Domains:
Engineering, Methodology and Theories
A Course at JAIST
April - May 2006
Dines Bjørner
April 5, 2006
Abstract:
This Web page provides information about the
Spring 2006 course given at JAIST by Professor Dines Bjørner in the
months of April and May. Besides overviews of Aims and Objectives, the
Calendar and a detailed Lecture Schedule, this
Web page also provides information about the
course project and a written 90 minute course examination.
- To cover new principles and techniques for modeling
application software domains.
Domain engineering is based on the following dogma:
- Before software can be designed one must understand the/its
requirements.
- Before requirements can be prescribed one must understand their
(the application) domain.
Hence the three-phase software engineering process model:
- domain engineering,
- requirements engineering,
- software design.
The course will focus on methodological issues of the first phase
while giving a glimpse of the methodological issues of the
second phase.
- To educate and train the candidates
- to themselves develop large scale descriptions of
complex domains.
These descriptions can contain both informal parts understandable
by all stakeholders of the domain and formal parts understandable
by professional software engineers.
In this course we will focus on achieving fluency in informal descriptions.
The course objective will be achieved through a combination of formal
lectures and intensive, weekly and hour long course project tutoring
sessions with all course participants.
April 2006 May 2006
Su Mo *Tu* We Th *Fr* Sa Su Mo *Tu* We Th *Fr* Sa
1 1 2 3 4 5 6
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
16 17 18 19 20 21 22 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
23 24 25 26 27 28 29 28 29 30
30
** ** ** **
- Ordinarily Tuesdays 11:00-12:30 and Fridays 9:20-10:50
- Due to two travels, April 17-21 and May 22-30, there will be
additional lectures in most office hour sessions: Fridays 13:30-15:00.
- Subtitle: From Domains via Requirements to Software
Architectures
- Vol.3, Chapter, Sections: 1, 1.2-1.4, pp 7-42
- Slides Lect. 1, Vol.3, Chap. 1
- Exercises: 1.1-1.4
- Volume 3, Software Engineering: Domains, Requirements and
Software Design.
- Publ. by Springer, http://www.springeronline.com/uk/3-540-21151-9
- JAIST Information Science, LDL, has purchased six copies of Vol. 3.
- Students can individually borrow these.
- Students may purchase their own copy.
A major feature of this course is the course project.
- Rather than a full-blown standard, typically four hour
examination based, conventionally on the student studying the
the textbook and solving ``small'' exercises
- we focus, during the two course months on solving
a series of logically related exercises that are parameterised wrt. a specific course project -- with a ``stringing together''' of
those exercise solutions forming, at the end of the course, a
substantial, typically 50-70 page course report.
- We will most likely have two students working on a common
project topic.
- The course project report will be evaluated and the grade
``counts'', typically 2/3, towards a final grade.
- A small, ninety minute test question and written examination after the
course shall serve to possibly differentiate the evaluation of
individual course students who might otherwise have worked on a common
project topic.
- The examination answers will be evaluated and the grade
``counts'', typically 1/3, towards a final grade.
We suggest a group of typically two students to work on one of the
three course project topics suggested next.
If there is more than one such course project groups, then these
groups select distinct topics.
- Topics:
- We propose to model the entities, functions, events
and behaviours of container shipping: containers, container ships,
container (harbour) terminals, the stowage of containers aboard
ships and in (harbour or port) terminal pool areas, the processing of
shipping requests (bills of lading, way bills),
- Of interest to:
- Container shipping lines, container terminal
ports, removal companies arranging for the transport of goods, as
well as software houses and operations research companies providing
IT and logistics consultancy and software support.
- Goals:
- There are several concurrent goals:
(i) To develop a common theory of container logistics, a theory
manifested in the form of well-written narrative descriptions in
(Japanese and) English [and optionally: also formalised in
CafeOBJ]. (ii) To develop portable software modules that handle one
or another kind of containers transactions (order processing,
stowage, etc.). (iii)
Possible industry standardisation
proposals. (iv) New electronic (incl. mechatronics) ``gadgets'' for
container shipping.
In this project we shall focus only on (i).
E-Banking, the handling of
insurance payments and claims processing and buying
and selling securities instruments (stocks, bonds, etc.) over the
Internet, etc., calls for an overhaul of our understanding of the
whole financial service industry.
- Topics:
- We propose to comprehensively domain model not only the
individual transactions within banks, insurance companies, stock
(etc.) brokers and traders, the stock exchanges, portfolio
management, credit card companies, etc., but more
importantly, on the basis of sufficiently detailed models of the
former, to domain model, on one hand, the interactions between these
``players'',
between banks, between insurance companies, etc., and between banks
and insurance companies, between banks and securities instrument
brokers and traders, between banks and credit card companies,
etc., and, on the other hand, between ``the
market'': consumers, retailers, wholesalers, producers, distributors
and banks, etc., etc.
- Of interest to:
- (i) Each and everyone of all the commercial players
of the financial service industry: banks, insurance companies, stock
(etc.) brokers and traders, the stock exchanges, portfolio
management, credit card companies, etc., (ii) private citizens (the
users, the clients, customers, of these services), (iii) ``the
market'' (retailers, wholesalers, producers, distributors), (iv)
public and private regulatory agencies (state and federal savings &
loan regulatory agencies, federal and state exchange commissions,
etc., etc.), involved ministries (finance, trade, industry,
citizens protection, etc.), ``the public at larger'', and
politicians (eager to profile themselves as champions of either
industry or consumers, ``or both''!), and the software
houses providing financial software packages, etc.
- Goals:
- There are several concurrent goals:
(i) To develop a common theory of the financial service industry, a theory
manifested in the form of well-written narrative descriptions in
(Japanese and) English [and optionally: also formalised in
CafeOBJ]. (ii) To develop portable software modules that handle one
or another kind of financial service transactions (or other). (iii)
Possible industry standardisation
proposals. (iv) New electronic (incl. mechatronics) ``gadgets'' for
the financial service industry.
In this project we shall focus only on (i).
The concept of e-market is alluring. We all transact simple purchases
over the Internet: buying airline tickets, books, records, movie DVDs,
etc. We are also beginning to acquire, rent, or otherwise, music and
movies: paying for their rendering on suitable devices in our
possession. A sizable variety of software packages are offered. But do
also these packages together constitute or reflect a proper
understanding of the market?
- Topics:
- We propose to comprehensively domain model the market
in terms of consumers, retailers, wholesalers, producers,
distribution services and the interface to credit and bank card
payment services. Included in such a comprehensive model is the
modeling of functions like inquiring as to what is available,
offering ``deals'', submitting and accepting orders, sending,
accepting, invoicing, paying, rejecting, and ``repairing'' purchased
merchandise (between buyers [consumers, retailers, wholesalers] and
sellers [retailers, wholesalers, producers]).
Included is also the modelling of agents acting on
behalf of potential buyers or sellers, and brokers acting on
behalf of potential buyers and sellers. Auctioning and the
management of digital rights licenses and their use are yet further
matters that, together with the previous functionalities illustrate
the depth and breadth of ``the market''.
- Of interest to:
- Consumers, retailers, wholesalers, producers,
distribution services, credit card companies, banks, market
(fair trade) associations,
consumer protection organisations, ministry of trade, the software
houses providing e-market systems, etc.
- Goals:
- There are several concurrent goals:
(i) To develop a common theory of ``the market'', a theory
manifested in the form of well-written narrative descriptions in
(Japanese and) English [and optionally: also formalised in
CafeOBJ]. (ii) To develop portable software modules that handle one
or another kind of market transactions (or other). (iii)
Possible industry standardisation
proposals. (iv) New electronic (incl. mechatronics) ``gadgets'' for
``the e-market''.
In this project we shall focus only on (i).
Agile manufacturing, the ability to ``turn
around'' and respond quickly to new or changed production orders,
including the production of systems involving many co-ordinated
producers, is becoming an everyday issue.
- Topics:
- We propose to comprehensively domain model the flow of
people, information, material, and monitoring & control within the
manufacturing companies and between these, as well as between these
and suppliers of product parts (incl. raw materials) and consumers
of products, and also the related supply chain of delivery
services. More specifically we propose to model manufacturing floors
(of loosely or tightly coordinated machines, conveyour belts or
delivery fork lifts, etc., and their interfaces to
the supply and end-product warehouses), order processing
departments, etc., etc. As part of requirements for agile manufacturing we
propose to model the coordination (by agents and brokers) of how
orders for agile production of complex systems are resolvable
through collaboration between otherwise competing manufacturers.
- Of interest to:
- The manufacturing industry in terms of
individual manufacturers and the industry as a whole (Keidanren1 and METI2), the distribution (trucking)
companies, industry research centres in industry, at
universities, and at government level, and the software
houses providing manufacturing software packages.
- Goals:
- There are several concurrent goals:
(i) To develop a common theory of the manufacturing industry, a theory
manifested in the form of well-written narrative descriptions in
(Japanese and) English [and optionally: also formalised in
CafeOBJ]. (ii) To develop portable software modules that handle one
or another kind of manufacturing company and/or industry
transactions (or other). (iii)
Possible industry standardisation
proposals. (iv) New electronic (incl. mechatronics) ``gadgets'' for
the manufacturing industry.
In this project we shall focus only on (i).
The course lecturer will tutor active course participants as follows:
- Once a week, approximately one hour classroom tutoring for all
active course participants: general questions concerning assigned project.
- Once a week, approximately 2 hours per project group: detailed
project development advice.
Hours for these tutoring sessions will be determined in consultation
with students.
It is optional whether course students work out a formal specification and some
analyses of their assigned project topic.
The lecturer will provide, additionally, a formalisation of what has
been discussed during tutoring hours, but in RSL, the RAISE
Specification Language.
This section will be detailed at a later date. The details concern the
(LATEX) format, structure (i.e., table of contents) and semantic
substance of the final report.
The course project report will be evaluated and the grade
``counts'', typically 2/3, towards a final grade.
The examination answers will be evaluated and the grade
``counts'', typically 1/3, towards a final grade.
See next page.
Domains:
Engineering, Methodology and Theories
A Course at JAIST
April - May 2006
This document was generated using the
LaTeX2HTML translator Version 2002-2-1 (1.71)
Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996,
Nikos Drakos,
Computer Based Learning Unit, University of Leeds.
Copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999,
Ross Moore,
Mathematics Department, Macquarie University, Sydney.
The command line arguments were:
latex2html -split 0 -toc_depth 6 course
The translation was initiated by Dines Bjornor on 2006-04-05
Footnotes
- ... (Keidanren1
- http://www.keidanren.or.jp/
- ... METI2
- http://www.meti.go.jp/english/
Dines Bjornor
2006-04-05
