Browsing by Author "Maro, Salome"

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A DSL Supporting Textual and Graphical Views
(2015-08-12) Maro, Salome; Göteborgs universitet/Institutionen för data- och informationsteknik; University of Gothenburg/Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Domain Specific Languages(DSLs) are languages that are designed to be used in a particular development area. These languages aim to help developers solve the problems related to that domain and therefore contain information and jargons that are only relevant to a particular domain. Domain specific languages can be expressed in textual or graphical formats. Apart from personal preferences there are several advantages of using graphical format and also several advantages of using textual format. Therefore having a DSL that supports both of these notations will mean harvesting the advantages of all of them. However most of the tools available that enable the use of domain specific languages tend to focus on either textual or graphical editors for the DSL. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the possibility of having both notations for the same DSL in use. The thesis was conducted using action research method at Ericsson AB. Ericsson is currently having a DSL that has only a graphical notation. This DSL is using UML and UML Profiles. A prototype of the textual version of the existing DSL was created using Xtext and used to make an analysis and come up with findings on how a DSL with both graphical (which is in UML) and textual notations can be used. Transformations that enable switching from one view of the model to another have also been prototyped and used for analysis. The thesis also investigated two other solutions that are based on EMF using Xtext for text and GMF for the graphical notation. This thesis concludes that with all the alternatives investigated, it is possible to have a DSL that supports both graphical and textual views. Each solution however varies in the effort needed to implement and maintain the DSL.
Addressing Traceability Challenges in the Development of Embedded Systems
(2017) Maro, Salome
Context: Currently, development e orts in embedded systems development lead to a large number of interconnected artifacts. Traceability enables understanding and managing these artifacts as they evolve. However, establishing traceability is not a trivial task, it requires the development organization to plan how traceability will t into its processes and provide tools to support traceability establishment. In practice, guidelines for how traceability should be established are lacking. Therefore, companies struggle with establishing traceability and making the most of traceability once it is established. Objective: The overall objective of this research is to improve traceability processes and tools for embedded systems development. In this thesis, we started with rst understanding the domain and practical traceability challenges and also investigated how traceability tools can be improved. Method: Since establishing traceability is a practical problem, our research is conducted in close collaboration with industry partners. We conducted qualitative empirical studies to understand which traceability challenges exist in reality and designed solutions for some of these challenges. Concretely, we used action research, case study and design science methods for the di erent studies. Results: Our studies show that establishing traceability in practice still has several challenges, the most prominent ones being: the manual work of establishing traceability is high; the engineers responsible for creating the links perceive it as an overhead; lack of tools to enable using traceability; lack of methods and tools to measure its quality; no universal standards for traceability to be shared and exchanged and it is di cult to measure the return on investment of establishing traceability. To reduce the amount of manual work needed to maintain traceability links, we designed guidelines that can be followed by tool developers. We also show the feasibility of a con gurable and extendable traceability management tool through a prototype implementation. Contributions: As part of this thesis, we have elicited persistent traceability challenges in development of embedded systems development. This list of challenges can also be used by other researchers who are interested in the topic of traceability for embedded systems development. As a rst initiative towards solving these challenges, we propose important factors and guidelines for traceability tool developers and organizations that need to acquire traceability tools. Lastly, we have demonstrated the feasibility of these factors and guidelines through a prototype implementation. This implementation is open source and available for industry to use in their development and for other researchers to use for studies and extend the tool.
Improving software traceability tools and processes
(2020-08-17) Maro, Salome
Context: Development of large and complex software leads to a large number of interconnected artifacts such as requirements, design models, code and implementation. Traceability enables understanding and managing these artifacts as they evolve. However, establishing traceability is not trivial. It requires the development organization to design effective traceability strategies and provide tools to support the traceability activities. Establishing traceability in practice faces many challenges such as the amount of effort needed to establish traceability, unclear traceability processes and difficulty in measuring the benefits of traceability. Objective: The overall objective of this research is to improve traceability processes and tools in software development. In this thesis we started with exploring the state of the art as well as the state of practice of traceability in order to identify persisting challenges and existing solutions. We then propose and implement solutions for four of the identified challenges: manual work of establishing traceability, lack of configurable tools, diverse artifacts and tools, and unclear traceability processes. Method: To identify existing traceability challenges and solutions, we conducted a systematic tertiary literature review, a multi-vocal literature review, and a case study to understand how these challenges and solutions manifest in practice. To design solutions we took an empirical approach where we used case studies and design science for the different studies. Results: Our results show that there are still many traceability challenges which are not solved by current solutions in literature due to practical constraints and limitations that exist especially in safety critical domains. To address the challenge of manual work needed to maintain trace links we propose a set of important factors and guidelines for traceability maintenance aimed at traceability tool developers and companies acquiring traceability tools. The feasibility of these factors and guidelines are demonstrated through a prototype implementation. The prototype implementation also shows how to design traceability solutions that are both configurable and support tracing to and from diverse artifacts and tools. To address the challenge of manual work in creating traceability links we have investigated how to improve the trace link vetting process as part of a way to transfer automated techniques of creating trace links to industry. We provide insights and lessons learned on how to improve the trace link vetting process. Lastly the thesis proposes a traceability introduction methodology (TracIMo), which consists of concrete steps that companies can take to design, deploy and evaluate traceability strategies.