Architecting e-business applications is a complex design activity. This is mainly due to the numerous architectural decisions to be made, including the selection of alternative technologies, software components, design strategies, patterns, standards, protocols, platforms, etc. Further complexities arise due to the fact that these alternatives often vary considerably in their support for different quality attributes. Moreover, there are often different groups of stakeholders involved, with each having their own quality goals and criteria. Furthermore, different architectural decisions often include interdependent alternatives, where the selection of one alternative for one particular decision impacts the selections to be made for alternatives from other different decisions. There have been several research efforts aiming at providing sufficient mechanisms and tools for facilitating the architectural evaluation and design process. These approaches, however, address architectural decisions in isolation, where they focus on evaluating a limited set of alternatives belonging to one architectural decision. This has been the primary motivation behind the development of the Architectural DEcision-Making Support (ADEMS) framework, which basically aims at supporting stakeholders and architects during the architectural decision-making process by helping them determining a suitable combination of architectural alternatives. ADEMS framework is an iterative process that leverages rigorous quantitative decision-making techniques available in the literature of Management Science, particularly Multiple Attribute Decision-Making (MADM) methods and Integer Programming (IP). Furthermore, due to the number of architectural decisions involved as well as the variety of available alternatives, the architecture design space is expected to be huge. For this purpose, a query language has been developed, known as the Architecture Query Language (AQL), to aid architects in exploring and analyzing the design space in further depth, and also in examining different ???what-if??? architectural scenarios. In addition, in order to support leveraging ADEMS framework, a support tool has been implemented for carrying out the sophisticated set of mathematical computations and comparisons of the large number of architectural combinations, which might otherwise be hard to conduct using manual techniques. The primary contribution of the tool is in its help to identify, evaluate, and rank all potential combinations of alternatives based on their satisfaction to quality preferences provided by the different stakeholders. Finally, to assess the feasibility of ADEMS, three different case studies have been conducted relating to the architectural evaluation of different e-business and enterprise applications. Results obtained for the three case studies were quite positive as they showed an acceptable accuracy level for the decisions recommended by ADEMS, and at a reasonable time and effort costs for the different system stakeholders.

An important issue during architectural design is that besides functional requirements, software architecture is influenced greatly by quality requirements [9][2][7], which often are neglected. The earlier quality requirements are considered, the less effort is needed later in the software lifecycle to ensure a sufficient software quality levels. Errors due to lack of their fulfilment are the most expensive and difficult to correct. Therefore, attention to quality requirements is crucial during an architectural design. The problem is not only to gather the system’s quality requirements, but to establish a methodology that helps to deal with them during the software development. Literature has paid some attention to software architecture in the context of quality requirements, but there is still lack of effective solutions in this area. To alleviate the problem, this paper lays out important concepts and notions of quality requirements in a way they can be used to drive design decisions and evaluate the architecture to estimate whether these requirements are fulfilled. Important concepts of software architecture area are presented to indicate how important quality requirements are during the design and what are the consequences of their lack in a software system. Moreover, a quality requirement-oriented design method is proposed as an outcome of the literature survey. This method is a model taking quality requirements into account at first, before the core functionality is placed. Besides the conceptual solution to the identified problems, this paper also suggests a practical method of handling quality requirements during a design. A recommendation framework for choosing the most suitable architectural pattern from a set of quality attributes is also proposed. Since the literature provides insufficient qualitative information about quality requirement issues in terms of software architectures, an empirical research is conducted as means for gathering the required data. Therefore, a systematic approach to support and analyze architectural designs in terms of quality requirements is prepared. Finally, quality requirement-oriented and pattern-based design method is further proposed as a result of investigating patterns as a tool for addressing quality requirements at different abstraction levels of a design. The research is concerned with the analysis of software architectures against one or more desired software qualities that ought to be achieved at the architectural level. / http://wnukiewicz.pl kareel@gmail.com

La préconception est une phase aboutissant à la génération d’une architecture physique de concept. Dès cette phase, il est crucial de choisir une architecture qui prenne en compte les contraintes multi-physiques. Cette thèse permet de répondre à cette problématique : comment évaluer des architectures physiques d’un système complexe sous contraintes multi-physiques pendant les phases amont, afin de limiter les risques de couplages multi-physiques dans les étapes suivantes, qui engendrent une augmentation conséquente de la durée et du coût de la conception ?Pour répondre à cette problématique, nous proposons tout d’abord un processus nommé SAMOS permettant aux acteurs de cette phase d’échanger des informations en limitant le risque d’incohérences et d’incompréhensions. Puis, en nous limitant à l’analyse thermique, nous avons développé une plateforme « modeleur 3D thermique », s’appuyant sur un environnement 3D, deux extensions SysML et des transformations de modèle, pour faciliter les échanges d’informations et de données entre l’architecte système, l’architecte 3D et les équipes de simulation, et ainsi diminuer la redondance et le temps de conception.Ainsi, pour permettre la gestion de l’encombrement et du positionnement spatial de chaque équipement, une extension SysML GERTRUDe a été proposée pour pouvoir spécifier des exigences géométriques : formes géométriques simples des composants, dimensions, contraintes de positionnement.GERTRUDe utilise le modèle géométrique des SATT enrichi avec les paramètres intrinsèques. De la même façon, l’extension SysML TheReSE, basée sur GERTRUDe, permet la gestion des exigences thermiques : propriétés thermiques de composants et spécification des interactions thermiques susceptibles d’intervenir entre les composants de l’architecture.De même les interactions thermiques entre les différents équipements peuvent être soit spécifiées en SysML, soit être ajoutées dans l’environnement 3D. Ces informations permettent de définir alors un réseau d’interactions thermiques, qui intègre à la fois les informations géométriques et thermiques. Ce réseau est alors transformé en un modèle thermique implémenté en Modelica, qui permet par simulation d’évaluer la température des faces des composants.Les approches proposées ont été implémentées dans un démonstrateur, afin de démontrer la faisabilité du concept sur plusieurs cas d’études industriels, et ainsi valider les attentes industrielles vis-à-vis de l’approche proposée et ses perspectives. / Conceptual design leads to the generation of a physical concept architecture. From this phase, it is crucial to select an architecture that takes into account multi-physical constraints. We propose in this thesis to solve the following research issue: how can the physical architectures of a complex system under multi-physical constraints be evaluated during the earlier design phases, in order to limit the risks of multi-physical coupling in the following phases that generate a considerable increase in design time and cost?To tackle this problem, we first propose a framework called SAMOS which allows the actors in the design to exchange information during this phase while limiting the risks of inconsistencies and misunderstandings. Then, by focusing on the thermal analysis, we develop a "thermal 3D sketcher" platform, based on a 3D environment, two SysML extensions and several model transformations. It will facilitate human and data exchanges between System architects, 3D architects and simulation teams, thus reducing redundancy and design time.Thus, in order to manage the geometry requirements and spatial positioning of each item of equipment, the GERTRUDe SysML extension is proposed. It allows specifying geometrical requirements such as simple geometrical shapes for the components, their dimensions and positioning constraints.GERTRUDe uses TTRS (Technologically and Topologically Related Surfaces) geometrical modeling enriched with intrinsic parameters. Likewise, the TheReSE SysML extension, based on GERTRUDe, allows the management of thermal requirements: the thermal properties of components and the specification of thermal interactions that may occur between the architecture components.The transformation rules are described. They automatically generate a specified architecture which includes possible geometrical constraints that can be transformed from a SysML environment into a 3D environment; the direction of transformation can be reversed so that a 3D architecture can be traced from a 3D environment to a SysML environment.Similarly, the thermal interactions between the different components can be either specified in SysML or be added in the 3D environment. This information allows defining a thermal interactions network which integrates both geometrical and thermal data. This network is then transformed into a thermal model implemented in Modelica, which allows simulation to evaluate the temperatures of the components’ faces.The approach proposed is implemented in a demonstrator to provide proof of concept based on several industrial case studies, thus validating the industrial expectations with regard to the approach proposed and its perspectives.

Complex modern software is often built using existing application frameworks and middleware frameworks. These frameworks provide useful common services, while simultaneously imposing architectural rules and constraints. Existing software architecture evaluation methods do not explicitly consider the implications of these frameworks for software architecture. This research extends scenario-based architecture evaluation methods by incorporating framework-related information into different evaluation activities. I propose four techniques which target four different activities within a scenario-based architecture evaluation method. 1) Scenario development: A new technique was designed aiming to extract general scenarios and tactics from framework-related architectural patterns. The technique is intended to complement the current scenario development process. The feasibility of the technique was validated through a case study. Significant improvements of scenario quality were observed in a controlled experiment conducted by another colleague. 2) Architecture representation: A new metrics-driven technique was created to reconstruct software architecture in a just-in-time fashion. This technique was validated in a case study. This approach has significantly improved the efficiency of architecture representation in a complex environment. 3) Attribute specific analysis (performance only): A model-driven approach to performance measurement was applied by decoupling framework-specific information from performance testing requirements. This technique was validated on two platforms (J2EE and Web Services) through a number of case studies. This technique leads to the benchmark producing more representative measures of the eventual application. It reduces the complexity behind the load testing suite and framework-specific performance data collecting utilities. 4) Trade-off and sensitivity analysis: A new technique was designed seeking to improve the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) for trade-off and sensitivity analysis during a framework selection process. This approach was validated in a case study using data from a commercial project. The approach can identify 1) trade-offs implied by an architecture alternative, along with the magnitude of these trade-offs. 2) the most critical decisions in the overall decision process 3) the sensitivity of the final decision and its capability for handling quality attribute priority changes.

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Online social networking has become one of the most popular services on the Web. Especially Facebook with its 845Mio+ monthly active users and 100Mrd+ friendship relations creates a Web inside the Web. Drawing on the metaphor of islands, Facebook is becoming more like a continent. However, users are locked up on this continent with hardly any opportunity to communicate easily with users on other islands and continents or even to relocate trans-continentally. In addition to that, privacy, data ownership and freedom of communication issues are problematically in centralized environments. The idea of distributed social networking enables users to overcome the drawbacks of centralized social networks. The goal of this thesis is to provide an architecture for distributed social networking based on semantic technologies. This architecture consists of semantic artifacts, protocols and services which enable social network applications to work in a distributed environment and with semantic interoperability. Furthermore, this thesis presents applications for distributed semantic social networking and discusses user interfaces, architecture and communication strategies for this application category. / Soziale Netzwerke gehören zu den beliebtesten Online Diensten im World Wide Web. Insbesondere Facebook mit seinen mehr als 845 Mio. aktiven Nutzern im Monat und mehr als 100 Mrd. Nutzer- Beziehungen erzeugt ein eigenständiges Web im Web. Den Nutzern dieser Sozialen Netzwerke ist es jedoch schwer möglich mit Nutzern in anderen Sozialen Netzwerken zu kommunizieren oder aber mit ihren Daten in ein anderes Netzwerk zu ziehen. Zusätzlich dazu werden u.a. Privatsphäre, Eigentumsrechte an den eigenen Daten und uneingeschränkte Freiheit in der Kommunikation als problematisch empfunden. Die Idee verteilter Soziale Netzwerke ermöglicht es, diese Probleme zentralisierter Sozialer Netzwerke zu überwinden. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist die Darstellung einer Architektur verteilter Soziale Netzwerke welche auf semantischen Technologien basiert. Diese Architektur besteht aus semantischen Artefakten, Protokollen und Diensten und ermöglicht die Kommunikation von Sozialen Anwendungen in einer verteilten Infrastruktur. Darüber hinaus präsentiert diese Arbeit mehrere Applikationen für verteilte semantische Soziale Netzwerke und diskutiert deren Nutzer-Schnittstellen, Architektur und Kommunikationsstrategien. 

Wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor devices are becoming increasing popular in power electronics applications. However, WBG semiconductor devices generate a substantial amount of conducted electromagnetic interference (EMI) compared to silicon (Si) devices due to their ability to operate at higher switching frequencies, higher operating voltages and faster slew rates. This thesis explores and analyzes EMI mitigation techniques that can be applied to a power module architecture at the packaging level. In this thesis, the EMI footprint of four different module architectures is measured experimentally. A time domain LTspice simulation model of the experimental test setup is then built. The common mode (CM) EMI emissions that escape the baseplate of the module into the converter is then examined through the simulation. The simulation is used to explore the CM noise footprint of eight additional module architectures that were found in literature. The EMI trends and the underlying mitigation principle for the twelve modules is explained by highlighting key differences in the architectures using common mode equivalent modelling and substitution and superposition theorem. The work aims to help future module designers by not only comparing the EMI performance of the majority of module architectures available in literature but by also providing an analysis methodology that can be used to understand the EMI behavior of any new module architecture that has not been discussed. Although silicon carbide (SiC) modules are used for this study, the results are applicable for any WBG device. / M.S. / As society moves towards the electric grid of the future, there have been increasing calls for high efficiency, high power density, and low electromagnetic interference (EMI) power electronic converters. EMI is a big problem when using wide-bandgap (WBG) devices as these devices can switch very quickly and handle higher voltages when compared to silicon devices. In this study, ways to reduce EMI in a WBG power module through twelve different types of packaging are explored. Four WBG power modules are designed and fabricated in the lab, whereas a simulation model was created to study the EMI behavior of the remaining eight power module. The EMI behavior of these modules is explained using common mode (CM) equivalent modeling and substitution and superposition theorem. This study is important because WBG devices are becoming more and more popular in power electronic applications. The author hopes the findings and analysis presented in this paper can help future module designers reduce the EMI footprint of modules they design.

A abordagem de linha de produto de software (LP) tem como objetivo principal promover a geração de produtos específicos de um determinado domínio com base na reutilização de uma infraestrutura central, chamada núcleo de artefatos. Um dos principais artefatos do núcleo de uma LP é a Arquitetura de LP (ALP), que representa a abstração de todas as arquiteturas de sistemas únicos que podem ser gerados, para um domínio específico. Avaliações de ALP são importantes, pois permitem aumentar a produtividade e a qualidade dos produtos da LP, bem como, seus resultados permitem a análise de metas de negócio e de retorno de investimento. Este trabalho propõe um método sistemático para avaliação de ALP, o SystEM-PLA (a Systematic Evaluation Method for Software Product Line Architectures). Tal método considera modelos de ALP em UML, por ser uma notação amplamente conhecida e consolidada. SystEM-PLA é composto por um metaprocesso de avaliação, diretrizes que guiam o usuário em como avaliar uma ALP e métricas básicas para modelos UML e atributos de qualidade. O método utiliza a abordagem SMarty (Stereotype-based Management of Variability), para gerenciar variabilidades em LP baseadas em UML. Análises de trade-off com o objetivo de priorizar atributos de qualidade para o desenvolvimento e evolução dos produtos de uma LP são realizadas com base na aplicação e coleta das métricas do SystEM-PLA em configurações de uma ALP. As métricas propostas para os atributos de qualidade complexidade e extensibilidade foram validadas por meio de um estudo experimental. Evidências indicaram a viabilidade de aplicação do método SystEM-PLA na indústria com base em um estudo experimental realizado com profissionais de uma empresa de grande porte no setor de desenvolvimento de software / The software product line (PL) approach aims at promoting the generation of specific products from a particular domain based on the reuse of a central infra-structure, so-called core assets. One of the main assets of a PL is the PL Architecture (PLA) that represents the abstraction of all possible single-product architectures that can be generated for a particular domain. PLA evaluations are important due to allow the increasing of the productivity and the quality of PL products, as well as their results allow business drivers and return on investment analyzes. This work proposes a Systematic Evaluation Method for Software Product Line Architectures, the SystEM-PLA. This method takes into account UML models with PLA variability explicitly represented, since UML is a widely known and consolidated notation. SystEM-PLA is composed of an evaluation meta-process, guidelines that drive the user on how to evaluate a PLA, and basic and quality attribute metrics. This method uses the proposed approach Stereotype-based Management of Variability (SMarty) to manage variabilities in UML-based PLs. Trade-off analyses to prioritize quality attributes for the development and evolution of PL products are carried out based on the application and collection of the SystEM-PLA metrics from PLA configurations. The quality attribute metrics were validated trough an experimental study. Evidences indicated the SystEM-PLA application feasibility in industry based on an experimental study, planned and conducted with professionals from a large software development organization

A abordagem de linha de produto de software (LP) tem como objetivo principal promover a geração de produtos específicos de um determinado domínio com base na reutilização de uma infraestrutura central, chamada núcleo de artefatos. Um dos principais artefatos do núcleo de uma LP é a Arquitetura de LP (ALP), que representa a abstração de todas as arquiteturas de sistemas únicos que podem ser gerados, para um domínio específico. Avaliações de ALP são importantes, pois permitem aumentar a produtividade e a qualidade dos produtos da LP, bem como, seus resultados permitem a análise de metas de negócio e de retorno de investimento. Este trabalho propõe um método sistemático para avaliação de ALP, o SystEM-PLA (a Systematic Evaluation Method for Software Product Line Architectures). Tal método considera modelos de ALP em UML, por ser uma notação amplamente conhecida e consolidada. SystEM-PLA é composto por um metaprocesso de avaliação, diretrizes que guiam o usuário em como avaliar uma ALP e métricas básicas para modelos UML e atributos de qualidade. O método utiliza a abordagem SMarty (Stereotype-based Management of Variability), para gerenciar variabilidades em LP baseadas em UML. Análises de trade-off com o objetivo de priorizar atributos de qualidade para o desenvolvimento e evolução dos produtos de uma LP são realizadas com base na aplicação e coleta das métricas do SystEM-PLA em configurações de uma ALP. As métricas propostas para os atributos de qualidade complexidade e extensibilidade foram validadas por meio de um estudo experimental. Evidências indicaram a viabilidade de aplicação do método SystEM-PLA na indústria com base em um estudo experimental realizado com profissionais de uma empresa de grande porte no setor de desenvolvimento de software / The software product line (PL) approach aims at promoting the generation of specific products from a particular domain based on the reuse of a central infra-structure, so-called core assets. One of the main assets of a PL is the PL Architecture (PLA) that represents the abstraction of all possible single-product architectures that can be generated for a particular domain. PLA evaluations are important due to allow the increasing of the productivity and the quality of PL products, as well as their results allow business drivers and return on investment analyzes. This work proposes a Systematic Evaluation Method for Software Product Line Architectures, the SystEM-PLA. This method takes into account UML models with PLA variability explicitly represented, since UML is a widely known and consolidated notation. SystEM-PLA is composed of an evaluation meta-process, guidelines that drive the user on how to evaluate a PLA, and basic and quality attribute metrics. This method uses the proposed approach Stereotype-based Management of Variability (SMarty) to manage variabilities in UML-based PLs. Trade-off analyses to prioritize quality attributes for the development and evolution of PL products are carried out based on the application and collection of the SystEM-PLA metrics from PLA configurations. The quality attribute metrics were validated trough an experimental study. Evidences indicated the SystEM-PLA application feasibility in industry based on an experimental study, planned and conducted with professionals from a large software development organization

(in English): This thesis is dedicated to the analysis and evaluation of applied information architecture of two selected digital libraries - Manuscriptorium and Kramerius of the National Digital Library. Information architecture is one of several interconnected web design disciplines. For designing purposes, information architecture can be defined as a complex of elements and principles. Analysis and evaluation of the existing information architecture depends on its integration into the web sites context. The thesis contains theoretical part with definition of information architecture, its elements and principles of design. It describes evaluation methods of information architecture as a combination of qualitative and quantitative elements of web sites. Information architecture of digital libraries often means architecture of the system. The thesis contains a definition of a digital library and explains focus on access application. Testing of web usability is the best way of testing the information architecture of digital libraries. It enables to test information architecture from user's point of view. The conclusion provide results of the usability tests.