We present a UML profile that accommodates the specialized dynamic models that support the Oikos_adtl approach to software architecture. The profile reflects some core modeling Oikos_adtl concepts in the UML framework. We propose the related notations and diagrams, which map into the new models. Since we rely on the standard UML extension mechanisms, we are also setting the requirements for add-ins to the standard UML tools, to support our approach to the formal specification and analysis of software architectures.

We introduce a temporal logic to reason on global applications. First, we define a modal logic for localities that embeds the local theories of each component into a theory of the distributed states of the system. We provide the logic with a sound and complete axiomatization. Then, we extend the logic with a temporal operator. The contribution is that it is possible to reason about properties that involve several components in a natural way, even in the absence of a global clock, as required in an asynchronous setting.

Software engineering standards determine practices that "compliant" software processes shall follow. Standards generally define practices in terms of constraints that must hold for documents. The document types identified by standards include typical development products, such as user requirements, and also process-oriented documents, such as progress reviews and management reports. The degree of standards compliance can be established by checking these documents against the constraints. It is neither practical nor desirable to enforce compliance at all points in the development process. Thus, compliance must be managed rather than imposed. We outline a model of standards and compliance and illustrate it with some examples. We give a brief account of the notations and method we have developed to support the use of the model and describe a support environment we have constructed. The principal contributions of our work are: the identification of the issue of standards compliance; the development of a model of standards and support for compliance management; the development of a formal model of product state with associated notation; a powerful policy scheme that triggers checks; and a flexible and scalable compliance management view.

Collecting information about the performance of a software process is a necessary step for the assessment of the process quality. Oikos is an environment for the definition and the enactment of software process models. This paper presents the Oikos approach to history recording. We define the events that compose the histories and explain how the events to be monitored can be selected. Finally, we discuss the implementation of the recording mechanism.

This paper illustrates an algorithm for finding a read-only memory (ROM) specification, optimal in the sense that it results in a minimum ROM bit dimension, starting with an instruction set description which employs acyclic directed graphs. The algorithm selects (by a tabular technique) a descriptive graph subset, shown to be sufficient; then it performs a heuristically guided search among possible solutions generated by the graphs in the subset. The algorithm works for instructions which are such that a microevent occurs at most once in a single instruction; some results apply to the general case as well.