Methodology

This page gives access to the document that defines the CORDET Methodology and the HRT-UML/RCM Methodology. The CORDET Methodology is the overall methodology proposed for the CORDET Generic Architecture. The HRT-UML/RCM Methodology is used by the CORDET Methodology for the non-functional part of the generic architecture.

Contents

The CORDET Methodology

The CORDET Methodology implements a subset of the domain engineering part of the ISO/IEC 12207 process. Broadly speaking, the CORDET Methodology can be divided into two parts.

The first part of the CORDET Methodology defines the activities to be performed during the development of the CORDET Generic Architecture in terms of their sub-activities, their objectives, and their outputs. It defines, in other words, what should be done to build the Generic Architecture.

The second part of the CORDET Methodology defines a set of rules that guide and constrain the development of the CORDET Generic Architecture and that help the designer to achieve the objectives laid down in the first part of the methodology. This part of the CORDET Methodology, in other words, defines how the Generic Architecture should be built.

The second part of the CORDET Methodology depends on a particular choice of software technologies or on a particular way of using a certain software technology. The first part of the methodology, by contrast, is intended to be more abstract and to capture the essential - non-technology related - aspects of the development of a generic architecture.

A software methodology is only useful if tools exist to support its practical application. The document provided here accordingly identifies the support tools proposed for the CORDET Methodology. The support tools identified in this document are those proposed for use in the CORDET Project. Obviously, whereas the methodology is intended to be general, the choice of tools is contingent and may evolve over time.

The specific aim of the CORDET Methodology is to support the creation of the CORDET Generic Architecture. More generally, however, the CORDET methodology can be used to support the creation of generic architectures for systems that satisfy the basic assumptions defined in section 5 of the CORDET Methodology Document.

The RCM Methodology

The HRT-UML/RCM Methodology is a model-driven methodology, with an associated prototype infrastructure, originally devised in the scope of the ASSERT project.

The HRT-UML/RCM Methodology aims to:

  • provide a design environment in which the user almost exclusively manipulates platform-independent models (PIM), with the sole exception of the specification of hardware configuration and the application deployment to it;
  • realize an instantiation of the general model-driven paradigm endowed with principles of correctness by construction and property preservation from model down to execution;
  • guarantee that all models produced as part of the transformation process are trustworthy representations of the system as it was intended by the user and as it is to be executed at run time.

The HRT-UML/RCM Methodology is described by the documents listed below. Note that only the last documents were written in the context of the CORDET Project, the other documents originate from the ASSERT Project.

  • Guide for Using AP-level Modelling Containers: this document is also available as an online tutorial. It provides a tutorial-level guide to the whole of the HRT-UML/RCM methodology .
  • Refinement of Model Transformation Rules from Use Experience in ASSERT Demonstrator: this document illustrates the model-driven, transformation-based essence of the HRT-UML/RCM methodology.
  • Software Design Tool Prototype: This document presents the first public release of the prototype tool infrastructure that supports the HRT-UML/RCM methodology. This document should be read by those who want to have a more detailed understanding of the engineering activities required to apply the methodology.
  • Consolidation of requirements and Middleware definition and coverage: this document discusses the constructive principles of the ASSERT Virtual Machine (VM) and analyzes its provisions for isolation against time, space and communication faults. Note that the HRT-UML/RCM methodology requires that an ASSERT VM operates on the target platform to assure that the level of property-preservation guaranteed by the automated model transformations that realize the system implementation extend to runtime execution.
  • Non-Functional Code Generation: This document is a guide to the current RCM code generation that covers the non-functional parts of the software architecture of a system design with the HRT-UML/RCM methodology.
  • Functional Modelling with the RCM Methodology: This document discusses the constraints that hold the modeling space named the Functional View in which the sequential behavior of the system is specified.

Methodology Survey

A first methodology report has been prepared by GMV to present a general survey of domain engineering methodologies. This document can be read as an introduction to and background for the CORDET Project as a whole.

A second methodology report has been prepared by GMV to present an overall assessment of the experience from the domain engineering process as it was used in the CORDET Project.