Technical Reports

Title: Pattern Based Property Specification and Verification for Service Composition, by J. Yu, T.P. Manh, J. Han and Y. Jin
Date: June 2006

Abstract: Service composition is becoming the dominant paradigm for developing Web service applications. It is important to ensure that a service composition comply with the requirements for the application. A rigorous compliance checking approach usually needs the requirements being specified in properties specification formalisms like temporal logics, which are difficult for ordinary software practitioners to write. In this paper, we propose a property pattern based specification language PROPOLS and use it to verify BPEL service composition schemas. PROPOLS is easy to understand and use, yet is formally based. It builds on Dwyer et al’s property pattern system and extends it with the logical composition of patterns to accommodate the specification of complex requirements. PROPOLS is encoded in OWL to facilitate the sharing and reuse of domain knowledge. A Finite State Automata based implementation for the verification of BPEL schemas against PROPOLS properties is also discussed.

Full report: pdf

Title: The Implementation of Message Synchronisation, Queuing and Allocation in the ROAD Framework, by L.D. Pham, A. Colman and J. Han

Date: March 2006, revised April 2006
Abstract: In a dynamic environment where requirements change and components' performance varies, the system should be able to configure its internal structure in order to maintain the overall satisfactory output. An approach to this adaptability has been introduced in the ROAD framework. Our prototype of the ROAD framework was implemented using a number of techniques, including Association-Aspects for implementing ROAD contracts. The performance monitoring and adaptability was realised using message interception for various synchronisation modes and message allocation/routing mechanisms inside the ROAD framework. The prototype demonstrates the ROAD framework's ability to monitor the system performance at runtime, and ability to react accordingly by changing players, creating new roles and contracts in order to utilise the capability of components and achieve/maintain system goals. The current stage of the implementation together with various alternatives and limitations are presented and discussed in this report. The implementation has proved the feasibility of the conceptual design of the ROAD framework and also opened up a number of areas that need to be investigated in the future.
Full report: pdf

Title: A survey on architecture design rationale, by A. Tang, M. A. Babar, I. Gorton and J. Han
Date: May 2005
Abstract: Many claims have been made about the problems caused by not documenting design rationale. The general perception is that designers and architects usually do not fully understand the critical role of systematic use and capture of design rationale. However, there is to date little empirical evidence available on what design rationale mean to practitioners, how valuable they consider them, and how they use and document design rationale during the design process. This paper reports an empirical study that surveyed practitioners to probe their perception of the value of design rationale and how they use and document background knowledge related to their design decisions. Based on eighty-one valid responses, this study has discovered that practitioners recognize the importance of documenting design rationale and frequently use them to reason about their design choices. However, they have indicated barriers to the use and documentation of design rationale. Based on the findings, we conclude that much research is needed to develop methodology and tool support for design rationale capture and usage. Furthermore, we put forward some research questions that would benefit from further investigation into design rationale in order to support practice in industry.
Full report: pdf

Title: Implementation of contracts using association aspects, by A. Colman and J. Han
Date: February 2005
Abstract: TBA.
Full report: pdf


Title: Operational management contracts for adaptive software organisation, by A. Colman and J. Han
Date: October 2004
Abstract: As modern computing environments become more open, distributed and pervasive, the software we build for those dynamic environments will need to become more adaptable and adaptive. We have previously introduced the ROAD framework for creating flexible and adaptive software structures. This framework is built on a distinction between functional and management roles. Management roles participate in contracts that regulate the global-flow of
control through a structure of objects and roles. This paper shows how these operationalmanagement contracts can be defined. Such contracts specify the permissible interactions between objects playing functional roles within an organisational structure. Association aspects are shown to have the expressiveness needed to represent such management contracts.
Full report: pdf
 


Title: Architecture Rationalization: A Methodology for Architecture Verifiability, Traceability and Completeness, by A. Tang and J. Han
Date: September 2004
Abastract: Architecture modeling is practiced extensively in the software industry but there is little attention paid to the traceability, verifiability and completeness of architecture designs and the rationale behind those designs. Deficiencies in any of these three areas in an architecture model can be costly and risky to projects. We propose the Architecture Rationalization Method (ARM) to overcome these issues. ARM makes use of both qualitative and quantitative rationales for selecting architecture designs. Quantitative rationale uses a model based on costs, benefits and risks in the selection process. ARM provides a method to determine when an architecture model is complete in that the level of details represented by the architecture design is sufficient. We apply ARM to a real-life industry case retrospectively to demonstrate how ARM can overcome issues surrounding traceability and verifiability.
Full report: pdf
 


Title: Security-Oriented Negotiation for Service Composition and Evolution, by J. Han, K. Khan and R. Kowalczyk
Date: June 2004
Abastract: This article introduces a framework for security-oriented software service composition and evolution. Key building blocks of the framework are a semantic model for specifying the security objectives and properties at the service and system levels, the negotiation and re-negotiation techniques for service composition and evolution, and the analysis techniques for checking the security compatibility between services and the satisfaction of system-level security goals. It focuses on developing techniques that allow system developers to design required security into service compositions with predictability and to maintain or adapt service compositions in changed security contexts. In contrast to the current practice, we view security from a software engineering perspective, and adopt a proactive and predictive approach to system security.
Full report: pdf
 


Title: Organizational Abstractions for Adaptive Systems, by A. Colman and J. Han
Date: June 2004
Abastract: Computing environments are becoming more open, distributed and pervasive.  The software we build for these dynamic environments will need to become more adaptable and adaptive.  This paper introduces a methodology based on ontogenic adaptation – the ability of a system to alter its structure while maintaining its organizational integrity.   This approach extends existing work on the separation of roles from objects, by defining an organisational layer of abstraction based on the separation of operational-management roles from functional roles.  Dynamic role-object bindings and role-role associations are created to form a flexible organization that can be adapted by an organisational manager.  The methodology is illustrated with an example to contrast it with a traditional object-oriented approach.
Full report: pdf
 


Title: Protocol-Equipped Interface Definition Language, by Y. Jin and J. Han
Date: June 2004, revised October 2004
Abastract: The Interface Definition Languages (IDLs) used by commercial middleware standards such as CORBA primarily address the signature aspects of software component interfaces. They do not cover important semantic aspects, e.g. the correct way in which component services are to be used. This often poses significant problems for designing component-based systems, especially where third-party components are used. In this report, we propose a formal but user-friendly language, called the Protocol-Equipped IDL (PEIDL), for the interface specification of components. This language augments commercial IDLs with capabilities of precisely describing component interaction protocols. It employs unambiguous temporal operators to capture sequencing and concurrency constraints between component operation invocations. Accordingly, it enables the precise specification of the interoperability requirements of components as well as the automated inter-component interoperability checking in a composite system.
Full report: pdf
 


Title: A Comparative Analysis of Architecture Frameworks, by A. Tang, J. Han and P. Chen
Date: July 2004; revised August 2004
Abstract: Architecture frameworks are methods used in architecture modelling. They provide a structured and systematic approach to designing systems. To date there has been little analysis on their roles in system and software engineering and if they are satisfactory. This study provides a model of understanding through analysing the goals, inputs and outcomes of six Architecture Frameworks. It characterizes two classes of architecture frameworks and identifies some of their deficiencies. To overcome these deficiencies, we propose to use costs, benefits and risks for architecture analysis. We also propose a method to delineate architecture activities from detailed design activities.
Full report: pdf

Last updated: March 2005
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