It is generally the case that corporate information systems consist of heterogeneous software subsystems that interact using many various processes and protocols. Applications that execute within such subsystems tend to be designed in isolation with little or no thought given to the requirements for future interaction. To provide bridges between these heterogeneous subsystems, one-off "hacked" solutions are usually introduced which rely upon maintenance of the status quo for all aspects of the execution environment and are thus inherently "brittle". Such a situation is inappropriate for large-scale and highly decentralised system deployments. In order to make such systems more robust and exhibit scalable performance characteristics, it is preferable to construct them with the ability to react to changes in the environment that they operate within. This research seeks to provide a method of how to engender "agility" into system components to improve their ability to deal with unpredictable environments. Our approach is to view systems and components from an interactive perspective and provide a middleware mechanism that enables a "variable" degree of coupling between system components. To achieve this we introduce three high-level "dimensions" of coupling, namely mediation, adaptation and crystallisation. Each dimension is characterised by the location of behaviour required for interaction and patterns of behaviour movement. The coordination characteristics of these dimensions of coupling are specified to establish a separation of coordination and application functionalities in endogenous distributed systems. The outcomes of this research project are: a definition for the dimensions of coupling that have been identified, a protocol to perform transitions between dimensions and a preliminary framework for the development of more agile applications.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/265235 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Redding, Guy Matthew |
| Publisher | Queensland University of Technology |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Guy Matthew Redding |
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