Process models support the transition from business requirements to IT implementations. An organization that adopts process modeling often maintain several co-existing models of the same business process. These models target different abstraction levels and stakeholder perspectives. Maintaining consistency among these models has become a major challenge for such an organization. For instance, propagating changes requires identifying tacit correspondences among the models, which may be only in the memories of their original creators or may be lost entirely. Although different tools target specific needs of different roles, we lack appropriate support for checking whether related models maintained by different groups of specialists are still consistent after independent editing. As a result, typical consistency management tasks such as tracing, differencing, comparing, refactoring, merging, conformance checking, change notification, and versioning are frequently done manually, which is time-consuming and error-prone. This thesis presents the Shared Model, a framework designed to improve support for consistency management and impact analysis in process modeling. The framework is designed as a result of a comprehensive industrial study that elicited typical correspondence patterns between Business and IT process models and the meaning of consistency between them. The framework encompasses three major techniques and contributions: 1) matching heuristics to automatically discover complex correspondences patterns among the models, and to maintain traceability among model parts---elements and fragments; 2) a generator of edit operations to compute the difference between process models; 3) a process model synchronizer, capable of consistently propagating changes made to any model to its counterpart. We evaluated the Shared Model experimentally. The evaluation shows that the framework can consistently synchronize Business and IT views related by correspondence patterns, after non-simultaneous independent editing.

A software system is represented by different software artefacts ranging from requirements specifications to source code. As the system evolves, artefacts are often modified at different rates and times resulting in inconsistencies, which in turn can hinder effective communication between stakeholders, and the understanding and maintenance of systems. The problem of the differential evolution of heterogeneous software artefacts has not been sufficiently addressed to date as current solutions focus on specific sets of artefacts and aspects of consistency management and are not fully automated. This thesis presents the concept of holistic artefact consistency management and a proof-of-concept framework, ACM, which aim to support the consistent evolution of heterogeneous software artefacts while minimising the impact on user choices and practices and maximising automation. The ACM framework incorporates traceability, change impact analysis, change detection, consistency checking and change propagation mechanisms and is designed to be extensible. The thesis describes the design, implementation and evaluation of the framework, and an approach to automate trace link creation using machine learning techniques. The framework evaluation uses six open source systems and suggests that managing the consistency of heterogeneous artefacts may be feasible in practical scenarios.

<p>The aim of this thesis is to exploit the technological capabilities of computer supported collaborative work (CSCW) in the field of collaborative Modelling and Simulation (M&S). The thesis focuses on addressing two main problems: (i) providing flexible means of consistency management in collaborative M&S, and (ii) the ability of providing platform and application independent services for collaborative M&S.</p><p>In this work, some CSCW technologies and how some of the concepts can be incorporated in a distributed collaborative M&S environment, have been studied. An environment for component based simulation development and visualization, which provides support for collaborative M&S, has been designed. Some consistency policies that can be used in conjunction with distributed simulation and the High Level Architecture (HLA) have been investigated. Furthermore, the efficient utilization of HLA and XML in combination, as the foundation of a CSCW infrastructure has been proved. Two consistency policies were implemented utilizing HLA, a strict and an optimistic, in the distributed collaborative environment. Their performance was compared to the performance of a totally relaxed policy, in various collaboration situations.</p>

The aim of this thesis is to exploit the technological capabilities of computer supported collaborative work (CSCW) in the field of collaborative Modelling and Simulation (M&amp;S). The thesis focuses on addressing two main problems: (i) providing flexible means of consistency management in collaborative M&amp;S, and (ii) the ability of providing platform and application independent services for collaborative M&amp;S. In this work, some CSCW technologies and how some of the concepts can be incorporated in a distributed collaborative M&amp;S environment, have been studied. An environment for component based simulation development and visualization, which provides support for collaborative M&amp;S, has been designed. Some consistency policies that can be used in conjunction with distributed simulation and the High Level Architecture (HLA) have been investigated. Furthermore, the efficient utilization of HLA and XML in combination, as the foundation of a CSCW infrastructure has been proved. Two consistency policies were implemented utilizing HLA, a strict and an optimistic, in the distributed collaborative environment. Their performance was compared to the performance of a totally relaxed policy, in various collaboration situations. / QC 20101222

In this dissertation research, we design and analyze integrated mobility and service management for network cost minimization in Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs). We first investigate the problem of mobility management in WMNs for which we propose two efficient per-user mobility management schemes based on pointer forwarding, and then a third one that integrates routing-based location update and pointer forwarding for further performance improvement. We further study integrated mobility and service management for which we propose protocols that support efficient mobile data access services with cache consistency management, and mobile multicast services. We also investigate reliable and secure integrated mobility and service man agement in WMNs, and apply the idea to the design of a protocol for secure and reliable mobile multicast. The most salient feature of our protocols is that they are optimal on a per-user basis (or on a per-group basis for mobile multicast), that is, the overall network communication cost incurred is minimized for each individual user (or group). Per-user based optimization is critical because mobile users normally have vastly different mobility and service characteristics. Thus, the overall cost saving due to per-user based optimization is cumulatively significant with an increasing mobile user population. To evaluate the performance of our proposed protocols, we develop mathematical models and computational procedures used to compute the network communication cost incurred and build simulation systems for validating the results obtained from analytical modeling. We identify optimal design settings under which the network cost is minimized for our mobility and service management protocols in WMNs. Intensive comparative performance studies are carried out to compare our protocols with existing work in the literature. The results show that our protocols significantly outperform existing protocols under identical environmental and operational settings. We extend the design notion of integrated mobility and service management for cost minimization to MANETs and propose a scalable dual-region mobility management scheme for location-based routing. The basic design concept is to use local regions to complement home regions and have mobile nodes in the home region of a mobile node serve as location servers for that node. We develop a mathematical model to derive the optimal home region size and local region size under which overall network cost incurred is minimized. Through a comparative performance study, we show that dual-region mobility management outperforms existing mobility management schemes based on static home regions. / Ph. D.

Nos travaux s’inscrivent dans le cadre de la définition d’architectures pour la conception des applications informatiques se basant sur l’interactivité avec l’utilisateur. Nous nous plaçons dans un contexte de système médiateur, dans lequel les interactions sont traitées par le système afin de maitriser au mieux l’exécution de l’application interactive. Un point-clé de notre approche est l’hypothèse que le concepteur conçoit son application interactive en fonction d’un présupposé qu’il a sur l’utilisateur (compétence, comportement...). Afin de maintenir la cohérence de l’exécution vis-à-vis du comportement de l’utilisateur pour l’activité en cours, le mécanisme d’adaptation doit alors prendre en compte la logique perçue et interprétée de l’utilisateur. Le principe d’exécution adaptative permet donc à un système interactif d’ajuster sa logique d’exécution en fonction de l’état, des comportements, des réactions et des capacités de l’utilisateur. Ainsi, le point de départ de l’exécution adaptative est la définition des propriétés caractérisant l’état de l’utilisateur et/ou de son environnement, et l’observation ou la capture de cet état, qui permettra par la suite de prendre une décision sur la poursuite du déroulement du scénario. Cependant, cette décision d’adaptation peut être influencée ou entravée par la distance entre l’état observé et l’état réel de l’utilisateur, ainsi que par la distance entre l’état observé et l’état prédit (espéré) par le système. Les principaux obstacles à l’exécution adaptative dans un système interactif sont de 3 types : les ambiguïtés, les incohérences et les quiproquos. Ils peuvent survenir à chaque fois qu’un ensemble d’acteurs du système considéré interagissent, partagent des connaissances globales et gèrent leurs connaissances locales. Un quiproquo se produit lorsque deux acteurs ont des connaissances incohérentes dans leurs visions locales et les utilisent pendant leurs interactions ; cela peut entraîner une déviation de ces interactions. L’ambiguïté causant possiblement des mauvaises perceptions est une des origines de quiproquo. Les ambiguïtés et les quiproquos sont des entraves pouvant entrainer des conséquences graves pour le système, tel que la déviance du scénario, la propagation des quiproquos, l’interruption des interactions, la perte de motivation des utilisateurs... Ils diminuent à la fois la qualité de l’adaptation et la pertinence de l’interaction. La question principale à laquelle veulent répondre nos travaux est : comment peut-on gérer les quiproquos entre les acteurs du système lors de l’exécution, afin d’améliorer l’adaptativité dans les applications interactives ? Le principe de notre solution est de proposer un gabarit de conception et d’organisation des interactions ainsi qu’un gabarit de mécanisme de gestion de cohérence, que les concepteurs d’une application interactive pourront reprendre comme support pour développer leurs propres algorithmes de détection ou de correction. Ce modèle d’architecture doit être générique et réutilisable, les mécanismes doivent être transparents et préserver les propriétés importantes des systèmes interactifs. Pour atteindre cet objectif, notre recherche s’est divisée en trois points : proposer un cadre méthodologique à base de la notion de « situation » pour la conception des applications interactives, pour confiner les interactions et suivre les parcours d’actions de chaque acteur, afin de contrôler l’utilisation des ressources et assurer la cohérence des visions locales ; proposer une architecture robuste à base d’agents avec la surcharge des composants spécifiques en tant qu’infrastructure des systèmes interactifs adaptatifs ; enfin, transférer des techniques du domaine de la sûreté de fonctionnement et de la tolérance aux fautes, vers le domaine de l’interactivité et l’adaptativité pour traiter les quiproquos. / Our works focus on defining an architectural model for interactivity-based computer applications. The research context is placed in the mediator systems where the interactions are treated by the system itself, and in the scenarized applications where its execution is considered as a scenario. This aims to manage at best the interactive application execution. The observation and adaptation are key points of our approach where the designer develops his interactive application according to the presuppositions about users (behaviour, skills...). To maintain an execution consistence towards user’s behaviour in current activities, the adaptation mechanism has to take into account the perceived and interpreted user’s logic. That allows the system to adjust its execution logic to user’s state, behaviour, reactions and capacities. Hence, the starting point of adaptive execution is to define a set of proprieties characterising user’s state and his environment of which the observation permits thereafter to make decisions about the future scenario continuity. However, this decision can be influenced or hampered by the difference distance between the observed state and the real state of user, also the distance between the observed state and the expected one by the system. The principal obstacles against the adaptation and interactions are : the ambiguity, the inconsistency, and the misunderstanding. They can occur when the participant actors interact, share global data, and manage the local knowledge contained in their local visions at the same time. A misunderstanding in interaction arises during actors’ interactions using the inconsistent data in their local visions that can impact badly on interaction. The ambiguity causing possibly the wrong perceptions is one of the principal misunderstanding origines. Theses obstacles lead to serious consequences for the system and application such as scenario deviation, misunderstanding propagation, interaction interruption, user’s motivation lost...They decrease the adaptation quality and interaction pertinence. Hence, the principal question of this thesis is : how can we handle the misunderstanding in interactions between the actors during system execution in order to improve adaptability in the interactive applications ? Our solution principle is to propose a model for interaction designing and organizing, together with a model for consistency handling mechanisms that application designers can employ as a necessary support to install his own detection or correction algorithms. These models have to be generic, reusable to be applied in different types of application. The consistency managements have to be transparent to users, and preserve important properties of interactive systems. To attain this objective, our works follow three major points : propose a situation-based methodological model for interactive application designing to confine a sequence of interactions into a situation with the constraints of context and resource utilisation. This structuration into situations propose a robust system architecture with additional specific components that ensure misunderstanding in interaction detection and management. Integrate the adaptive treatment mechanisms to the dynamic system’s execution through the proposed situation-based architectural model. They are inspired and adapted from fault-tolerance techniques in dependability domain.