| 8911. |
- Jongeling, Robbert, et al.
(författare)
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Flexible Modelling : a Systematic Literature Review
- 2024
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Ingår i: Journal of Object Technology. - : Association Internationale pour les Technologies Objets. - 1660-1769. ; 23:3, s. 1-14
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Canonical software and systems modelling regards only models that conform to modelling languages and that are created in modelling tools. In practice, these models are often supplemented with free-form activities such as sketching and informal diagramming. Flexible modelling has been proposed to benefit from the combination of free-form activities, from relaxed to no conformance to modelling languages, and canonical modelling with more or less strict conformance of diagrammatic elements to modelling languages. Various tools and approaches have proposed mechanisms to support flexible modelling. In this paper, we report on a systematic literature review of these tools and approaches. We present an analysis of the existing body of knowledge in this area and discuss open research challenges that can help the modelling community identify promising next steps in this area.
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| 8912. |
- Jongeling, Robbert, et al.
(författare)
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From Informal Architecture Diagrams to Flexible Blended Models
- 2022
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Ingår i: SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE, ECSA 2022. - Cham : SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG. - 9783031166976 ; , s. 143-158
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- For the early design and communication of software systems, architects commonly use informal diagrams. Due to their notational freedom and effectiveness for communication, informal diagrams are often preferred over models with a fixed syntax and semantics as defined by a modeling language. However, precisely because of this lack of established semantics, informal diagrams are of limited use in later development stages for analysis tasks such as consistency checking or change impact analysis. In this paper, we present an approach to reconciling informal diagramming and modeling such that architects can benefit from analysis based on the informal diagrams they are already creating. Our approach supports migrating from existing informal architecture diagrams to flexible models, i.e., partially treating diagrams as models while maintaining the freedom of free-form drawing. Moreover, to enhance the ease of interacting with the flexible models, we provide support for their blended textual and graphical editing. We validate our approach in a lab setting and perform an evaluative case study in an industrial setting. We show how the approach allows architects to continue informal diagramming, while also benefiting from flexible models for consistency checking between the intended architecture and the implementation.
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| 8913. |
- Jongeling, Robbert
(författare)
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How to Live with Inconsistencies in Industrial Model-Based Development Practice
- 2019
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Ingår i: Doctoral Symposium at ACM/IEEE 22nd International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems. DS@MODELS. - 9781728151250 ; , s. 642-647
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Modern development of complex embedded systems utilizes models to describe multiple different views on the same system. Consistency between these models is essential to successful development but ensuring it is in current practice often a manual effort. In this research project, we aim to develop a methodology that helps developers to maintain consistency in industrial model-based development projects by identifying inconsistencies throughout the development and maintenance of the system. For such support to be applicable in industrial practice, it should fit in with current development, i.e., should be able to identify inconsistencies between models expressed in different modeling languages and created in different modeling tools. Furthermore, the required user interaction to defining consistency checks should be minimal. This paper sketches an approach meeting these requirements, initial results towards it and discusses future research plans towards a doctoral dissertation.
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| 8914. |
- Jongeling, Robbert, et al.
(författare)
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Identifying manual changes to generated code : Experiences from the industrial automation domain
- 2021
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Ingår i: Proceedings - 24th International Conference on Model-Driven Engineering Languages and Systems, MODELS 2021. - : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. - 9781665434959 ; , s. 35-45
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this paper, we report on a case study in an industrial setting where code is generated from models, and, for various reasons, that generated code is then manually modified. To enhance the maintainability of both models and code, consistency between them is imperative. A first step towards establishing that consistency is to identify the manual changes that were made to the code after it was generated and deployed. Identifying the delta is not straightforward and requires pre-processing of the artifacts. The main mechanics driving our solution are higher-order transformations, which make the implementation scalable and robust to small changes in the modeling language. We describe the specific industrial setting of the problem, as well as the experiences and lessons learned from developing, implementing, and validating our solution together with our industrial partner.
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| 8915. |
- Jongeling, Robbert, et al.
(författare)
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Impediments to Introducing Continuous Integration for Model-Based Development in Industry
- 2019
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Ingår i: Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications SEAA 2019. - : Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. ; , s. 434-441
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Model-based development and continuous integration each separately are methods to improve the productivity of development of complex modern software systems. We investigate industrial adoption of these two phenomena in combination, i.e., applying continuous integration practices in model-based development projects. Through semi-structured interviews, eleven engineers at three companies with different modelling practices share their views on perceived and experienced impediments to this adoption. We find some cases in which this introduction is undesired and expected to not be beneficial. For other cases, we find and categorize several impediments and discuss how they are dealt with in industrial practice. Model synchronization and tool interoperability are found the most challenging to overcome and the ways in which they are circumvented in g to overcome and the ways in which they are circumvented in practice are detrimental for introducing continuous integration.
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| 8916. |
- Jongeling, Robbert
(författare)
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Lightweight consistency checking for advancing continuous model-based development in industry
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- For the development of modern software-intensive systems, a large number of development artifacts are created and maintained to design and implement their intended structure and behavior. In this thesis, we consider continuous model-based development settings in which models and other development artifacts are developed incrementally, in short development cycles. Inconsistencies between these development artifacts occur continuously throughout the system's development and maintenance, due to the incremental nature of the development of these artifacts. However, when not known and never resolved, such inconsistencies may ultimately cause failures in developed systems. Therefore, consistency checking across development artifacts is often desirable.Consistency checking approaches face challenges such as adoption in existing engineering settings, the potential informality and incompleteness of models and other development artifacts, as well as the need for shorter development cycles. We show a tight coupling between introducing short development cycles and the need for increased support for consistency checking across models and other development artifacts. From a surveyed set of industrial settings, we identify the need for lightweight consistency-checking approaches.Four aspects that make a consistency checking approach lightweight are formulated on the basis of the surveyed industrial settings. We then study specific challenges to developing consistency checks in four concrete industrial settings. We summarize our experiences in these settings in reference schemas showing the steps of creation and adoption of lightweight consistency checks from various starting points. In summary, this thesis presents contributions to lightweight consistency checking in industrial settings and ultimately aims to facilitate the adoption of continuous model-based development.
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| 8917. |
- Jongeling, Robbert, et al.
(författare)
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Lightweight Consistency Checking for Agile Model-Based Development in Practice
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Object Technology. - : AITO - Association Internationale pour les Technologies Objets. - 1660-1769. ; 18:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In model-based development projects, models at different abstraction levels capture different aspects of a software system, e.g., specification or design. Inconsistencies between these models can cause inefficient and incorrect development. A tool-based framework to assist developers creating and maintaining models conforming to different languages (i.e. heterogeneous models) and consistency between them is not only important but also much needed in practice. In this work, we focus on assisting developers bringing about multi-view consistency in the context of agile model-based development, through frequent, lightweight consistency checks across views and between heterogeneous models. The checks are lightweight in the sense that they are easy to create, edit, use and maintain, and since they find inconsistencies but do not attempt to automatically resolve them. With respect to ease of use, we explicitly separate the two main concerns in defining consistency checks, being (i) which modelling elements across heterogeneous models should be consistent with each other and (ii) what constitutes consistency between them. We assess the feasibility and illustrate the potential usefulness of our consistency checking approach, from an industrial agile model-based development point-of-view, through a proof-of-concept implementation on a sample project leveraging models expressed in SysML and Simulink. A continuous integration pipeline hosts the initial definition and subsequent execution of consistency checks, it is also the place where the user can view results of consistency checks and reconfigure them.
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| 8918. |
- Jongeling, Robbert, et al.
(författare)
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Structural consistency between a system model and its implementation : a design science study in industry
- 2022
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Ingår i: Journal of Object Technology. - : Association Internationale pour les Technologies Objets. - 1660-1769. ; 21:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- During the development of complex systems, several different development artifacts are created and maintained. It is important to gain insight into the degree to which these artifacts are consistent, but this is challenging, especially in complex industrial settings. In this study, we aim to help engineers in their consistency management efforts by creating consistency checks between a system model and the corresponding code. To that end, we performed a design science study in which we develop a consistency checking tool and integrate it into an existing industrial system and software engineering setting. We evaluated the developed tool through a case study in which we measure the consistency before and after its introduction and evaluate the experiences of engineers using it. Our results show that the introduction of lightweight consistency checks into the continuous integration pipeline is beneficial for consistency management in the studied setting. Moreover, we discuss the practical challenges of introducing consistency checks in an industrial setting and find that the majority is of a nontechnical nature.
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| 8919. |
- Jongeling, Robbert, et al.
(författare)
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Towards boosting the OpenMBEE platform with model-code consistency
- 2020
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Ingår i: Proceedings - 23rd ACM/IEEE International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems, MODELS-C 2020 - Companion Proceedings. - New York, NY, USA : Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. - 9781450381352 ; , s. 231-235
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Eventual consistency between design and implementation is imperative for the quality and maintainability of software systems. Towards achieving this consistency, engineers can analyze the gaps between models and corresponding code to gain insights into differences between design and implementation. Due to the different levels of abstraction of the involved artifacts, this analysis is a complex task to automate. We study an industrial MBSE setting where we aim to provide model-code gap analysis between SysML system models and corresponding C/C++ code through structural consistency checks. To this end, we propose an extension of the OpenMBEE platform, to include code as one of the synchronized development artifacts in addition to models and documentation. In this paper, we outline our initial research idea to include code as a view in this platform and we propose to explicitly link the code to generated documentation, and thereby to the model.
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| 8920. |
- Jongeling, Robbert, et al.
(författare)
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Towards Consistency Checking Between a System Model and its Implementation
- 2020
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Ingår i: International Conference on Systems Modelling and Management ICSMM. - Cham : Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH. - 9783030581664 ; , s. 30-39
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In model-based systems engineering, a system model is the central development artifact containing architectural and design descriptions of core parts of the system. This abstract representation of the system is then partly realized in code. Throughout development, both system model and code evolve independently, incurring the risk of them drifting apart. Inconsistency between model and code can lead to errors in development, resulting in delayed or erroneous implementation. We present a work in progress towards automated mechanisms for checking consistency between a system model and code, within an industrial model-based systems engineering setting. In particular, we focus on automatically establishing traceability links between elements of the system model and parts of the code. The paper describes the challenges in achieving this in industrial practices and outlines our envisioned approach to overcome those challenges.
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