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Browsing by Author "France, Robert B., advisor"

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    A meta-modeling approach to specifying patterns
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2004) Kim, Dae-Kyoo, author; France, Robert B., advisor; Bieman, James M., committee member; Ghosh, Sudipto, committee member; Turk, Daniel E., committee member
    A major goal in software development is to produce quality products in less time and with less cost. Systematic reuse of software artifacts that encapsulate high-quality development experience can help one achieve the goal. Design patterns are a common form of reusable design experience that can help developers reduce development time. Prevalent design patterns are, however, described informally (e.g., [35]). This prevents systematic use of patterns. The research documented in this dissertation is aimed at developing a practical pattern specification technique that supports the systematic use of patterns during design modeling. A pattern specification language called the Role-Based Metamodeling Language (RBML) was developed as part of this research. The RBML specifies a pattern as a specialization of the UML metamodel. The RBML uses the Unified Modeling Language (UML) as a syntactic base to enable the use of UML modeling tools for creating and evolving pattern specifications. We used the RBML to develop specifications for design patterns in the Design Patterns book [35] including Abstract Factory, Bridge, Decorator, Observer, State, Iterator, and Visitor. We also used the RBML to define a large application domain pattern for checkin-checkout systems, and used the resulting specification to develop UML designs for a library system and a car rental system. In addition, we used the RBML to specify access control mechanisms as patterns including Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), Mandatory Access Control (MAC), and a Hybrid Access Control (HAC) that is a composition of RBAC and MAC. The RBML is currently used at NASA for modeling pervasive requirements as patterns. NASA also uses the RBML in the development of Weather CTAS System that is a weather forecasting system. To determine the potential of the RBML to support the development of tools that enable systematic use of patterns, we developed a prototype tool called RBMLPattern Instantiator (RBML-PI) that generates conforming UML models from RBML pattern specifications.
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    A scenario-based technique to analyze UML design class models
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Yu, Lijun, author; France, Robert B., advisor; Ray, Indrakshi, committee member; Ghosh, Sudipto, committee member; Malaiya, Yashwant, committee member; Turk, Dan, committee member
    Identifying and resolving design problems in the early design phases can help reduce the number of design errors in implementations. In this dissertation a tool-supported lightweight static analysis technique is proposed to rigorously analyze UML design class models that include operations specified using the Object Constraint Language (OCL). A UML design class model is analyzed against a given set of scenarios that describe desired or undesired behaviors. The technique can leverage existing class model analysis tools such as USE and OCLE. The analysis technique is lightweight in that it analyzes functionality specified in a UML design class model within the scope of a given set of scenarios. It is static because it does not require that the UML design class model be executable. The technique is used to (1) transform a UML design class model to a snapshot transition model that captures valid state transitions, (2) transform given scenarios to snapshot transitions and (3) determine if the snapshot transitions conform or not to the snapshot transition model. A design inconsistency exists if snapshot transitions that represent desired behaviors do not conform to the snapshot transition model, or if snapshot transitions representing undesired behaviors conform to the snapshot transition model. A Scenario-based UML Design Analysis tool was developed using Kermeta and the Eclipse Modeling Framework. The tool can be used to transform an Ecore design class model to a snapshot transition model and transform scenarios to snapshot transitions. The tool is integrated with the USE analysis tool. We used the Scenario-based UML Design Analysis technique to analyze two design class models: a Train Management System model and a Generalized Spatio-Temporal RBAC model. The two demonstration case studies show how the technique can be used to analyze the inconsistencies between UML design class models and scenarios. We performed a pilot study to evaluate the effectiveness of the Scenario-based UML Design Analysis technique. In the pilot study the technique uncovered at least as many design inconsistencies as manual inspection techniques uncovered, and the technique did not uncover false inconsistencies. The pilot study provides some evidence that the Scenario-based UML Design Analysis technique is effective. The dissertation also proposes two scenario generation techniques. These techniques can be used to ease the manual effort needed to produce scenarios. The scenario generation techniques can be used to automatically generate a family of scenarios that conform to specified scenario generation criteria.
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    A systematic approach to testing UML designs
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2007) Dinh-Trong, Trung T., author; France, Robert B., advisor; Ghosh, Sudipto, advisor
    In Model Driven Engineering (MDE) approaches, developers create and refine design models from which substantial portions of implementations are generated. During refinement, undetected faults in an abstract model can traverse into the refined models, and eventually into code. Hence, finding and removing faults in design models is essential for MDE approaches to succeed. This dissertation describes a testing approach to finding faults in design models created using the Unified Modeling Language (UML). Executable forms of UML design models are exercised using generated test inputs that provide coverage with respect to UML-based coverage criteria. The UML designs that are tested consist of class diagrams, sequence diagrams and activity diagrams. The contribution of the dissertation includes (1) a test input generation technique, (2) an approach to execute design models describing sequential behavior with test inputs in order to detect faults, and (3) a set of pilot studies that are carried out to explore the fault detection capability of our testing approach. The test input generation technique involves analyzing design models under test to produce test inputs that satisfy UML sequence diagram coverage criteria. We defined a directed graph structure, named Variable Assignment Graph (VAG), to generate test inputs. The VAG combines information from class and sequence diagrams. Paths are selected from the VAG and constraints are identified to traverse the paths. The constraints are then solved with a constraint solver. The model execution technique involves transforming each design under test into an executable form, which is exercised with the generated inputs. Failures are reported if the observed behavior differs from the expected behavior. We proposed an action language, named Java-like Action Language (JAL), that supports the UML action semantics. We developed a prototype tool, named UMLAnT, that performs test execution and animation of design models. We performed pilot studies to evaluate the fault detection effectiveness of our approach. Mutation faults and commonly occurring faults in UML models created by students in our software engineering courses were seeded in three design models. Ninety percent of the seeded faults were detected using our approach.
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    A systematic approach to testing UML designs
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2006) Dinh-Trong, Trung T., author; France, Robert B., advisor; Ghosh, Sudipto, advisor; Bieman, James M., committee member; Malaiya, Yashwant K., committee member; Fan, Chuen-mei, committee member
    In Model Driven Engineering (MDE) approaches, developers create and refine design models from which substantial portions of implementations are generated. During refinement, undetected faults in abstract model can traverse into the refined model, and eventually into code. Hence, finding and removing faults in design models is essential for MDE approaches to succeed. This dissertation describes approach to finding faults in design models created using the Unified Modeling Language (UML). Executable forms of UML design models are exercised using generated test inputs that provide coverage with respect to UML-based coverage criteria. The UML designs that are tested consist of class diagrams, sequence diagrams and activity diagrams. The contribution of the dissertation includes (1) a test input generation technique, (2) an approach to execute design models describing sequential behavior with test inputs in order to detect faults, and (3) a set of pilot studies that are carried out to explore the fault detection capability of our testing approach. The test input generation technique involves analyzing design models under test to produce test inputs that satisfy UML sequence diagram coverage criteria. We defined a directed graph structure, named Variable Assignment Graph (VAG), to generate test inputs. The VAG combines information from class and sequence diagrams. Paths are selected from the VAG and constraints are identified to traverse the paths. The constraints are then solved with a constraint solver. The model execution technique involves transforming each design under test into an executable from, which is exercised with the general inputs. Failures are reported if the observed behavior differs from the expected behavior. We proposed an action language, named Java-like Action Language (JAL), that supports the UML action semantics. We developed a prototype tool, named UMLAnT, that performs test execution and animation of design models. We performed pilot studies to evaluate the fault detection effectiveness of our approach. Mutation faults and commonly occurring faults in UML models created by students in our software engineering courses were seeded in three design models. Ninety percent of the seeded faults were detected using our approach.
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    A unified modeling language framework for specifying and analyzing temporal properties
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Al Lail, Mustafa, author; France, Robert B., advisor; Ray, Indrakshi, advisor; Ray, Indrajit, committee member; Hamid, Idris Samawi, committee member; Malaiya, Yashwant K., committee member
    In the context of Model-Driven Engineering (MDE), designers use the Unified Modeling Language (UML) to create models that drive the entire development process. Once UML models are created, MDE techniques automatically generate code from the models. If the models have undetected faults, they are propagated to code where they require considerable time and effort to detect and correct. It is therefore mandatory to analyze UML models at earlier stages of the development life-cycle to ensure the success of the MDE techniques in producing reliable software. One approach to uncovering design errors is to formally specify and analyze the properties that a system has to satisfy. Although significant research appears in specifying and analyzing properties, there is not an effective and efficient UML-based framework that specifies and analyzes temporal properties. The contribution of this dissertation is a UML-based framework and tools for aiding UML designers to effectively and efficiently specify and analyze temporal properties. In particular, the framework is composed of 1) a UML specification technique that designers can use to specify temporal properties, 2) a rigorous analysis technique for analyzing temporal properties, 3) an optimization technique to scale the analysis to large class models, and 4) a proof-of-concept tool. An evaluation of the framework using two real-world studies shows that the specification technique can be used to specify a variety of temporal properties and the analysis technique can uncover certain types of design faults. It also demonstrates that the optimization technique can significantly speed up the analysis.
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    An aspect-based approach to modeling access control policies
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2007) Song, Eunjee, author; France, Robert B., advisor; Ray, Indrakshi, advisor; Bieman, James M., committee member; Ghosh, Sudipto, committee member; Kim, Joon K., committee member
    Access control policies determine how sensitive information and computing resources are to be protected. Enforcing these policies in a system design typically results in access control features that crosscut the dominant structure of the design (that is, features that are spread across and intertwined with other features in the design). The spreading and intertwining of access control features make it difficult to understand, analyze, and change them and thus complicate the task of ensuring that an evolving design continues to enforce access control policies. Researchers have advocated the use of aspect-oriented modeling (AOM) techniques for addressing the problem of evolving crosscutting features. This dissertation proposes an approach to modeling and analyzing crosscutting access control features. The approach utilizes AOM techniques to isolate crosscutting access control features as patterns described by aspect models. Incorporating an access control feature into a design involves embedding instantiated forms of the access control pattern into the design model. When composing instantiated access control patterns with a design model, one needs to ensure that the resulting composed model enforces access control policies. The approach includes a technique to verify that specified policies are enforced in the composed model. The approach is illustrated using two well-known access control models: the Role- Based Access Control (RBAC) model and the Bell-LaPadula (BLP) model. Features that enforce RBAC and BLP models are described by aspect models. We show how the aspect models can be composed to create a new hybrid access control aspect model. We also show how one can verify that composition of a base (primary) design model and an aspect model that enforces specified policies produces a composed model in which the policies are still enforced.
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    Design and evaluation of the FAMILIAR tool
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Jaksic, Aleksandar, author; France, Robert B., advisor; Anderson, Charles W., committee member; Ghosh, Sudipto, committee member; Troup, Lucy J., committee member
    Software Product Line Engineering (SPLE) aims to efficiently produce multiple software products, on a large scale, that share a common set of core development features. Feature Modeling is a popular SPLE technique used to describe variability in a product family. FAMILIAR (FeAture Model scrIpt Language for manipulation and Automatic Reasoning) is a Domain-Specific Modeling Language (DSML) for manipulating Feature Models (FMs). One of the strengths of the FAMILIAR language is that it provides rich semantics for FM composition operators (aggregate, merge, insert) as well as decomposition operators (slice). The main contribution of this thesis is to provide an integrated graphical modeling environment that significantly improves upon the initial FAMILIAR framework that was text-based and consisted of loosely coupled parts. As part of this thesis we designed and implemented a new FAMILIAR Tool that provides (1) a fast rendering framework for the graphically representing feature models, (2) a configuration editor and (3) persistence of feature models. Furthermore, we evaluated the usability of our new FAMILIAR Tool by performing a small experiment primarily focusing on assessing quality aspects of newly authored FMs as well as user effectiveness and efficiency.