Distributed development of complex software systems with Object Make

Reuse is an important means of reducing costs and effort during the development of complex software systems. A major challenge is to find suitable components in a large library with reasonable effort. This becomes even harder in today’s development practice where a variety of artefacts such as models and documents play an equally important role as source code. Thus, different types of heterogeneous components exist and require consideration in a component search process. One flexible approach to structure (software component) libraries is faceted classification. Faceted classifications and in particular faceted browsing are nowadays widely used in online systems. This paper takes a fresh approach towards using faceted classification in heterogeneous software component libraries by transferring faceted browsing concepts from the web to software component libraries. It presents an architecture and implementation of such a library. This implementation is used to evaluate the applicability of facets in the context of an industry-driven case study.

This paper outlines perspectives on the teaching and learning of software systems development in large groups based on the designed, final year, software systems analysis (SSA) and software systems design (SSD) subjects within the undergraduate Software Engineering Program at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Technology Sydney (UTS). Topics described by this paper include shared experiences in implementing these subjects over the last two years and discusses their successes, as well as common problems both experienced and anticipated. While the SSA and SSD subjects are practice based, its content is the synthesis of all subjects taught in the Software Engineering Program and practiced in industrial internships. The object of these two subjects is to bridge the gap between the students' individualistic, often unplanned, unbudgeted and uncoordinated efforts, that dominate the traditional approach to teaching and learning software subjects; and the demands of planned, process driven, well coordinated and budgeted - modern, large team based development of complex software systems, demanded by industry. The subjects are evolutionary in nature, but the most critical aspect and challenge is to maintain a careful balance of academic and pedagogical interests with ever changing industry demands and practices.

As the demand for more flexible, adaptable, extensible, and robust Web based enterprise application systems accelerates, adopting new software engineering methodologies and development strategies becomes critical. These strategies must support the construction of enterprise software systems that assemble highly flexible software components written at different times by various developers. Traditional software development strategies and engineering methodologies, which require development of software systems from scratch, fall short in this regard. Component based software engineering offers an attractive alternative for building Web based enterprise application systems. CBSE works by developing and evolving software from selected reusable software components, then assembling them within appropriate software architectures. By promoting the use of software components that commercial vendors or in-house developers build, the component based software development approach promises large scale software reuse.

Background:The aim of this study was to compare dentinal crack formation in root canal walls following 3 single file systems with continuous rotation under a scanning electron microscope (SEM).Materials and Methods:In this SEM study, seventy mandibular premolars were randomly divided into 5 groups. 3 experimental groups (n = 20) and 2 control groups (n = 5) as follows: Group I: Neolix NiTi file system, Group II: OneShape systems, Group III: OneCurve file system, positive control: conventional Hand File system, negative control: unprepared. After root canal preparations, the roots were sectioned at 3, 6, and 9 mm from the apex with water irrigation. The sections were inspected in all directions under SEM at × 100 magnification to determine the presence of cracks. The Chi-square test was used to analyze the data. There is a statistically significant difference in the crack formation between the apical third (P = 0.012) and coronal third (P = 0.002) when comparing all the 5 groups. No significant difference is found in the middle third (P = 0.46). P < 0.05 is considered statistically significant.Results:Maximum cracks in the apical third were seen with One Shape file 11 (55%) and in the coronal third with Neolix NiTi 14 (70%). There is a statistically significant difference in the crack formation only in OneCurve when comparing the apical, middle, and coronal third for the individual group (P = 0.042).Conclusion:There was a significant difference in crack formation in apical and coronal third. OneCurve caused the least incidence of cracks when compared to other file systems. OneCurve file system can be a choice for canal preparation over Neolix Niti and OneShape.

Component based software development (CBSD) endeavors to deliver cost-effective and quality software systems through the selection and integration of commercially available software components. CBSD emphasizes the design and development of software systems using preexisting components. Software component reusability is an indispensable part of component based software development life cycle (CBSDLC), which consumes a significant amount of organization’s resources, that is, time and effort. It is convenient in component based software system (CBSS) to select the most suitable and appropriate software components that provide all the required functionalities. Selecting the most appropriate components is crucial for the success of the entire system. However, decisions regarding software component reusability are often made in an ad hoc manner, which ultimately results in schedule delay and lowers the entire quality system. In this paper, we have discussed the analytic network process (ANP) method for software component selection. The methodology is explained and assessed using a real life case study.

Software systems play a key role in most businesses nowadays. Building robust, reliable and scalable software systems require going through a software production cycle (or process). However, it has been noticed that software systems are subjected to changes, whether those amendments are important or not. Those changes to software systems are viewed as a considerable issue in software engineering; they are considered as a burden and cost a lot, especially in cases such as enterprises and large-scale software systems. This study aims to identify the reasons that cause software changes and suggest remedies for those reasons. We survey the opinions of experts such as technical managers, team leaders, and senior developers. We collected 81 responses to our questionnaire, which aimed to establish common software development practices in the local industry. We also conducted 16 semi-structured interviews targeting the most senior experts, in which we directly discussed the reasons and remedies for software changes. Our results highlight the most influential reasons that cause changes to software systems, such as changes to user requirements, requests for new features, software development methodology, solving bugs, refactoring, and weak user experience design. Most importantly, the study solicited solutions that can reduce the need for software changes

The new trend is to move from the traditional software development approach, which focuses on building software systems from scratch, to component based software development approach, which revolutionizes how software systems are built. The focus of this new approach is on development of new systems, by selecting and assembling a set of off the shelf components within an appropriate software architecture. On one hand, the use of off the shelf components has led to a great potential for: (1) significantly reducing cost and time to market of large scale and complex software systems; (2) improving system maintainability and flexibility by allowing new components to replace old ones; and (3) enhancing system quality by allowing components to be developed by those who are specialized in the application area and systems to be built by software engineers who are specialized in component based software development. On the other hand, the use of commercial off the shelf software-delivered as black box components-has raised a few major technical and non technical issues. The paper explores those issues, and discusses several directions for future research that would help to expand the use of component based software development approach.

The mature development of computer network technology mainly is due to the combination with OSI network model’s feature of continuous software improvement. In the analysis process of software life cycle, improve the practicability of the software. This paper focuses on analyzing the development and application of extensible computer network design system.

Background: Calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2) is the most commonly used intracanal material; it needs to be removed in entirety before obturation. Several techniques have been used for the same including use of various hand and rotary files. Aim: This study was carried out to compare the efficacy of Hand K files and single and multiple rotary file system in removal of Ca(OH)2. Methodology: Distobuccal root of 45 maxillary molars were selected on the basis of specified inclusion and exclusion criteria. They were divided into three groups - Group 1 (H and K file), Group 2 (HERO Shaper), and Group 3 (One Shape). Biomechanical preparation (BMP) was carried out as per the manufacturer's instructions; 2.5% sodium hypochlorite was used as the irrigant and 17% ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid as the penultimate irrigant. Ca(OH)2powder was mixed with normal saline to obtain a paste; canals were filled with this paste using a Lentulo spiral and were sealed. After 7 days, Ca(OH)2was removed, using the same file system as that used for BMP. Samples were sectioned longitudinally and evaluated under a stereomicroscope. Statistical Analysis: Statistical analysis of the obtained data was carried out using one-way analysis of variance test. Results: HERO Shaper displayed better removal of Ca(OH)2than One Shape and Hand K file. Moreover, removal was better in the middle third of canal than apical third. Conclusion: Multiple rotary file system (HERO Shaper) is more effective in removal of Ca(OH)2than the single file system (One Shape)

Software configuration management (SCM) is the discipline of controlling the evolution of complex software systems. The author surveys the Konfiguration Management System (KMS), a tool that supports the tasks of SCM from the early inception of the software system to the end of maintenance with emphasis on configuration control, program generation, and system delivery. A distinctive feature is the support to customers for adapting the system to their needs and for merging adapted systems to new releases of the original system. KMS has been used to develop software for such applications as CAD, banking, telecommunications, etc. Program generation is discussed along with delivery and maintenance. >

The most current trends in the evolution of software development process are closely related with the increasing complexity of software systems. This motivates software engineers and system developers to find an alternative solution for software system design and development. In this case, the manner offered by OMG’s initiative, the Model Driven Architecture namely, represents a model-driven approach to software development. It also considers the further evolution of CASE tools, bringing their functionality to the next level. This paper investigates the variety of the CASE tools developed under an impact of MDA growing progress. The differences between Model Driven Architecture and Model Driven Development in the context of automatic capabilities for software development are also discussed in the paper. The example of possibility to define a set of tools proposed as a tool chain for development of software systems under the framework of MDA, the projection of two-hemisphere approach for object-oriented software development into authors’ developed component model of MDA is offered in the paper.

As the evolution of applications, software systems become more and more complex. However, it is a challenge to deliver easy-to-use and reliable large-scale distributed software systems. This paper first reviews current requirements on software systems and the progress made and then reports our effort in delivering a more usable and reliable large-scale distributed software development framework (iFrame) to support e-research. Bearing human collaboration in the first place, iFrame synthesizes peer-to-peer (P2P), service-oriented architecture (SOA), Web 2.0 and semantic Web into grid: P2P is deployed to construct an interconnected environment to enhance reliability and scalability, SOA and semantic Web are exploited to deliver concrete business functionality and prompt interoperability, whereas Web 2.0 is utilized to devise more usable interface.

Welcome to the International Conference on Software and Systems Process (ICSSP) held in Zurich, Switzerland, on June 2nd and 3rd, 2012. Having grown from a Software Process Workshop in 2005 to the International Conference on Software Process (ICSP) in 2007, and finally to the International Conference on Software and Systems Process (ICSSP) in 2011, this conference series has established its place in the software engineering community as a respected conference focusing on research and practice related to software and systems development process. Software and software systems development use processes as one major means for achieving and ensuring the quality of the final product. This leads to specific challenges regarding software processes such as simplicity, adaptability, standard conformance, the coordination of multiple domains and lifecycles, etc. Processes from other domains (e.g., health care, manufacturing, business, aerospace, automotive systems, and others) face similar challenges. Yet, they share interesting similarities with and differences to software processes. The question is: How can we in the software domain learn from other domains to meet our software process engineering challenges? The ICSSP conferences hence connect the traditional software and systems process community with outside views and insights, broadening its scope of software development processes to system development and explicitly including processes of other domains such as health care, business, and manufacturing. By sharing process development theories and practices from such domains, ICSSP 2012 is investigating novel solutions to today's process challenges. Correspondingly, the main theme of ICSSP 2012 is Beyond Software and Software Systems Processes, signaling our goal of learning from domains other than the traditional software process community.

i»? A. A. Helal, A. A. Heddaya, and B. B. Bhargrava Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, 1996, 176 pp. ISBN 0-7923-9800-9, $118.50 Computing in the 1990s has reached the state of distributed computing. A basis of this form of computing is a distributed computing system, which is built on the following three components: (a) personal computers, (b) local and fast wide area networks, and (c) system and application software. By amalgamating computers and networks into one single computing system and providing an appropriate system software, a distributed computing system has created the possibility of sharing information and peripheral resources. Furthermore, these systems improved performance of a computing system and individual users through parallel execution of programs, load balancing and sharing, and replication of programs and data. Distributed computing systems are also characterized by enhanced availability, and increased reliability. Replication is the key to providing high availability, fault tolerance, and enhanced performance in a distributed computing system. As companies move toward systems that are more open and distributed, replication is becoming increasingly important in the ability to provide data and services that are current, correct and available, which is a key factor in maintaining a competitive advantage over rivals. However, replication has also generated some serious challenges. For example, when a replica is updated, how do we propagate such an update to other replicas? If multiple replicas are updated simultaneously and some of the updates conflict one another, how do we resolve the conflict? How do we deal with the situation where a replica is down and then subsequently recovered? How do we deal with network partitions? Not surprisingly, considerable research efforts have been directed towards the solution of these challenges. However, most of the research results are scattered among many journals, conference proceedings, theses, and technical reports. The book by Helal, Heddaya and Bhargava has gathered the best material of these research results and formed a coherent collection that includes definitions, theoretical background, algorithms, annotated bibliographies of commercial and experimental prototype systems, and more than 200 references. This book classifies the entities that can be replicated on a distributed computing system into the following categories: (a) data, (b) process, (c) objects, and (d) messages. After the introduction on the goals and main approaches of replication techniques, the book uses individual chapters to describe major methods for each of the above replication categories. The main focus of this part, however, is on the replication of data. The book also contains two chapters on the replication issues in heterogeneous, mobile, and large-scale systems, and on the future of replication techniques. Apart from the normal chapters, the book contains a rich set of appendices that are very useful for further studies of replication techniques. These appendices include brief descriptions of two dozen commercial and experimental systems that use replication techniques, annotated bibliographies of selected literature on various topics of replication, and an introduction on serializability theory. Each annotated bibliography contains an overview of the specific topic and is written by an invited expert in that field. The combination of the normal chapters and appendices cover the entire spectrum of replication, from definitions, concepts, theories, algorithms, techniques, to systems. The book serves as an excellent introduction and roadmap to the issues of replication. Although it does not provide a detailed description of every replication techniques and systems, the book covers most of the fundamental work that allows the reader to understand the roots of these techniques and systems, and to find the ways to search for the details. This book is a valuable reference book for anyone studying replication techniques or implementing replication systems, specifically, it can be very useful to post-graduate students, practitioners, and beginning researchers of this exciting field. Wanlei Zhou, School of Computing and Mathematics, Deakin University

SummaryIn the development of hospital information systems it is difficult to describe data and activities simultaneously and equivalently. Most of the methods used so far are only suitable for either data structures or functional modeling. In particular, it is not possible to comprehend the functional interdependence of hospital procedures.In this paper it is shown that Petri Nets are well suited for the development of complex software systems. Their exceptional properties are, on the one hand, the simulative capacities which allow to visualize interlinked and interdependent procedures of the real world. On the other hand, it is pointed out that Petri Nets comply with the demands of software engineering. In order to make these characteristics clear, two models from real developments are used: Firstly the organizational model of a small hospital and secondly the model of the data entry in the follow-up of tumor patients.