Supported by the Foundation for Research,Science and Technology via the
The aim of
this project is to develop a novel enabling technology that allows software
development organisations to much more effectively
and efficiently develop Domain-Specific Software Tools. Demonstrate the feasibility of this
technology through the development of selected proof-of-concept domain-specific
tools in conjunction with industry partners.
Domain-Specific
Software Tools are software applications assisting in the development of other
software or that are end-user-focused tool applications. These tools come in
three main flavours: (1) in-house software
construction productivity enhancement tools; (2) software construction tools
for resale; and (3) end-user software tool applications. Examples include (1) a
wide range of software design and project management tools; (2) architecture
measurement and reuse tools; and (3) workflow, business modelling
and information visualisation tools. The enabling
technology will be evaluated with respect to the usability of the resultant
tools provided and research and development work will be validated via two
supporting objectives using the technology. One will focus on proof-of-concept,
in-house, software and end-user application tools, the other on reuse
processes, tools and technologies.
This
research programme includes a mix of targeted basic
and applied research. It contributes primarily to creating wealth from new
knowledge-based enterprises and developing an infrastructure for a knowledge
society. These will be achieved in this research programme
by the development of a proof-of-concept technology for domain-specific tool
construction that is (1) commercially valuable; (2) enables production of
commercially valuable software applications; and (3) enables production of
other commercially valuable software applications. An IP management plan
focuses on maximising value of the research for
Key
partnerships with end-users are expressed in this programme
by close collaboration with software industry end-users and tool application
developers. User group linkages are strong and include collaborative project
work with XSol Ltd, Whitecloud
Systems Ltd, Peace Software Ltd, Okki
Software Ltd and potentially with members of the Health IT cluster. The programme fosters advanced human capital development by (1)
retaining key domain-specific software tools construction expertise in New
Zealand; (2) developing domain-specific software tool expertise via student
projects with industrial emphasis and collaboration; and (3) developing the
academic researchers' ability to commercialise their
research in this area.
Pounamu is
a domain-specific software tool construction tool, or “meta-tool”. Pounamu is
used to interactively define new domain-specific tools and to provide a
framework for realizing these tools.
More
information and recent publications can be found:
A recent short
paper can be found:
Several
extensions to Pounamu have been developed, including thin-client diagramming
plug-ins, collaborative work plug-ins and notation converter support. Information
on the first two can be found below. Information on notation mapping, including
3D user interface explorations, can be found:
An
experiment with Zoomable User Interfaces and Pounamu
views can be found:
We have
been exploring component-based and service-oriented approaches to integrating
other tools and services with Pounamu and other software tools. Information on
these can be found in:
Argo/MTE is
a performance engineering tool that allows software architects to generate
large amounts of real system code from a high-level architecture description.
This code is then performance tested and the results summarized and presented,
giving an indication of the likely performance of an application using the
architecture description. Incremental evolution of the architecture informed by
repeated performance analysis is supported.
Further
details can be obtained from:
Some recent
publications include:
We have
developed experimental CASE tools using a sketching (pen)-based interface. We
have also deployed this on an E-whiteboard technology, producing a face-to-face
collaborative E-whiteboard application for UML diagramming.
Further
details and recent publications can be obtained from:
We have
been developing infrastructures and prototype service-oriented components to
support plug-and-play dynamic extension of software tools to incorporate
collaborative editing support services.
Further
details and recent publications can be obtained from:
We are
working with
Further
details and recent publications can be obtained from:
We have
been investigating the addition of software metrics techniques to a commercial
project management tool, in conjunction with an
We have
developed two very novel approaches to supporting complex data mapping
specification domain-specific tools. These provide new mechanisms which allow
non-technical users to express complex data mapping problems and support the
generation of target data mapping implementations. Much of this work has been
investigated with motivating examples from
Further
details and recent publications can be obtained from:
We are also
looking to apply this work to information portal specification with a European
research organization.
We have
applied two key approaches to evaluating the usability of software tools: the
Cognitive Dimensions framework and representative user surveys.
Examples of
these approaches being used for software tools can be found in the papers
below:
We have
been developing infrastructure to better support the description of reuse in
software tool applications and to provide software tool applications with
improved reuse libraries and frameworks.