Fabrício Ricardo Lazilha

Bio: Fabrício Ricardo Lazilha is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Workflow management system & Workflow engine. The author has an hindex of 3, co-authored 5 publications receiving 18 citations.

A product line architecture for workflow management systems with component-based development

Abstract: This paper presents a component-based product line architecture for workflow management systems. The process followed to design the proposed architecture was based on Catalysis. Extensions were made to represent variability across the process. The domain of workflow management systems has been shown to be appropriate to the application of the product line approach as there are a standard architecture and models established by a regulatory board, the Workflow Management Coalition. In addition, there is a demand for similar workflow management systems but with some different features. The proposed architecture was evaluated with Rapide simulation tools. The evaluation was based on selected scenarios, thus, avoiding implementation details.

A Component-based Product Line for Workflow Management Systems

Abstract: This paper presents a component-based product line for workflow management systems. The process followed to design the product line was based on the Catalysis method. Extensions were made to represent variability across the process. The domain of workflow management systems has been shown to be appropriate to the application of the product line approach as there are a standard architecture and models established by a regulatory board, the Workflow Management Coalition. In addition, there is a demand for similar workflow management systems but with some different features. The product line architecture was evaluated with Rapide simulation tools. The evaluation was based on sele cted scenarios, thus, avoiding implementation issues. The strategy that has been used to populate the architecture and experiment with the product line is shown. In particular, the design of the workflow execution manager component is described.

A product line for workflow management systems

Abstract: This paper presents an ongoing research on the development of a component-based product line architecture for workflow management systems. The research includes a process to design the proposed product line, the population of the product with components, the product member production process, architecture evaluation mechanisms using architecture description languages and support tools, a variability management process and the development of case studies to evaluate each proposed technique.

A component-based product line architecture for workflow management systems

Abstract: This paper presents a component-based product line for workflow management systems. The process followed to design the product line was based on the Catalysis method. Extensions were made to represent variability across the process. The domain of workflow management systems has been shown to be appropriate to the application of the product line approach as there are a standard architecture and models established by a regulatory board, the Workflow Management Coalition. In addition, there is a demand for similar workflow management systems but with some different features. The product line architecture was evaluated with Rapide simulation tools. The evaluation was based on selected scenarios, thus, avoiding implementation issues. The strategy that has been used to populate the architecture and experiment with the product line is shown. In particular, the design of the workflow execution manager component is described.

A systematic review of evaluation of variability management approaches in software product lines

Abstract: ContextVariability management (VM) is one of the most important activities of software product-line engineering (SPLE), which intends to develop software-intensive systems using platforms and mass customization. VM encompasses the activities of eliciting and representing variability in software artefacts, establishing and managing dependencies among different variabilities, and supporting the exploitation of the variabilities for building and evolving a family of software systems. Software product line (SPL) community has allocated huge amount of effort to develop various approaches to dealing with variability related challenges during the last two decade. Several dozens of VM approaches have been reported. However, there has been no systematic effort to study how the reported VM approaches have been evaluated. ObjectiveThe objectives of this research are to review the status of evaluation of reported VM approaches and to synthesize the available evidence about the effects of the reported approaches. MethodWe carried out a systematic literature review of the VM approaches in SPLE reported from 1990s until December 2007. ResultsWe selected 97 papers according to our inclusion and exclusion criteria. The selected papers appeared in 56 publication venues. We found that only a small number of the reviewed approaches had been evaluated using rigorous scientific methods. A detailed investigation of the reviewed studies employing empirical research methods revealed significant quality deficiencies in various aspects of the used quality assessment criteria. The synthesis of the available evidence showed that all studies, except one, reported only positive effects. ConclusionThe findings from this systematic review show that a large majority of the reported VM approaches have not been sufficiently evaluated using scientifically rigorous methods. The available evidence is sparse and the quality of the presented evidence is quite low. The findings highlight the areas in need of improvement, i.e., rigorous evaluation of VM approaches. However, the reported evidence is quite consistent across different studies. That means the proposed approaches may be very beneficial when they are applied properly in appropriate situations. Hence, it can be concluded that further investigations need to pay more attention to the contexts under which different approaches can be more beneficial.

A variability management process for software product lines

Abstract: The software product line approach (PL) promotes the generation of specific products from a set of core assets for a given domain. This approach is applicable to domains in which products have well-defined commonalities and variation points. Variability management is concerned with the management of the differences between products throughout the PL lifecycle. This paper presents a UML-based process for variability management that allows identification, representation and delimitation of variabilities as well as identification of mechanisms for variability implementation. The process is illustrated with excerpts of a case study carried out within the context of an existing PL for the Workflow Management System (WfMS) domain. The case study was carried out based on the experimental software engineering concepts. The results have shown that the proposed process has made explicit a higher number of variabilities than does the existing PL process, and it offers better support for variability tracing.

The use of software product lines for business process management

Abstract: ContextBusiness Process Management (BPM) is a potential domain in which Software Product Line (PL) can be successfully applied. Including the support of Service-oriented Architecture (SOA), BPM and PL may help companies achieve strategic alignment between business and IT. ObjectivePresenting the results of a study undertaken to seek and assess PL approaches for BPM through a Systematic Literature Review (SLR). Moreover, identifying the existence of dynamic PL approaches for BPM. MethodA SLR was conducted with four research questions formulated to evaluate PL approaches for BPM. Results63 papers were selected as primary studies according to the criteria established. From these primary studies, only 15 papers address the specific dynamic aspects in the context evaluated. Moreover, it was found that PLs only partially address the BPM lifecycle since the last business process phase is not a current concern on the found approaches. ConclusionsThe found PL approaches for BPM only cover partially the BPM lifecycle, not taking into account the last phase which restarts the lifecycle. Moreover, no wide dynamic PL proposal was found for BPM, but only the treatment of specific dynamic aspects. The results indicate that PL approaches for BPM are still at an early stage and gaining maturity.

Comprehensibility of UML-based software product line specifications

Abstract: Software Product Line Engineering (SPLE) deals with developing artifacts that capture the common and variable aspects of software product families. Domain models are one kind of such artifacts. Being developed in early stages, domain models need to specify commonality and variability and guide the reuse of the artifacts in particular software products. Although different modeling methods have been proposed to manage and support these activities, the assessment of these methods is still in an inceptive stage. In this work, we examined the comprehensibility of domain models specified in ADOM, a UML-based SPLE method. In particular, we conducted a controlled experiment in which 116 undergraduate students were required to answer comprehension questions regarding a domain model that was equipped with explicit reuse guidance and/or variability specification. We found that explicit specification of reuse guidance within the domain model helped understand the model, whereas explicit specification of variability increased comprehensibility only to a limited extent. Explicit specification of both reuse guidance and variability often provided intermediate results, namely, results that were better than specification of variability without reuse guidance, but worse than specification of reuse guidance without variability. All these results were perceived in different UML diagram types, namely, use case, class, and sequence diagrams and for different commonality-, variability-, and reuse-related aspects.

Adding variability management to UML-based software product lines 1

Abstract: The software product line (PL) approach promotes the generation of specific products from a set of core assets for a given domain. This approach is applicable to domains in which products have well-defined commonalities and variation points. Variability management is concerned with the management of the differences between products throughout the PL lifecycle. This paper presents a UML-based process for variability management that allows identification, representation and delimitation of variabilities; and, identification of mechanisms for variability implementation. The evaluation of the process was carried out as a case study within the context of an existing PL for the Workflow Management System (WfMS) domain. The results have shown that the proposed process includes well-defined control mechanisms that increase the possibility of identifying and tracing variabilities.