Software Measurement - Application to Design Patterns

Speaker:	Dr. Iaakov EXMAN
		Jerusalem College of Engineering and
		The Bar-Ilan University in Israel

Title:		"Software Measurement - Application to Design Patterns"

Date:		Wednesday, 11 July 2007

Time:		3:00pm - 4:00pm

Venue:		Room 3501 (via lift nos. 25/26)
		HKUST


Abstract:

Reliability of large distributed software systems can be improved by
reusing proved software design patterns. But there are no standard ways to
assure correct design and implementation of the patterns themselves. We
propose run-time measurement as a systematic verification approach for
software patterns. First, the measurement space is fixed as a discrete set
of measurable states, defined as permutations with repetitions of the
relevant messages involved. Then, probabilistic measurements are
performed. Aspects are ideally suited for generic and minimally intrusive
software measuring devices. Such a device a Patternometer - was
implemented in Java + AspectJ. Simulation case studies for the Observer
and CompFigurator patterns demonstrate the approach. It is shown that
standard state probabilities and the respective entropies have a stable
asymptotic behavior, allowing safe identification of the correct patterns.


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Biography:

Dr Exman obtained his doctoral degree from the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, Israel. He was a post-doctoral fellow of the Stanford
University, California in 1981-1982. He was a research associate with the
Computer Science Department of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in
1990-1996. He is now a faculty member of both the Jerusalem College of
Engineering and the Bar-Ilan University in Israel. His research interests
include software engineering and distributed systems.