Contact:
Bashar Nuseibeh
Project:
Investigators
Grant Details
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Relating Problem and Solution Structures in
Feature
Based Software
EPSRC Funded Project (2006-2009)
Aims and Objectives
The overall aim of this project was to investigate and
exploit the relationship between software architectures and the
structures of functional requirements that they support. The specific objectives of the project were to:
- investigate the correspondence between problem frames
and features, in order to capture features as problem frames, and
reason about feature interaction through problem frame composition;
- develop practical techniques to identify and exploit
matches between problem and solution structures and, where appropriate,
to understand the cause of absence of a match;
- validate the approach through its application to
significant case studies.
Project Results
Results related to specific project hypothesis are:
- Problem frames correspond closely to desirable
increments of functionality that can be considered as requirement units
and hence as deliverable features (Tun et al 2009a; Classen et al 2007; Salifu et al 2007)
- Practical architectures can be understood as
modifications and elaborations of a simple initial design in which one
software module is assigned to each subproblem machine (Tun et al
2009a; Classen et al 2007; Salifu et al 2007)
- Feature interaction can be understood in terms of
the composition of problem frames, and the combined requirement can be
clarified and refined by exploring these interactions at the problem
frame level (Tun et al 2009b; Laney et al 2007; Laney et al, 2004)
- Concerns arising in the composition of subproblems
and of their solutions can be usefully seen as partial requirements for
the resulting architectures
- Industrial experiences of feature-based development
(Tun et al 2009c)
Additional significant results related to the project are:
- A framework for representing and analysing security
requirements (Haley et al 2008)
- A framework for problem-oriented software
engineering (Hall et al 2008)
Selected Publications
T. T. Tun, T. Trew, M. Jackson, R. Laney and B. Nuseibeh
(2009a) "Specifying Features of an Evolving Software System", to appear
in Software - Practice and Experience Journal
T. T. Tun, Y. Yu, R. Laney and B. Nuseibeh (2009b) "A Tool-Supported Approach to Problem Composition",
to
appear in 15th International Working Conference on
Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality (RefsQ 2009)
T. T. Tun, R. Chapman, C. Haley, R. Laney and B.
Nuseibeh (2009c) "A Framework for Developing Feature-rich Software
Systems", to appear in 16th Annual IEEE International
Conference and Workshop on the Engineering of Computer Based Systems
(ECBS 2009)
J. G. Hall, L. Rapanotti, and M. Jackson, (2008)
"Problem Oriented Software Engineering: Solving the Package Router
Control Problem," IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. 34, 2, pp. 226-241, DOI= http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/TSE.2007.70769
C. Haley, R. Laney, J. Moffett, and B. Nuseibeh, (2008)
"Security Requirements Engineering: A Framework for Representation and
Analysis". IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. 34, 1, pp. 133-153. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TSE.2007.70754
A. Classen, P. Heymans, R. Laney, B. Nuseibeh and T.
T. Tun (2007) "On the Structure of Problem Variability: From Feature
Diagrams to Problem Frames" in Proceedings of International
workshop on Variability Modeling of Software-intensive Systems
16-18 January 2007, in Limerick, Ireland, pp. 109-118. Download: pdf
M. Salifu, B. Nuseibeh, L. Rapanotti and T. T. Tun
(2007) "Using Problem Descriptions to Represent Variabilities For
Context-Aware Applications" in Proceedings of International
workshop on Variability Modeling of Software-intensive Systems
16-18 January 2007, in Limerick, Ireland, pp. 149-156. Download: pdf
R. Laney, T. T. Tun, M. Jackson and B. Nuseibeh
(2007) "Composing Features by Managing Inconsistent Requirements" in Proceedings
of 9th International Conference on Feature Interactions in Software and
Communication Systems (ICFI 2007) Download: pdf
Laney, R., L. Barroca, M. Jackson, and B. Nuseibeh,
"Composing Requirements Using Problem Frames", in 12th International
Requirements Engineering Conference (RE'04), 2004, Kyoto, Japan, IEEE
Computer Society Press.
See full list of publications...
This site is last updated on 10 March 2009.
Site maintained by: Thein Than Tun.
Open University, UK
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