Software Technology 10 Years of Innovation in IEEE Computer

A comprehensive collection of influential articles from one of IEEE Computer magazine’s most popular columns

This book is a compendium of extended and revised publications that have appeared in the “Software Technologies” column of IEEE Computer magazine, which covers key topics in software engineering such as software development, software correctness and related techniques, cloud computing, self-managing software and self-aware systems. Emerging properties of software technology are also discussed in this book, which will help refine the developing framework for creating the next generation of software technologies and help readers predict future developments and challenges in the field.

Software Technology provides guidance on the challenges of developing software today and points readers to where the best advances are being made. Filled with one insightful article after another, the book serves to inform the conversation about the next wave of software technology advances and applications. In addition, the book:

• Introduces the software landscape and challenges associated with emerging technologies
• Covers the life cycle of software products, including concepts, requirements, development, testing, verification, evolution, and security
• Contains rewritten and updated articles by leaders in the software industry
• Covers both theoretical and practical topics

Informative and thought-provoking throughout, Software Technology is a valuable book for everyone in the software engineering community that will inspire as much as it will teach all who flip through its pages.

Mike Hinchey, PhD, is a Professor and former Director of Lero - the Irish Software Research Centre at the University of Limerick, Ireland. Dr. Hinchey is also the President of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), a former column editor for Software Technologies (IEEE Computer Magazine), and a senior member of the IEEE. He is the author of more than 200 papers, and has written multiple books.

Foreword xv

Preface xix

Acknowledgments xxiii

List of Contributors xxv

Part I The Software Landscape 1

1 Software Crisis 2.0 3
Brian Fitzgerald

1.1 Software Crisis 1.0 3

1.2 Software Crisis 2.0 5

1.2.1 Hardware Advances 6

1.2.2 “Big Data” 8

1.2.3 Digital Natives Lifelogging and the Quantified Self 9

1.2.4 Software-Defined^∗ 10

1.3 Software Crisis 2.0: The Bottleneck 10

1.3.1 Significant Increase in Volume of Software Required 11

1.3.2 New Skill Sets Required for Software Developers 12

1.4 Conclusion 13

References 14

2 Simplicity as a Driver for Agile Innovation 17
Tiziana Margaria and Bernhard Steffen

2.1 Motivation and Background 17

2.2 Important Factors 20

2.3 The Future 22

2.4 Less Is More: The 80/20 Principle 27

2.5 Simplicity: A Never Ending Challenge 28

2.6 IT Specifics 29

2.7 Conclusions 29

Acknowledgments 30

References 30

3 Intercomponent Dependency Issues in Software Ecosystems 35
Maëlick Claes, Alexandre Decan, and Tom Mens

3.1 Introduction 35

3.2 Problem Overview 36

3.2.1 Terminology 36

3.2.2 Identifying and Retrieving Dependency Information 38

3.2.3 Satisfying Dependencies and Conflicts 39

3.2.4 Component Upgrade 40

3.2.5 Inter-Project Cloning 41

3.3 First Case Study: Debian 42

3.3.1 Overview of Debian 42

3.3.2 Aggregate Analysis of Strong Conflicts 44

3.3.3 Package-Level Analysis of Strong Conflicts 45

3.4 Second Case Study: The R Ecosystem 46

3.4.1 Overview of R 46

3.4.2 R Package Repositories 47

3.4.3 Interrepository Dependencies 50

3.4.4 Intrarepository Dependencies 52

3.5 Conclusion 53

Acknowledgments 54

References 54

4 Triangulating Research Dissemination Methods: A Three-Pronged Approach to Closing the Research–Practice Divide 58
Sarah Beecham, Ita Richardson, Ian Sommerville, Padraig O’Leary, Sean Baker, and John Noll

4.1 Introduction 58

4.2 Meeting the Needs of Industry 60

4.2.1 Commercialization Feasibility Study 61

4.2.2 Typical GSE Issues Were Reported 62

4.3 The Theory–Practice Divide 63

4.3.1 Making Research Accessible 64

4.3.2 Where Do Practitioners Really Go for Support? 65

4.4 Solutions: Rethinking Our Dissemination Methods 66

4.4.1 Workshops, Outreach, and Seminars 66

4.4.2 Case Studies 69

4.4.3 Action Research 70

4.4.4 Practitioner Ph.D.’s 71

4.4.5 Industry Fellowships 73

4.4.6 Commercializing Research 74

4.5 Obstacles to Research Relevance 76

4.5.1 The (IR) Relevance of Academic Software Engineering Research 76

4.5.2 Barriers to Research Commercialization 77

4.5.3 Academic Barriers to Commercialization 78

4.5.4 Business Barriers to Commercialization 79

4.5.5 Organizational Barriers to Commercialization 80

4.5.6 Funding Barriers to Commercialization 81

4.6 Conclusion 84

4.6.1 Research and Practice Working Together to Innovate 85

4.6.2 Final Thoughts 86

Acknowledgments 86

References 86

Part II Autonomous Software Systems    91

5 Apoptotic Computing: Programmed Death by Default for Software Technologies 93
Roy Sterritt and Mike Hinchey

5.1 Biological Apoptosis 93

5.2 Autonomic Agents 94

5.3 Apoptosis within Autonomic Agents 96

5.4 NASA SWARM Concept Missions 98

5.5 The Evolving State-of-the-Art Apoptotic Computing 100

5.5.1 Strong versus Weak Apoptotic Computing 100

5.5.2 Other Research 101

5.6 “This Message Will Self-Destruct”: Commercial Applications 102

5.7 Conclusion 102

Acknowledgments 103

References 103

6 Requirements Engineering for Adaptive and Self-Adaptive Systems 107
Emil Vassev and Mike Hinchey

6.1 Introduction 107

6.2 Understanding ARE 108

6.3 System Goals and Goals Models 109

6.4 Self-^∗ Objectives and Autonomy-Assistive Requirements 111

6.4.1 Constraints and Self-^∗ Objectives 113

6.4.2 Mission Analysis and Self-^∗ Objectives 114

6.5 Recording and Formalizing Autonomy Requirements 116

6.5.1 ARE Requirements Chunk 117

6.6 Conclusion 118

Acknowledgments 119

References 119

7 Toward Artificial Intelligence through Knowledge Representation for Awareness 121
Emil Vassev and Mike Hinchey

7.1 Introduction 121

7.2 Knowledge Representation 122

7.2.1 Rules 122

7.2.2 Frames 122

7.2.3 Semantic Networks and Concept Maps 122

7.2.4 Ontologies 123

7.2.5 Logic 123

7.2.6 Completeness and Consistency 124

7.2.7 Reasoning 125

7.2.8 Technologies 125

7.3 KnowLang 126

7.3.1 Modeling Knowledge with KnowLang 127

7.3.2 Knowledge Representation for Self-Adaptive Behavior 129

7.3.3 Case Study 129

7.4 Awareness 131

7.4.1 Classes of Awareness 132

7.4.2 Structuring Awareness 133

7.4.3 Implementing Awareness 134

7.5 Challenges and Conclusion 136

References 136

Part III Software Development and Evolution 139

8 Continuous Model-Driven Engineering 141
Tiziana Margaria, Anna-Lena Lamprecht, and Bernhard Steffen

8.1 Introduction 141

8.2 Continuous Model-Driven Engineering 143

8.3 CMDE in Practice 147

8.4 Conclusion 150

Acknowledgment 150

References 151

9 Rethinking Functional Requirements: A Novel Approach Categorizing System and Software Requirements 155
Manfred Broy

9.1 Introduction 155

9.2 Discussion: Classifying Requirements – Why and How 158

9.2.1 On Classifying Requirements as Being Functional 158

9.2.2 “Nonfunctional” Requirements and Their Characterization 159

9.2.3 Limitations of Classification Due to Heterogeneity and Lacking Precision 160

9.2.4 Approach: System Model-Based Categorization of Requirements 162

9.3 The System Model 164

9.3.1 The Basics: System Modeling Ontology 164

9.3.2 System Views and Levels of Abstractions 171

9.3.3 Structuring Systems into Views 172

9.4 Categorizing System Properties 172

9.4.1 System Behavior: Behavioral Properties 173

9.4.2 Variations in Modeling System Behavior 175

9.4.3 System Context: Properties of the Context 176

9.4.4 Nonbehavioral System Properties: System Representation 177

9.5 Categorizing Requirements 178

9.5.1 A Rough Categorization of Requirements 179

9.5.2 A Novel Taxonomy of Requirements? 183

9.6 Summary 186

Acknowledgments 187

References   187

10 The Power of Ten—Rules for Developing Safety Critical Code 188
Gerard J. Holzmann

10.1 Introduction 188

10.2 Context 189

10.3 The Choice of Rules 190

10.4 Ten Rules for Safety Critical Code 192

10.5 Synopsis 200

References 201

11 Seven Principles of Software Testing 202
Bertrand Meyer

11.1 Introduction 202

11.2 Defining Testing 202

11.3 Tests and Specifications 203

11.4 Regression Testing 204

11.5 Oracles 204

11.6 Manual and Automatic Test Cases 205

11.7 Testing Strategies 205

11.8 Assessment Criteria 206

11.9 Conclusion 207

References 207

12 Analyzing the Evolution of Database Usage in Data-Intensive Software Systems 208
Loup Meurice, Mathieu Goeminne, Tom Mens, Csaba Nagy, Alexandre Decan, and Anthony Cleve

12.1 Introduction 208

12.2 State of the Art 210

12.2.1 Our Own Research 211

12.3 Analyzing the Usage of ORM Technologies in Database-Driven Java Systems 212

12.4 Coarse-Grained Analysis of Database Technology Usage 215

12.4.5 Discussion 222

12.5 Fine-Grained Analysis of Database Technology Usage 222

12.5.1 Analysis Background 222

12.5.2 Conceptual Schema 224

12.5.3 Metrics 226

12.5.4 Discussion 235

12.6 Conclusion 236

12.7 Future Work 237

Acknowledgments 238

References 238

Part IV Software Product Lines and Variability 41

13 Dynamic Software Product Lines 243
Svein Hallsteinsen, Mike Hinchey, Sooyong Park, and Klaus Schmid

13.1 Introduction 243

13.2 Product Line Engineering 243

13.3 Software Product Lines 244

13.4 Dynamic SPLs 245

References 246

14 Cutting-Edge Topics on Dynamic Software Variability 247
Rafael Capilla, Jan Bosch, and Mike Hinchey

14.1 Introduction 247

14.2 The Postdeployment Era 248

14.3 Runtime Variability Challenges Revisited 249

14.4 What Industry Needs from Variability at Any Time? 253

14.5 Approaches and Techniques for Dynamic Variability Adoption 255

14.6 Summary 266

14.7 Conclusions 267

References 268

Part V Formal Methods 271

15 The Quest for Formal Methods in Software Product Line Engineering 273
Reiner Hähnle and Ina Schaefer

15.1 Introduction 273

15.2 SPLE: Benefits and Limitations 274

15.3 Applying Formal Methods to SPLE 275

15.4 The Abstract Behavioral Specification Language 277

15.5 Model-Centric SPL Development with ABS 279

15.6 Remaining Challenges 280

15.6.4 Maintenance 280

15.7 Conclusion 281

References 281

16 Formality, Agility, Security, and Evolution in Software Engineering 282
Jonathan P. Bowen, Mike Hinchey, Helge Janicke, Martin Ward, and Hussein Zedan

16.1 Introduction 282

16.2 Formality 283

16.3 Agility 283

16.4 Security 284

16.5 Evolution 285

16.6 Conclusion 289

Acknowledgments 290

References 290

Part VI Cloud Computing 293

17 Cloud Computing: An Exploration of Factors Impacting Adoption 295
Lorraine Morgan and Kieran Conboy

17.1 Introduction 295

17.2 Theoretical Background 296

17.3 Research Method 298

17.4 Findings and Analysis 303

17.4.2 Organizational Factors Impacting Adoption 306

17.4.3 Environmental Factors Impacting Adoption 308

17.5 Discussion and Conclusion 310

17.5.1 Limitations and Future Research 311

References 311

18 A Model-Centric Approach to the Design of Resource-Aware Cloud Applications 315
Reiner Hähnle and Einar Broch Johnsen

18.1 Capitalizing on the Cloud 315

18.2 Challenges 316

18.2.1 Empowering the Designer 316

18.2.2 Deployment Aspects at Design Time 316

18.3 Controlling Deployment in the Design Phase 318

18.4 ABS: Modeling Support for Designing Resource-Aware Applications 319

18.5 Resource Modeling with ABS 320

18.6 Opportunities 324

18.6.1 Fine-Grained Provisioning 324

18.6.2 Tighter Provisioning 324

18.6.3 Application-Specific Resource Control 324

18.6.4 Application-Controlled Elasticity 324

18.7 Summary 325

Acknowledgments 325

References 325

Index 327

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