ENASE 2014 Abstracts

Full Papers Short Papers
Full Papers
Paper Nr: 5
Title:

Visualizing Traceability Information with iTrace
Authors:

Iván Santiago, Juan M. Vara, Valeria de Castro and Esperanza Marcos
Abstract: The key role of models in Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) provides a new landscape for dealing with traceability. However, despite the certain maturity reached by some MDE tools, providing efficient views of traceability data is still in its early stages. To contribute in this direction, this work introduces the visualization mechanisms provided by iTrace, a framework for the management of traceability in MDE projects. In particular, a multipanel editor for trace models supports the low-level edition of traceability data whereas different dashboards provide high-level views of such data. Both proposals are illustrated by means of a running example.
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Paper Nr: 8
Title:

Application of a Lightweight Enterprise Architecture Elicitation Technique Using a Case Study Approach
Authors:

Nicholas Rosasco and Josh Dehlinger
Abstract: Enterprise architecture (EA) has demonstrated utility for improving overall Information System (IS)/Information Technology (IT) outcomes for institutions, particularly those with large-scale or integration-related needs. To achieve the core goal of an EA – integration, alignment and governance between enterprise goals and the enterprise IS/IT portfolio – institutional vision, mission and objectives must be elicited, analysed, understood and documented by the enterprise architects. This paper proposes and evaluates a lightweight EA elicitation technique to gather the required information about enterprise mission and objectives as a lightweight entry point to developing an EA. Specifically, we investigate the evaluation results of our proposed technique in EA data elicitation and analysis stemming from a case study that was conducted on an institution with a significant IS/IT asset portfolio. Our proposed EA elicitation technique utilizes the VMOST elicitation question, a structured elicitation vehicle, and Grounded Theory Method as the qualitative analysis technique to analyse elicited responses. Application of this approach in a real case study garnered sufficient understanding the vision, mission and objectives of an enterprise to articulate objectives in a way suitable to use as institutional goal as a part of the Zachman EA framework.
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Paper Nr: 14
Title:

The AXIOM Model Framework - Transforming Requirements to Native Code for Cross-platform Mobile Applications
Authors:

Chris Jones and Xiaoping Jia
Abstract: The development and maintenance of cross-platform mobile applications is expensive. One approach for reducing this cost is model-driven development. AXIOM is a model-driven approach for developing crossplatform mobile applications that uses a domain specific language (DSL) to define platform-independent models for mobile applications. AXIOM uses a consistent model representation, called an Abstract Model Tree, as the basis for all model transformations and code generation. AXIOM could significantly reduce development time and cost while increasing the quality of mobile applications. In this paper we examine the AXIOM models, their underlying abstract model trees, and the structures of its different transformation rules to show how platform-specific concerns can be introduced in ways that preserve the model’s platform-independence while still providing fine-grained control over the results of the transformation process.
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Paper Nr: 15
Title:

Understanding Class-level Testability Through Dynamic Analysis
Authors:

Amjed Tahir, Stephen G. MacDonell and Jim Buchan
Abstract: It is generally acknowledged that software testing is both challenging and time-consuming. Understanding the factors that may positively or negatively affect testing effort will point to possibilities for reducing this effort. Consequently there is a significant body of research that has investigated relationships between static code properties and testability. The work reported in this paper complements this body of research by providing an empirical evaluation of the degree of association between runtime properties and class-level testability in object-oriented (OO) systems. The motivation for the use of dynamic code properties comes from the success of such metrics in providing a more complete insight into the multiple dimensions of software quality. In particular, we investigate the potential relationships between the runtime characteristics of production code, represented by Dynamic Coupling and Key Classes, and internal class-level testability. Testability of a class is considered here at the level of unit tests and two different measures are used to characterise those unit tests. The selected measures relate to test scope and structure: one is intended to measure the unit test size, represented by test lines of code, and the other is designed to reflect the intended design, represented by the number of test cases. In this research we found that Dynamic Coupling and Key Classes have significant correlations with class-level testability measures. We therefore suggest that these properties could be used as indicators of class-level testability. These results enhance our current knowledge and should help researchers in the area to build on previous results regarding factors believed to be related to testability and testing. Our results should also benefit practitioners in future class testability planning and maintenance activities.
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Paper Nr: 22
Title:

Investigating Defect Prediction Models for Iterative Software Development When Phase Data is Not Recorded - Lessons Learned
Authors:

Anıl Aydın and Ayça Tarhan
Abstract: One of the biggest problems that software organizations encounter is specifying the resources required and the duration of projects. Organizations that record the number of defects and the effort spent on fixing these defects are able to correctly predict the latent defects in the product and the effort required to remove these latent defects. The use of reliability models reported in the literature is typical to achieve this prediction, but the number of studies that report defect prediction models for iterative software development is scarce. In this article we present a case study which predicts the defectiveness of new releases in an iterative, civil project where defect arrival phase data is not recorded. We investigated Linear Regression Model and Rayleigh Model one of the statistical reliability model that contain time information, to predict the module level and project level defectiveness of the new releases of an iterative project through the iterations. The models were created by using 29 successive releases for the project level and 15 successive releases for the module level defect density data. This article explains the procedures that were applied to generate the defectiveness models and the lessons learned from the studies.
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Paper Nr: 23
Title:

A System for Collaborative Building of Use Case Models: Communication Analysis and Experiences - Experiences of Use and Lessons Learned from the Use of the SPACE-DESIGN Tool in the Domain of Use Case Diagrams
Authors:

Jesús Gallardo, Ana Isabel Molina, Crescencio Bravo and Fernando Gallego
Abstract: Over the past few years, a great deal of work has been done in the field of collaborative software (groupware). Many fields of science have taken advantage of these developments, and Software Engineering is one such field. Within this scope, we have developed a domain independent synchronous collaborative tool that can be specialized to work with several types of diagrammatical domains. Among those domains, the diagrams used in the Unified Process can be found. In this paper we describe how we have specialized this tool to work with use case diagrams and how we have carried out an empirical study with this tool to obtain conclusions regarding several issues: the analysis of three kinds of communication among users, the relationship between types of communication and coordination among users, and the relationship between communication and the quality of the modeling work.
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Paper Nr: 33
Title:

Automated Generation of Activity and Sequence Diagrams from Natural Language Requirements
Authors:

Richa Sharma, Sarita Gulia and K. K. Biswas
Abstract: Requirements analysis process involves developing abstract models for the envisioned or the proposed software system. These models are used to help refine and enrich the requirements for the system. Unified Modelling Language (UML) has become the standard for modelling software requirements. However, software requirements are captured in the form of Natural Language and, generating UML models from natural language requirements relies heavily on individual expertise. In this paper, we present an approach towards automated generation of behavioural UML models, namely activity diagrams and sequence diagrams. Our approach is based on transforming the requirements statements to intermediary structured representations - frames and then, translate them to the behavioural UML models. We are using Grammatical Knowledge Patterns and lexical and syntactic analysis of requirements statements to populate frames for the corresponding statements. Knowledge stored in frames is then used to automatically generate activity and sequence diagram. We present our approach through the case-studies performed.
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Paper Nr: 45
Title:

Recovering Software Layers from Object Oriented Systems
Authors:

Alvine Boaye Belle, Ghizlane El Boussaidi and Hafedh Mili
Abstract: Recovering the architecture of existing software systems remains a challenge and an active research field in software engineering. In this paper, we propose an approach to recover the layered architecture of object oriented software systems. To do so, our approach first recovers clusters corresponding to the various responsibilities of the system; the challenge in this context is to find the appropriate level of granularity of these responsibilities. Then the recovered clusters are assigned to layers using an optimization algorithm that exploits the principles of the layering architectural style. The approach was validated on five Java open source systems.
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Short Papers
Paper Nr: 7
Title:

Where Is Scrum in the Current Agile World?
Authors:

Georgia M. Kapitsaki and Marios Christou
Abstract: A variety of methodologies in software processes exist nowadays with the Agile software development having gained significant ground since the introduction of the Agile manifesto in 2001. Scrum is a representative Agile development method employed in the software industry. Since trends come and go, it is vital to see where they stand in the real world. In order to gain an insight into how Scrum is viewed nowadays, we have conducted an online study on the current state of the adoption of Scrum. The study targeted in demonstrating where the success or failure success factors of Scrum lie and in viewing Scrum properties in comparison to heavyweight approaches. This paper presents the results of the study that constitute an instructive view into the above aspects of Scrum development.
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Paper Nr: 11
Title:

Tool Independent Code Generation for the UML - Closing the Gap Between Proprietary Models and the Standardized UML Model
Authors:

Arne Noyer, Padma Iyenghar, Elke Pulvermueller, Florian Pramme, Joachim Engelhardt, Benjamin Samson and Gert Bikker
Abstract: Embedded software development is moving towards the model-based paradigm to support the complexity of today’s embedded systems, as they become more and more important and omnipresent in our daily lives. In this context, the Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a widely used standard. Code generators can be executed to generate source code from UML models. Usually the code generators are proprietary for one UML tool. If code generators for different targets or programming languages have to be supported by various modeling tools, the wheel must be reinvented. Code generators could use the standardized Extensible Markup Language Metadata Interchange (XMI) format of the UML as a basis. However, tools export their data to XMI differently. Therefore, the paper shows how the proprietary models of UML tools can be mapped to a standardized UML model. This is realized by using techniques for model to model transformations. These techniques need a meta-model for the source and the target model. Hence, an approach is introduced for creating meta-models for Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) of UML-tools, which act as a facade. Then the code generators can work with the standardized UML model to generate the source code. This results in an improved scalability of the code generators.
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Paper Nr: 13
Title:

A GUI Modeling DSL for Pattern-Based GUI Testing - PARADIGM
Authors:

Rodrigo M. L. M. Moreira and Ana C. R. Paiva
Abstract: Today’s software feature user interface (UI) patterns. Those patterns describe generic solutions for common recurrent problems. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no specific testing methodology that is particularly suited for testing those patterns providing generic testing solutions that can be reused after minor configurations in order to test slightly different implementations. Pattern-Based Graphical User Interface Testing (PBGT) is a recent methodology that aims at systematizing and automating the GUI testing process, by sampling the input space using “UI Test Patterns” that express generic solutions to test common recurrent GUI’s behaviour. This paper describes the development process of PARADIGM, a domain specific language (DSL) to be used in the context of PBGT and empirically evaluates PARADIGM to assess its diminished modeling efforts, usefulness, graphical power, and acceptability.
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Paper Nr: 18
Title:

An Online Passive Testing Approach for Communication Protocols
Authors:

Jorge Lopez, Xiaoping Che and Stephane Maag
Abstract: Testing a protocol at runtime in an online way is a complex and challenging work. It requires the same preciseness in conformance testing and efficiency in performance testing, where conformance testing is a functional test which verifies whether the behaviors of the protocol satisfy defined requirements, and performance testing is a qualitative and quantitative test which checks whether the performance requirements of the protocol have been satisfied under certain conditions. As a matter of course, it raises an interesting issue of converging these two kinds of testing by using the same formal approach, and applying the approach online. In this paper, we present a novel logic-based online testing approach to test the protocol conformance and performance through formally specified properties. In order to evaluate and assess our methodology, we developed a prototype and experimented it with a set of Session Initiation Protocol properties in a real IP Multimedia Subsystem environment. Finally, the relevant verdicts and discussions are provided.
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Paper Nr: 30
Title:

Improving Software Projects Inception Phase Using Games - ActiveAction Workshop
Authors:

Miguel Ehécatl Morales-Trujillo, Hanna Oktaba and Juan Carlos González
Abstract: Studies have demonstrated that an important factor to increase the success rate of software projects is the involvement of key stakeholders at the right time, in order to define business objectives, scope of the project and requirements. The Inception phase of projects is in charge to provide these outcomes and is suitable to really involve stakeholders as team members because of the non-technical nature of the activities. However, since the stakeholders' involvement is a time- and money-consuming activity, it is important to maximize its efficiency. With that in mind, ludic aspect inherent to games can be used as a strategy to optimize the Inception phase. This paper presents ActiveAction, a game-based workshop used as an alternative for the software project’s Inception phase in order to increase its effectiveness and improve the stakeholders’ involvement in the project. ActiveAction combines classical and game-based techniques which permit a deep involvement of stakeholders and a collaborative identification of objectives, constraints and risks during an intensive workshop oriented to project conceptualization. ActiveAction workshop resulted in a successful game-based strategy that has improved the Inception phase of 19 projects with different customers. After-workshop surveys, projects outcomes and customer satisfaction indicate validity of the method. ActiveAction is a valuable game-based alternative to carry out the Inception phase in a software project. It makes possible to get an important amount of information, directly from key stakeholders in a short period of time increasing the success rate of projects.
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Paper Nr: 39
Title:

Process Discovery - Automated Approach for Block Discovery
Authors:

Souhail Boushaba, Mohammed Issam Kabbaj and Zohra Bakkoury
Abstract: Process mining is a set of techniques helping enterprises to avoid process modeling which is a time-consuming and error prone task. Process mining includes three topics: process discovery, conformance checking, and enhancement (IEEE Task Force on Process Mining: Process Mining Manifesto, 2012). The principle of process discovery is to extract information from event logs to capture the business process as it is being executed. Several techniques in literature (α algorithm, α+ algorithm and others) can be applied to discover a process model from a workflow log. However, as the amount of information grows exponentially, the log files (input of a process discovery algorithm) get bigger. In fact, classical techniques, which inspect relation between each couple of tasks will have problem dealing with big data. To this end, we introduced in (Boushaba et al., 2013) a new approach aiming to extract a block of tasks from event logs. In this paper, we present a new algorithm, based on a matrix representation, to detect a block of tasks. In addition, we develop an application to automate our technique.
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Paper Nr: 49
Title:

Models for Mobile Application Maintenance Based on Update History
Authors:

Xiaozhou Li, Zheying Zhang and Jyrki Nummenmaa
Abstract: Good software development and particularly maintenance practices form an important factor for success in software business. If one wants to constantly produce new successful releases of the applications, a proper efficient software maintenance process is the key. In this work, we study data from mobile application maintenance to understand and conceptualize how mobile application maintenance takes place. Based on the data on release history, we deduce different mobile application maintenance models from the perspectives of maintenance scheduling and maintenance requirements.
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Paper Nr: 50
Title:

Cyber-virtual Systems - Simulation, Validation & Visualization
Authors:

Jan Olaf Blech, Maria Spichkova, Ian Peake and Heinz Schmidt
Abstract: We describe our ongoing work and view on simulation, validation and visualization of cyber-physical systems in industrial automation during development, operation and maintenance. System models may represent an existing physical part – for example an existing robot installation – and a software simulated part – for example a possible future extension. We call such systems cyber-virtual systems. In this paper, we present the existing VITELab infrastructure for visualization tasks in industrial automation. The new methodology for simulation and validation motivated in this paper integrates this infrastructure. We are targeting scenarios, where industrial sites which may be in remote locations are modeled and visualized from different sites anywhere in the world. Complementing the visualization work, here, we are also concentrating on software modeling challenges related to cyber-virtual systems and simulation, testing, validation and verification techniques for them. Software models of industrial sites require behavioural models of the components of the industrial sites such as models for tools, robots, workpieces and other machinery as well as communication and sensor facilities. Furthermore, collaboration between sites is an important goal of our work.
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Paper Nr: 60
Title:

Towards a Discipline of Software Engineering Forensics Analysis
Authors:

Paul Bailes, Christine Cornish, Toby Myers, Louis Rago, Nick Tate and Mal Thatcher
Abstract: Software development and procurement continues to be a source of great disappointment for its social and economic stakeholders, with literally billions of dollars being expended for little ostensible benefit. But significant progress can be made in engineering domains that match software for complexity and novelty: the international regime of aviation accident and incident reporting has been the basis for a wide range of evidence-based technical and process improvements in applied aeronautical engineering. Accordingly, we set out to characterise the knowledge, activities and structures that would promise to deliver analogous benefits to software engineering. While we are hopeful of early positive outcomes, a significant research agenda lies before us.
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Paper Nr: 61
Title:

Automated Generation of Test Cases from Logical Specification of Software Requirements
Authors:

Richa Sharma and K. K. Biswas
Abstract: The quality of the delivered software relies on rigorous testing performed. However, designing good test cases is a challenging task. The challenges are multi-fold and test-cases design is often delayed towards the end of implementation phase. In this paper, we propose an approach to automatically generate test cases from the logical form of requirements specifications during early phases of software development. Our approach is based on courteous logic representation of requirements. The Knowledge stored in the courteous logic predicates is used to automatically generate the test cases. We evaluate the effectiveness of our generated test-cases through case-studies.
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Paper Nr: 62
Title:

The Applicability of Present Estimation Models to the Context of Mobile Applications
Authors:

Laudson Silva de Souza and Gibeon Soares de Aquino Jr.
Abstract: The growing use of mobile technologies has shown different ways to access information and interact with other computer systems. Thus, the traditional information systems are undergoing a process of adaptation to this new computing environment. Thereafter, there is a need to reassess the current knowledge on the planning and development of systems in this new environment. One area in particular that demand such adaptation is the estimation software. The estimation processes, in general, are based on characteristics of the systems, trying to quantify the complexity of implementing them. Hence, the main objective of this paper is to present a proposal for an estimation model for mobile applications, and to debate about the applicability of the traditional estimation models on this environment. Throughout the paper we analyze existing methods of estimates, identify specific features of systems for mobile devices and finally an adaptation to be proposed for this area of an existing estimation method.
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Paper Nr: 6
Title:

Methods for Supporting Management of Interactions Between Quality Characteristics
Authors:

Gabriel Alberto García-Mireles, Mª Ángeles Moraga de la Rubia, Félix García and Mario Piattini
Abstract: Improving a particular quality characteristic in a software product may have a negative impact on the others. The literature shows that few organizations handle interactions between quality characteristics; this neglect may be a causal factor in failed projects. That led us to propose a process framework to support organizations that want to manage the interactions between quality characteristics. In this paper, we present the methods that may be used when the process framework is deployed. The methods were extracted from a published mapping study on software quality trade-offs. They were classified with regard to the particular context facet addressed and the specific decision-making approach used. Our contribution is a set of methods to manage interaction between quality characteristics, organized into a software process framework.
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Paper Nr: 9
Title:

Designing Reusable Systems That Can Handle Change - Description-Driven Systems: Revisiting Object-oriented Principles
Authors:

Richard McClatchey, Andrew Branson and Jetendr Shamdasani
Abstract: In the age of the Cloud and so-called ‘big data’ systems must be increasingly flexible, reconfigurable and adaptable to change in addition to being developed rapidly. As a consequence, designing systems to cater for evolution is becoming critical to their success. To be able to cope with change, systems must have the capability of reuse and the ability to adapt as and when necessary to changes in requirements. Allowing systems to be self-describing is one way to facilitate this. To address the issues of reuse in designing evolvable systems, this paper proposes a so-called description-driven approach to systems design. This approach enables new versions of data structures and processes to be created alongside the old, thereby providing a history of changes to the underlying data models and enabling the capture of provenance data. The efficacy of the description-driven approach is exemplified by the CRISTAL project. CRISTAL is based on description-driven design principles; it uses versions of stored descriptions to define various versions of data which can be stored in diverse forms. This paper discusses the need for capturing holistic system description when modelling large-scale distributed systems.
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Paper Nr: 20
Title:

An Evaluation to Compare Software Product Line Decision Model and Feature Model
Authors:

Liana B. Lisboa, J. Jenny Li, P. Morreale, D. Heer and D. M. Weiss
Abstract: A key issue in defining a product line is specifying the allowable set of products that will be produced using product line assets, i.e., the scope of the domain. This paper conducts an evaluation to compare two different approaches for defining domain scope, decision model as defined in the Family-oriented Abstraction, Specification, Translation (FAST) process and the feature model as defined in the Feature-Oriented Domain Analysis (FODA) process. The comparison is based on applying the approaches to two examples, one a textbook example and the other to a product line we maintain on an open source website, in order to identify guidelines for improving the identification and representation of a software family. Our conclusion is that decision model includes both commonality and variability definition at software architecture level and thus it is more suitable for larger product line with a significant number of commonality and variability.
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Paper Nr: 21
Title:

A Business-Oriented Approach to Requirements Elicitation
Authors:

Adam Przybyłek
Abstract: “The hardest single part of building a software system is deciding precisely what to build” (Brooks, 1987). Faulty requirements analysis is a major reason for project failure or unsatisfactory information systems that do not fulfill business needs. Although it has been long recognized that system requirements can only be understood within the context of the business processes and business modeling has become the initial phase of most software processes, the transition between business modeling and requirements gathering is still a challenge for research. Moreover, existing work in this area tends to introduce accidental difficulties. This paper reports the results of an action research conducted for elaborating a Business-Oriented approach to Requirements Elicitation. Our approach integrates Requirements Engineering with Business Process Engineering and derives system requirements based on business process models. This ensures that system requirements meet real business needs. The proposed approach is illustrated by a real-world example.
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Paper Nr: 24
Title:

Flexible Business-oriented Service Interfaces in Information Systems
Authors:

Michal Žemlička and Jaroslav Král
Abstract: Information systems supporting flexible business in small-to-medium enterprises must be easily modifiable under the supervision of their users. The users (business people) must take active part in agile system development and maintenance. The systems must be able to integrate large legacy systems and to communicate with the systems of independent business partners. Business processes need not be executed by a single ERP. We discuss a variant of SOA able to meet these requirements. The discussed SOA uses communication protocols based on problem-oriented languages. We propose a concept of organizational (architectural) services generalizing the concept of connectors and routers. The power and usefulness of the proposal is demonstrated on the examples of service composition, business-oriented interfaces, agile business processes, portals, and gateways. The proposal is based on experience from practical SOA projects.
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Paper Nr: 25
Title:

SOA-CoM: Building a Correct by Design Service Oriented Architectural Style - Supporting Structural and Non-functional Properties
Authors:

Imen Graja, Imen Loulou and Ahmed Hadj Kacem
Abstract: As a piece of software continues to evolve, it inevitably becomes more complicated and harder to understand, maintain, reuse, evolve and improve. Software architecture has emerged as a solution to these issues particularly for complex systems. Having a correct software architecture is critical to the success of the design and the development of a system. In order to design a correct software architecture the concept of architectural styles is used. In this paper, we propose SOA-CoM, a formal approach for the correct modeling of service oriented architectural styles. We specify a set of communication schemas that define SOA structural and interaction properties. These schemas are modeled as UML graphs. In order to reuse them and to build the style, we define composition rules that can be applied to them. A software architect can then extend the designed style with non-functional properties (NFP) using extension rules. To ensure design correctness, we specify these communication schemas using the formal language ASL (ArchWare Style Language). All specifications are implemented and checked using the ASL Toolkit.
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Paper Nr: 35
Title:

Recovering Sequence Diagrams from Object-oriented Code - An ADM Approach
Authors:

Liliana Martinez, Claudia Pereira and Liliana Favre
Abstract: Software modernization is a current research area in the software industry intended to transform an existing software system to a new one satisfying new demands. The initiative Architecture-Driven Modernization (ADM) helps software developers in tackling reverse engineering, software evolution and, software modernization in general. To support modernization problems, the ADM Task Force has defined a set of metamodels such as KDM (Knowledge Discovery Metamodel), being the Eclipse-MDT MoDisco project the official support for software modernization. We propose the application of ADM principles to provide relevant model-based views on legacy systems. We describe a framework to reverse engineering models from object-oriented code. In this context, we show how to recover UML sequence diagrams from Java code. We validate our approach by using ADM standards and MoDisco platform. Our research can be considered a contribution to the MoDisco community; MoDisco does not support reverse engineering of sequence diagrams and, on the other hand, the MoDisco KDM Discover was used and enriched to obtain the required information for recovering interaction diagrams.
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Paper Nr: 37
Title:

Service-oriented Platform for Virtual Reality Application Development
Authors:

Evandro César Freiberger, Ricardo Nakamura and Romero Tori
Abstract: An important contemporary fact is the advent of Web 2.0, mainly characterized by the possibility of content being produced collaboratively, empowering and enabling the concept of collective intelligence. Another important feature is the popularity of virtual communities, which allow people around the world to exchange information and experiences. In order to increase the potential for reuse and sharing of interactive content, this paper proposes an architectural model for a software platform that enables the online production and execution of virtual reality applications as well as sharing of interactive content. The remote online environment, associated with the capacity to represent and store 3D interactive content, enables the sharing and reuse of such content in the production of virtual reality applications. The paper we present the description of the main elements of the proposed architectural model and results of the research. The results point to the feasibility of the proposed model.
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Paper Nr: 57
Title:

Function-centered Engineering of Embedded Systems - Evaluating Industry Needs and Possible Solutions
Authors:

Marian Daun, Jens Höfflinger and Thorsten Weyer
Abstract: Research in engineering disciplines has to keep track of current developments and challenges in industry to provide adequate solutions. As function-centered engineering of embedded systems is commonly used in industry to cope with several challenges (e.g., to deal with the increasing number of functions realized in software rather than in hardware, to reduce redundancy among functions implemented, to reduce the number of cost-intensive electronic control units and sensors, or to foster re-use of developed functions in multiple systems and environments), it is of importance for research to identify challenges and needs arising from function-centered engineering and to provide fitting solution concepts. To identify these industry needs, we recently conducted a study among German embedded industry. We used a combination of different investigation techniques (i.e. questionnaires, workshops and expert interviews, and case studies) to identify, concretize, and verify industry needs. Furthermore, possible solution ideas were developed and evaluated to (i) check appropriateness of identified needs and to gain more insights, as well as to (ii) provide first solution concepts suitable for industry. This paper discusses the evaluation method, the major results and the current state of the solution approach.
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