A Knowledge-based Approach for Automating a Design Method for Concurrent and Real-Time Systems

paper describes a knowledge-based approach to automate CODARTS, a software design method for concurrent and real-time systems. The approach uses multiple paradigms to represent knowledge embedded within CODARTS. Semantic data modeling provides the means to model specifications and related designs. A specification meta-model enables automated inferences about the presence of semantic concepts within a specification, while a design meta-model permits automated reasoning concerning concurrent designs. Production rules form the basis for modeling a set of heuristics that can generate concurrent designs based upon semantic concepts from the specification and design meta-models. Together, the semantic data models and production rules, encoded using an expert-system shell, compose CODA, an automated designer's assistant. CODA is applied to generate ten concurrent designs for four real-time problems. 1.0 Introduction Software engineering researchers and practitioners strive to improve the quality of software products by increasing the discipline used during software development. One means of increasing discipline entails the development and application of software design methods. Some researchers attempt to enhance the utility of software design methods by providing automated support. To date, such attempts rely upon either of two approaches: clustering algorithms or rule-based expert systems. Richer knowledge engineering models, integrating semantic data modeling with production rules, can potentially lead to more effective automation of software design methods. This paper describes one approach to automating a software design method by using multiple paradigms to represent the knowledge embedded in the method. After discussing some existing approaches to automate software design methods, this paper describes CODARTS (COncurrent Design Approach for Real-Time Systems), a software design method for concurrent and real-time systems [1], and then proposes a knowledge-based approach to automate CODARTS. The proposed approach leads directly to CODA (COncurrent Designers Assistant), an automated designer's assistant. The paper describes the use of CODA to generate ten concurrent designs for four real-time problems, and then compares CODA to other approaches that automate software design methods. A software design method provides a methodical, consistent, and teachable approach that defines what decisions a designer needs to make, when to make them, and, importantly, when to stop making decisions. [2] In addition, a software design method provides a consistent notation that can improve communication among those who must review and understand the meaning of a design. In effect, a software design method encodes knowledge about good design practices into a form that designers can use to manually construct software designs. Providing automated …