SysML is a standard language that permits to model systems of any type such as plane, ships and software intensive systems. Software Product Line large scale reuse approach has demonstrated its success. The industry provides benefits in term of cost savings and acceleration of time to maket. The available literature indicates that there have been efforts to enhance the capability of SysML in handling product families. However, these attempts are not yet fully systematic, and there remains a significant amount of work to be undertaken in this area. In this present paper, we deal with the SysML Block Diagram in order to investigate to what extent it permits variability representation and how it can evolve during the system evolution or when agility is needed. We want to capitalize on the knowledge necessary for block diagram extention and evolution and take advantage of knowledge from Product Line domain engineering and application engineering. So, we decide to use an ontology which is an articifial intelligence artifact. An ontology is a powerful mean to represent knowledge and reason about it. Here, we use the ontology to help decision making for Block diagram evolution as well.

This paper concerns the exploration of an approach that deals with formal program derivation in contrast to the traditional approach that begins with a formal specification, derive different refinements of that specification until generating the final correct program code. Hence, we use a rigorous theoretical framework which is based on the concept of relative correctness; the property of a program to be more correct than another program with respect to a specification. Program derivation process by relative correctness presents several advantages as for example deriving reliable software. In fact, for most software products, as for products in general, perfect correctness is not necessary; very often, adequate reliability threshold is sufficient. Our aim is to continue experimenting with the discipline of reliable program derivation by correctness enhancement by conducting an analytical and empirical study of this approach as a proof of concept. Then, to analyze the results and compare them (give feedback) to what is predicted and proposed by the analytical approach and decide on the usability of the approach and/or adjust/complete it. Finally, we propose a mechanism that helps and guides developer in the program derivation process using relative correctness.

Extant BPM models and methods seem to focus on well-defined, structured and too rigid development process. This latter follows an internally oriented business model implemented with an inside-out approach, with internal focus problem-solving. While driving innovation in today's digital age with it's emerging new technologies such as big data analytics which provide prediction of future events based on real-time information are being integrated into BPM, additional core values like capabilities for dynamic adaptation, autonomic behavior, runtime reconfiguration and post-deployment activities are called for to manage unforeseen scenarios at runtime in a situated and changeable context. Dynamic Software Product Lines (DSPLs) is an emerging paradigm that supports these runtime variability mechanisms. However, few works exploiting DSPLs principles and techniques in the BPM domain have been proposed so far.In this paper, we propose a conceptual approach DynPL4CBPM as an extension of DynPL4BPM, which integrates DSPLs concepts along with the entire related dynamic properties, still not used together, to the whole BPM lifecycle in order to dynamically adapt business processes according to different context conditions in an individual environment.

During the last two past decades, software architecture has been a rising subject of software engineering. Since, researchers and practitioners have recognized that analyzing the architecture of a software system is an important part of the software development process. Architectural evaluation not only reduces software development efforts and costs but it also enhances the quality of the software by verifying the addressability of quality requirements and identifying potential risks. To this aim, several approaches have been recently proposed to analyze system non-functional attributes from its software architecture specification. In this paper, we propose an ADL based formal method for representing and reasoning about system non-functional attributes at the architectural level. We are especially interested in analyzing performance and reliability quality attributes. We also propose to analyze the sensitivity of the system by identifying components that have the greatest impact on the system quality. The automation of our model was followed by a series of experiments that allowed us to validate our inductive reasoning to prove the capabilities of our model to represent and analyze software architectures.

In the context of Software Product Line (SPL) reuse paradigm, one of the most widely used models is the feature model. It describes the set of products in an SPL in terms of their features and the relationships among them. A feature is an externally desired service by the system. While features concern functional aspects, non-functional features must also be considered which have impact on the quality of the SPL derived systems. For this purpose, Extended feature models are proposed in the literature. In order to verify the consistency of such models, several techniques are proposed. We adopt a formal approach that represents Extended Feature Models and reason about them for proving consistency and other operations. In this paper, we show the impact of non-functional attributes on the analysis operations of feature models. In this work, we have resumed analysis operations of feature models listed in the literature. Moreover, we studied the effect of adding the non-functional attributes on these operations by giving examples. So this has enabled us to emphasize the presence of three types of constraints namely: constraint value, constraint attribute-attribute and constraint feature-attribute.

Even though nothing is ever that simple/ clear cut in software engineering, one would argue that by contrast with source code, which represents the detailed functional attributes of a software product, the architecture of a software product represents its non functional attributes. The architecture of a software product determines such attributes as its response time, throughput, reliability, security, maintainability, availability, etc. In this paper we present a model for reasoning about quantitative non functional attributes of software architectures, and discuss our plan to develop automated support for this model.

Despite several decades of on-and-off research efforts, the functional analysis of computer programs to an arbitrary level of thoroughness and precision remains an unfulfilled challenge. Also, despite several decades of advances in programming language design and implementation, most of the software that is written and maintained today is written in traditional imperative programs; in such programs, the most critical/ most complex control structure is the loop. In this paper, we discuss our ongoing effort to develop a tool that reviews a while loop written in an imperative language (C, C++, Java) and derives its function, by specifying the final values of all its program variables as a function of its initial values.

In this short paper we discuss the design, implementation and operation of an automated tool that computes the function of while loops written in C-like programming languages.

Building secure software is about taking security into account during all phases of software development. This practice is missing in, widely used, traditional developments due to domain immaturity, newness of the field and process complexity. Software development includes two views, a product view and a process view. Product view defines what the product is, whereas process view describes how the product is developed. Here we are concerned with the process view. Modelling the process allows simulate and analyze a software development process, which can help developers better understand, manage and optimize the software development process. In this paper we present our approach S2D-ProM, for Secure Software Development Process Model, which is a strategy oriented process model. This latter, capture steps and strategies that are required for the development of secure software and provide a two level guidance. The first level guidance is strategic helping developers choosing one among several strategies. The second level guidance is tactical helping developers achieving their selection for producing secure software. The proposed process model is easily extensible and allows building customized processes adapted to context, developer's finalities and product state. This flexibility allows the environment evolving through time to support new securing strategies.

Summary form only given. This paper discusses that in order to help development with reusable software components, various reuse libraries should be available for users, components retrieval, use and comprehension should be facilitated and relations between components should be considered. To achieve this goal, we propose a reuse infrastructure-IRL which preferences various reuse libraries in order to make them available for users all over the world and to facilitate their access, 2) supplies components reuse guidelines, samples and/or demos to facilitate their comprehension and use and 3) extracts components relationships to facilitate their composition and integration. IRL infrastructure is based on a component meta-model and a search process. The meta-model represents a meta-library associated with IRL and encapsulates different views of a reusable component. The search process is strategic and supplies different search techniques which can be applied to search for components independently of their source libraries search techniques. This infrastructure provides an ontology which represents components meta-knowledge. This ontology provides, in one hand a unified vocabulary for various reuse libraries by which ambiguities on the components semantics are removed. On the other hand, this ontology facilitates components search and filling in the meta-library associated with IRL infrastructure. In this paper, the IRL infrastructure is presented, and an experimentation evaluating it is discussed.

Summary form only given. COTS-based development (CBD) is gaining ground on traditional development given the benefits it provides. Several methods are proposed to support one or more CBD process steps. However, in practice many problems are faced. These problems are mainly related to the lack of CBD environments, and the difficulty of choosing the appropriate method in each step and then properly applying it. In this paper, we propose a meta-model for the CBD process. To generate it, we use the map process meta-model which allows to specify decision-oriented processes. The proposed CBD meta-model has as intentions the main CBD process steps and as strategies the different types of existing methods allowing to achieve a process step. It exhibits a strategic level capturing knowledge about existing methods. It provides therefore choice guidance of the appropriate method according to the current situation. Besides, it allows the developer to construct his/her customized process depending on the application to develop, his/her preferences and experience with the methods. The use of this meta-model is illustrated through a case study.

The product line engineering approaches (PLE) to software development are promising in matter of quality, productivity and time-to-market. Some results achieved in industry can prove that. But managers need quantitative models reassuring them concerning the important initial investment they are going to commit. This paper reports on the need for such economic models for reuse as well as the underlying supported tools. Thus, we introduce a new software cost estimation model for product line engineering that we denote as SoCoEMo-PLE. This model is based on two previous models: the integrated cost estimation model for reuse in general and Poulin's model for PLE. In fact, we present a new model, which takes into account PLE software development cycle approach and takes some features of the two previous cost estimation models. The tool supporting SoCoEMo-PLE is described and an UML modeling is presented. Results of a preliminary experiment in the use of the model and the tool are reported.

COTS-based development (CBD) process consists in five main steps including identifying COTS products candidates, selecting the most appropriate one and assembling it with the other components. In practice, this process is not yet obvious to follow. Many methods are proposed to support one or several steps of the process. But, which method to use and how to apply it still remains problematic. The MAP is a process meta-model proposed to support methods specification and their enactment. We have already used the MAP to express the CBD process, and the MAP was also used to express PORE, a COTS selection method. In this paper, we propose to generalize the use of the MAP to express both the CBD process and COTS related methods, especially selection ones. As a result, the developer is guided in the process of choosing the appropriate method and its application.

Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components are more and more used in the new applications development. They promise to reduce cost and risks, and to ensure software higher quality. However, in practice, many problems are faced during the evaluation, selection and integration. Major causes of these problems are due to the lack of knowledge about COTS products, the ignorance of the available methods of evaluation, selection and integration, and the lack of guidance for choosing between these methods. Therefore, a COTS-based development environment (CEDE) turns out to be essential. In this perspective, we propose a survey of COTS characterizations and propose an extended model. The use of these attributes in a CEDE is specified by a scenario denoted by a multimodel process known as map formalism. The same development process is then illustrated with a map scenario focusing on the different types of selection/integration existing methods.

Echoing Louis Pasteur's quote, we submit the premise that it is advantageous to define measures of distance between requirements specifications because such measures open up a wide range of possibilities both in theory and in practice. The authors present a mathematical basis for measuring distances between specifications and show how their measures of distance can be used to address concrete problems that arise in the practice of software engineering.

Given a software library whose entries are represented by formal specifications, we distinguish between two retrieval procedures: exact retrieval, whereby, given a query K, we identify all the library components that are correct with respect to K; approximate retrieval, which is invoked when exact retrieval fails, and identifies the library components that minimize adaptation effort. To this effect, we define four measures of functional distance between specifications, and discuss algorithms that minimize these measures over a set of components; then we discuss whether these measures can be used to predict adaptation effort.