users, the creation of a composite Web service is required. The Web services composition is one of the big challenge problems of recent years in a distributed and a dynamic environment. The proposed approach uses an inter-connected network of semantic Web services describing in OWL-S, using the similarity measure (Outputs-Inputs similarity) between concepts based on ontologies of domain, built before any submitted request. Experimental results confirm that the proposed management approach reduces the complexity of the composition task.
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Area 4 - Context

Full Papers
Paper Nr: 2
Title:

The Six-Variable Model - Context Modelling Enabling Systematic Reuse of Control Software
Authors:

Nelufar Ulfat-Bunyadi, Rene Meis and Maritta Heisel
Abstract: A control system usually consists of some control software as well as sensors and actuators to monitor and control certain quantities in the environment. The context of the control software thus consists of the sensors and actuators it uses and the environment. When starting development of the control software, its context is often not predefined or given. There are contextual decisions the developers can make (e.g. which sensors/ actuators/other systems to use). By means of these decisions, the context is defined step by step. Existing approaches (like the Four-Variable Model) call for documenting the environmental quantities (monitored, controlled, input, and output variables) that are relevant after making these contextual decisions. The environmental quantities that have originally been relevant (i.e. before deciding which sensors/actuators/other systems to use) are not documented. This results in problems when the software shall later on be reused in another, slightly different setting (e.g. with additional sensors). Then, it is hard for developers to decide which environmental quantities are still relevant for the software. In this paper, we suggest an extended version of the Four-Variable Model, the Six-Variable Model, and, based on that, a context modelling method, that combines existing approaches. The benefit of our method is that the environmental quantities that are relevant before and after decision making are documented as well as the contextual decisions themselves and the options that were selectable. In this way, later reuse of the software is facilitated.
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Short Papers
Paper Nr: 17
Title:

Introducing Product Line Engineering in a Bottom-up Approach
Authors:

Nelufar Ulfat-Bunyadi, Rene Meis, Nazila Gol Mohammadi and Maritta Heisel
Abstract: The optimal way for introducing a product line is to set up a completely new product line by developing a reuse infrastructure for the whole range of products right from the start. However, in practice, product line engineering is frequently introduced by a company after having developed a number of products separately (i.e. in single system engineering). The challenge then consists of defining the product line based on these existing products, i.e. to a certain extent these products have to be re-engineered. More precisely, two problems need to be solved: first, commonality and variability among the existing products needs to be identified to define a common set of core assets, and, second, the way in which future systems (i.e. products of the product line) will be developed based on this common set of assets needs to be defined. The method we suggest in this paper solves these two problems. Our method focuses on control systems, i.e. systems which monitor/control certain quantities in their environment.
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Paper Nr: 21
Title:

Fuzzy Ontology-based Spatial Data Warehouse for Context-aware Search and Recommendation
Authors:

Hajer Baazaoui-Zghal
Abstract: The need to build a spatial data warehouse over all structured and unstructured data is becoming necessary in many fields. In addition, contextualized results are considered as key challenges in data warehouses, which are frequently related to only one context. However, in real life applications, decisional data are shared by several users having different profiles, which makes contextual awareness essential for decision support. In this paper, we propose a fuzzy Ontology-based Spatial Data Warehouse for contextual search and recommendation, composed of 3 main layers: (1) Data layer composed of structred, unstructred and users data, (2) Knowledge and context-aware layer and (3) Online application layer. The originality of the work described here consists on integration of uncertain data at different levels of the knowledge layer and having in the same decisional architecture contextual search and recommendation.
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