MODEL BASED SOFTWARE PROCESS

One of the goals of software design is to model a system in such a way that it is easily understandable. Nowadays the tendency for software development is changing from manual coding to automatic code generation; it is becoming model-based. This is a response to the software crisis, in which the cost of hardware has decreased and conversely the cost of software development has increased sharply. The methodologies that allowed this change are model-based, thus relieving the human from detailed coding. Still there is a long way to achieve this goal, but work is being done worldwide to achieve this objective. This paper presents the drastic changes related to modeling and important challenging issues and techniques that recur in MBSD.

2007

The Model Driven Architecture (MDA) is an approach to software engineering in which models are systematically developed and transformed into code. This paper discusses some of the issues which would need to be overcome when attempting to certify a safety critical design or software developed with the MDA approach, partially based on our experience with an avionics software case study. We particularly focus on the need to certify MDA artefacts and produce a compelling system safety case.

Iet Software/iee Proceedings - Software, 2008

Safety critical software requires integrating verification techniques in software development methods. Software architectures must guarantee that developed systems will meet safety requirements and safety analyses are frequently used in the assessment. Safety engineers and software architects must reach a common understanding on an optimal architecture from both perspectives. Currently both groups of engineers apply different modelling techniques and languages: safety analysis models and software modelling languages. The solutions proposed seek to integrate both domains coupling the languages of each domain. It constitutes a sound example of the use of language engineering to improve efficiency in a software-related domain. A model-driven development approach and the use of a platform-independent language are used to bridge the gap between safety analyses (failure mode effects and criticality analysis and fault tree analysis) and software development languages (e.g. unified modelling language). Language abstract syntaxes (metamodels), profiles, language mappings (model transformations) and language refinements, support the direct application of safety analysis to software architectures for the verification of safety requirements. Model consistency and the possibility of automation are found among the benefits.

2006

Since the mid 1990s, model-based development techniques have been adopted for the development of embedded automotive control software. Nowadays, they are also increasingly being deployed in safety-related applications. In usage scenarios such as these, the requirements of standards and guidelines from the safety area have to be adapted and be mapped onto model-based development. This paper discusses the challenges that appear in the process and sketches possible solutions. 1 Motivation and Introduction Model-based development is becoming the preferred software engineering approach for the development of embedded controls in major vehicle domains, such as powertrain and chassis [CO05]. The basic idea of the model-based approach is that an initial executable graphical model representing the control function to be developed is refined and augmented until is becomes a blueprint for the final implementation from which executable code can be generated automatically. In model-based develop...

2012

Modeling is a common practice in modern day software engineering. Since the mid 1990"s the Unified Modeling Language (UML) has become the de facto standard for modeling software systems. The UML is used in all phases of software developmentranging from the requirements phase to the maintenance phase. However, the manner in which the UML is used differs widely from project to project and from developer to developer. This illustrates an apparent lack of quality awareness in the use of UML. In this paper I will discuss the challenges and opportunities there are for using quality assurance for software modeling for improving the quality and productivity of software development.

Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science, 2005

We propose a new development scheme for quality-aware applications, quality-driven development (QDD), based on the Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) of OMG. We argue that software development in areas, such as real-time systems, should not only rely on code verification, but also on design verification, and show that a slightly extended MDA process offers the opportunity to integrate system development together with design verification.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2007

Some high integrity software systems require the rigorous validation of safety properties. Assessing whether software architectures are able to meet these requirements is of great interest: to avoid the risk that the implementation does not fulfill requirements due to a bad design, and, to reduce the development cost of safety critical parts of the system. Safety analyses like FMECA and FTA are two methods used during preliminary safety assessments. We have implemented tools to automatically generate safety analyses from the models of the architecture: a UML profile for safety, modeling languages to express safety analyses, and a model transformation chain. Safety analysts can use these tools to annotate the models, analyze the architecture, and recommend system engineers mitigation means to apply for improving the architecture.

2009

Model Driven Software Development (MDSD) uses precisely defined domain specific models that are transformed into executable code by a sequence of model transformations. In this paper we present the research activities planned in year 2009 by Real-Time Systems Lab, Darmstadt University of Technology, together with Siemens Industry, Nuernberg, that will investigate the applicability of MDSD concepts within the domain of automation engineering for production systems called Model Driven Automation Engineering (MDAE). A comparison of MDSD and MDAE characteristics points out our main working topics. We also present an application scenario, which will be used to demonstrate the MDAE usage in practice.