Schema Compliant Consistency Management via Triple Graph Grammars and Integer Linear Programming

In the field of Model-Driven Engineering, Triple Graph Grammars (TGGs) play an important role as a rule-based means of implementing consistency management. From a declarative specification of a consistency relation, several operations including forward and backward transformations, (concurrent) synchronisation, and consistency checks can be automatically derived. For TGGs to be applicable in realistic application scenarios, expressiveness in terms of supported language features is very important. A TGG tool is schema compliant if it can take domain constraints, such as multiplicity constraints in a meta-model, into account when performing consistency management tasks. To guarantee schema compliance, most TGG tools allow application conditions to be attached as necessary to relevant rules. This strategy is problematic for at least two reasons: First, ensuring compliance to a sufficiently expressive schema for all previously mentioned derived operations is still an open challenge; to the best of our knowledge, all existing TGG tools only support a very restricted subset of application conditions. Second, it is conceptually demanding for the user to indirectly specify domain constraints as application conditions, especially because this has to be completely revisited every time the TGG or domain constraint is changed. While domain constraints can in theory be automatically transformed to obtain the required set of application conditions, this has only been successfully transferred to TGGs for a very limited subset of domain constraints. To address these limitations, this paper proposes a search-based strategy for achieving schema compliance. We show that all correctness and completeness properties, previously proven in a setting without domain constraints, still hold when schema compliance is to be additionally guaranteed. An implementation and experimental evaluation are provided to support our claim of practical applicability.

Comprehensive Systems: A formal foundation for Multi-Model Consistency Management

Model management is a central activity in Software Engineering. The most challenging aspect of model management is to keep inter-related models consistent with each other while they evolve. As a consequence, there is a lot of scientific activity in this area, which has produced an extensive body of knowledge, methods, results and tools. The majority of these approaches, however, are limited to binary inter-model relations; i.e. the synchronisation of exactly two models. Yet, not every multi-ary relation can be factored into a family of binary relations. In this paper, we propose and investigate a novel comprehensive system construction, which is able to represent multi-ary relations among multiple models in an integrated manner and thus serves as a formal foundation for artefacts used in consistency management activities involving multiple models. The construction is based on the definition of partial commonalities among a set of models using the same language, which is used to denote the (local) models. The main theoretical results of this paper are proofs of the facts that comprehensive systems are an admissible environment for (i) applying formal means of consistency verification (diagrammatic predicate framework), (ii) performing algebraic graph transformation (weak adhesive HLR category), and (iii) that they generalise the underlying setting of graph diagrams and triple graph grammars.

Advanced consistency management of highly-distributed transactional database in a hybrid cloud environment using novel R-TBC/RTA approach

This paper examines possibilities for improving the existing strategies of consistency management for highly-distributed transactional database in a hybrid cloud environment. With a detailed analysis of the existing consistency models for distributed database and standard strategies including Classic, Quorum and Tree Based Consistency (TBC), it is concluded that an improved advanced model of so-called visible adaptive consistency needs to be applied in a highly-distributed cloud environment, as necessary and sufficient degree of synchronization of all replicas. Along with the proposed model, research and development of an advanced novel strategy for consistency management Rose TBC (R-TBC) approach has been conducted, by improving standard TBC approach. Regarding implementation, a specific agglomerative Rose Tree Algorithm (RTA) has been developed, based on Bayesian hierarchical clustering and Graph Partitioning Algorithm - Multidimensional Data Clustering (GPA-MDC) intelligent partitioning of transactional Cloud Database Management System (CDBMS). The final result is constructed R-TBC model that changes in accordance with dynamic changes of entire heterogeneous CDBMS environment.

Towards Model Synchronization for Consistency Management of Mechatronic Systems

The development of a mechatronic system involves different designers having various viewpoints on the overall system to handle its complexity. Consequently, multiple models are created from a variety of domains such as mechanical, electronic, and software engineering. These models use different formalisms, modeling languages, and tools to address specific concerns. The major challenge of this approach is to identify and solve any potential inconsistency between models in order to minimize costs and development time before the verification and validation phases. This paper proposes a new collaborative methodology to maintain consistency between different engineering disciplines at an early stage of the development cycle of mechatronic systems based on Model-Based Engineering (MBE). We apply a model synchronization approach to actively check for model consistency in a continuous way during the multidisciplinary design process. As a novel contribution of this paper, we demonstrate how model transformation techniques can be employed; firstly, to abstract various engineering models in a common formalism based on graph theory and, secondly, to update models with appropriate changes evaluated by a project manager. We also show how to detect the differences automatically, and we discuss where designer decisions are essential.

Artefact Consistency Management in DevOps Practice

DevOps practices preserve the continuous innovation in software development. The collaborative nature and stakeholder communication are keys in DevOps that lead to highly effective and quality software outcomes with customer satisfaction. The software artefacts involved in a DevOps practice must adapt to frequent changes due to continuous stakeholder feedback. Hence, it is challenging to artefact consistency throughout the software life cycle. Although artefact traceability preserves the consistency management with theoretical support, there are practical limitations in traceability visualisation, change impact analysis, and change propagation aspects. This chapter presents an analysis of existing studies focused on software artefact traceability for the suitability in DevOps. It also identifies leading limitations and possible future research directions to resolve for the benefit of researchers and software practitioners.