Volumen 16 (2014): Heft 1 (December 2014)

A system architect has software requirements and some unspecified knowledge about a problem domain (e.g., an enterprise) as source information for assessment and evaluation of possible solutions and getting the target point, a preliminary software design. The solving factor is architect’s experience and expertise in the problem domain (“AS-IS”). A proposed approach is dedicated to assist a system architect in making an appropriate decision on the solution (“TO-BE”). It is based on a formal mathematical model, Topological Functioning Model (TFM). Compliant TFMs can be transformed into software architectural views. The paper demonstrates and discusses tracing dependency links from the requirements to and between the architectural views.

This paper describes the Integrated Domain Modeling approach and introduces the supporting toolset as a solution to the complex domain-modeling task. This approach integrates artificial intelligence (AI) and system analysis by exploiting ontology, natural language processing (NLP), use cases and model-driven architecture (MDA) for knowledge engineering and domain modeling. The IDM toolset provides the opportunity to automatically generate the initial AS-IS model from the formally defined domain knowledge. In this paper, we describe in detail the scope, architecture and implementation of the toolset.

One of the key purposes of Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is to support graphical representation of the process model. However, such models have a lack of support for the graphical representation of resources, whose processes are used during simulation or execution of process instance. The paper analyzes different methods and their extensions for resource modeling. Further, this article presents a selected set of resource properties that are relevant for resource modeling. The paper proposes an approach that explains how to use the selected set of resource properties for extension of process modeling using BPMN and simulation tools. They are based on BPMN, where business process instances use resources in a concurrency manner.

Nowadays software configuration management process is not only dilemma which system should be used for version control or how to merge changes from one source code branch to other. There are multiple tasks such as version control, build management, deploy management, status accounting, bug tracking and many others that should be solved to support full configuration management process according to most popular quality standards. The main scope of the mentioned process is to include only valid and tested software items to final version of product and prepare a new version as soon as possible. To implement different tasks of software configuration management process, a set of different tools, scripts and utilities should be used. The current paper provides a new model-based approach to implementation of configuration management. Using different models, a new approach helps to organize existing solutions and develop new ones by a parameterized way, thus increasing reuse of solutions. The study provides a general description of new model-based conception and definitions of all models needed to implement a new approach. The second part of the paper contains an overview of criteria, practical experiments and lessons learned from using new models in software configuration management. Finally, further works are defined based on results of practical experiments and lessons learned.

It is a modern trend to develop a CASE tool for system modeling with an ability to transform models defined in different notations and also to generate a program code. Such a system modeling tool tries to bridge the gap between the system specification and the software components. A tool called BrainTool has been developed for generation of the UML diagrams from the initial presentation of problem domain by the two-hemisphere model. The paper presents the main components of BrainTool and compares it to other system modeling tools.

The software system needs to be analyzed and designed before the program code is written. A Computation Independent Model (CIM) and a Platform Independent Model/ Platform Specific Model (PIM/PSM) from Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) will be partially considered in this paper. A Topological Functioning Model (TFM) will be considered as a formal CIM, and UML sequence diagrams - as a behavioral PIM/PSM of the software system. The paper presents a short overview of the TFM and sequence diagrams with their constructs, as well as the example of transformation from the sequence diagrams to the TFM.

The paper is dedicated to parallel data sort based on sorting networks. The proposed methods and circuits have the following characteristics: 1) using two-level parallel comparators in even-odd transition networks with feedback to a register keeping input/intermediate data; 2) parallel merging of many sorted sequences; 3) using even-odd transition networks built from other sorting networks; 4) rational reuse of comparators in different types of networks, namely even-odd transition and for discovering maximum/minimum values. The experiments in FPGA, which were done for up to 16×2²⁰ 32-bit data items, demonstrate very good results (as fast as 3-5 ns per data item).

Agile software development can be made successful, but there is no well-defined way how to achieve this. The problem is that the successful adoption of agile methods and practices is a complex process and this process should be customizable for a particular organization or a team. This research focuses on identification of agile methods and practices. Result of the research is the ranking of agile methods, practices and their usage trends. As some terms of agile software development are interpreted differently in different organizations and teams, terminology used is analyzed. Results of the research can be used as a reference material for those who are planning to adopt agile methods or are looking for the next agile practice to implement. Results will be used for the development of an expert system to support agile adoption.

The goal of this paper is to give a specification of the software framework that evaluates the efficiency of different mechanisms for concurrent processes, notably process synchronization mechanisms. The paper discusses the concept of this framework, the potential users of it and some necessary considerations, including assumptions. Further, it defines general requirements for the framework and presents its desired conceptual design. The conclusions and possible directions for future work end the paper.

The perspective on integration of two mathematical formalisms, i.e., Colored Petri Nets (CPNs) and Topological Functioning Model (TFM), is discussed in the paper. The roots of CPNs are in modeling system functionality. The TFM joins principles of system theory and algebraic topology, and formally bridges the solution domain with the problem domain. It is a base for further automated construction of software design models. The paper discusses a perspective on check of control and data flows in the TFM by CPNs formalism. The research result is definition of mappings from TFMs to CPNs.

In this article, the authors perform an analysis in order to assess adaptation of magnetic force-directed algorithms for context-based information extraction from multi-attributed graphs during visualization sessions. Theoretic standings behind magnetic force-directed approach are stated together with review on how particular features of respective algorithms in combination with appropriate visual techniques are especially suitable for improved processing and presenting of knowledge that is captured in form of graphs. The complexity of retrieving multi-attributed information within the proposed approach is handled with dedicated tools, such as selective attraction of nodes to MFE (Magnetic Force Emitter) based on search criteria, localization of POI (Point of Interest) regions, graph node anchoring, etc. Implicit compatibility of aforementioned tools with interactive nature of data exploration is distinguished. Description of case study, based on bibliometric network analysis is given, which is followed by the review of existing related works in this field. Conclusions are made and further studies in the field of visualization of multi-attributed graphs are defined.

The main objective of the article is to provide insight into technologies and approaches available to maintain consistent state on both client and server sides. The article describes basic RIA application state persistence difficulties and offers approaches to overcoming such problems using asynchronous data transmission synchronization channels and other user-available browser abilities.

The goal of effective public administration is to provide qualitative services to citizens. Due to the increasing use of information and communication technologies (ICT), e-government is one of the possible solutions in achieving this goal. This solution includes a good understanding and management of the existing business processes, the use of normative documents and the effective use of information systems in public administration. To get the current view of all mentioned necessary components, the questionnaire was made. This paper is devoted to the analysis of questionnaire results. As a result of the analysis, hypotheses for further study are set.

The paper describes various types of assessment tasks that are used in e-learning environments and studies the use of HTML5 in the development of user interface elements for e-learning systems. Popular existing practices of HTML5 user interface design are examined, and some examples relevant to e-learning environments are provided.