SubCM: A tool for improved visibility of software change in an industrial setting

Software Configuration Management is the discipline of managing large collections of software development artefacts from which software products are built. Software configuration management tools typically deal with artefacts at fine levels of granularity - such as individual source code files - and assist with coordination of changes to such artefacts. This paper describes a lightweight tool, designed to be used on top of a traditional file-based configuration management system. The add-on tool support enables users to flexibly define new hierarchical views of product structure, independent of the underlying artefact-repository structure. The tool extracts configuration and change data with respect to the user-defined hierarchy, leading to improved visibility of how individual subsystems have changed. The approach yields a range of new capabilities for build managers, and verification and validation teams. The paper includes a description of our experience using the tool in an organization that builds large embedded software systems.

An industry/university collaboration to upgrade software engineering knowledge and skills in industry

This paper describes an ongoing collaboration between Boeing Australia Limited and the University of Queensland to develop and deliver an introductory course on software engineering. The aims of the course are to provide a common understanding of the nature of software engineering for all Boeing Australia's engineering staff, and to ensure they understand the practices used throughout the company. The course is designed so that it can be presented to people with varying backgrounds, such as recent software engineering graduates, systems engineers, quality assurance personnel, etc. The paper describes the structure and content of the course, and the evaluation techniques used to collect feedback from the participants and the corresponding results. The immediate feedback on the course indicates that it has been well received by the participants, but also indicates a need for more advanced courses in specific areas. The long-term feedback from participants is less positive, and the long-term feedback from the managers of the course participants indicates a need to expand on the coverage of the Boeing-specific processes and methods. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An approach to specifying software frameworks

A framework is a reusable design that requires software components to function. To instantiate a framework, a software engineer must provide the software components required by the framework. To do this effectively, the framework-component interfaces must be specified so the software engineer knows what assumptions the framework makes about the components, and so the components can be verified against these assumptions. This paper presents an approach to specifying software frameworks. The approach involves the specification of the framework’s syntax, semantics, and the interfaces between the framework and its components. The approach is demonstrated with a simple case study.

Flexible proof reuse for software verification

Proof reuse, or analogical reasoning, involves reusing the proof of a source theorem in the proof of a target conjecture. We have developed a method for proof reuse that is based on the generalisation replay paradigm described in the literature, in which a generalisation of the source proof is replayed to construct the target proof. In this paper, we describe the novel aspects of our method, which include a technique for producing more accurate source proof generalisations (using knowledge of the target goal), as well as a flexible replay strategy that allows the user to set various parameters to control the size and the shape of the search space. Finally, we report on the results of applying this method to a case study from the realm of software verification.

Integrating formal specification and software verification and validation

It is not surprising that students are unconvinced about the benefits of formal methods if we do not show them how these methods can be integrated with other activities in the software lifecycle. In this paper, we describe an approach to integrating formal specification with more traditional verification and validation techniques in a course that teaches formal specification and specification-based testing. This is accomplished through a series of assignments on a single software component that involves specifying the component in Object-Z, validating that specification using inspection and a specification animation tool, and then testing an implementation of the specification using test cases derived from the formal specification.

A software engineering framework for context-aware pervasive computing

There is growing interest in the use of context-awareness as a technique for developing pervasive computing applications that are flexible, adaptable, and capable of acting autonomously on behalf of users. However, context-awareness introduces various software engineering challenges, as well as privacy and usability concerns. In this paper, we present a conceptual framework and software infrastructure that together address known software engineering challenges, and enable further practical exploration of social and usability issues by facilitating the prototyping and fine-tuning of context-aware applications.

It's all in the game: Teaching software process concepts

A major challenge in teaching software engineering to undergraduates is that most students have limited industry experience, so the problems addressed are unknown and hence unappreciated. Issues of scope prevent a realistic software engineering experience, and students often graduate with a simplistic view of software engineering’s challenges. Problems and Programmers (PnP) is a competitive, physical card game that simulates the software engineering process from requirements specification to product delivery. Deliverables are abstracted, allowing a focus on process issues and for lessons to be learned in a relatively short time. The rules are easy to understand and the game’s physical nature allows for face-to-face interaction between players. The game’s developers have described PnP in previous publications, but this paper reports the game’s use within a larger educational scheme. Students learn and play PnP, and then are required to create a software requirements specification based on the game. Finally, students reflect on the game’s strengths and weaknesses and their experiences in an individual essay. The paper discusses this approach, students’ experiences and overall outcomes, and offers an independent, critical look at the game, its use, and potential improvements.

Formal analysis of human-computer interaction using model checking

Experiments with simulators allow psychologists to better understand the causes of human errors and build models of cognitive processes to be used in human reliability assessment (HRA). This paper investigates an approach to task failure analysis based on patterns of behaviour, by contrast to more traditional event-based approaches. It considers, as a case study, a formal model of an air traffic control (ATC) system which incorporates controller behaviour. The cognitive model is formalised in the CSP process algebra. Patterns of behaviour are expressed as temporal logic properties. Then a model-checking technique is used to verify whether the decomposition of the operator's behaviour into patterns is sound and complete with respect to the cognitive model. The decomposition is shown to be incomplete and a new behavioural pattern is identified, which appears to have been overlooked in the analysis of the data provided by the experiments with the simulator. This illustrates how formal analysis of operator models can yield fresh insights into how failures may arise in interactive systems.