© Fraunhofer FIRST

Timo Wegeler

Towards Quality Assurance of DSL Engineering

Vino 2011 19.Juli.2011

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Problem statement

Custom software development requires domain expert‘s knowledge– To communicate requirements– To provide domain characteristics– To define possible test cases

Models or languages are useless if domain experts are unable to use them– Being overwhelmed by too much abstraction in syntax and

semantics

How to identify bad modeling

DSL tools are available, but systematic DSL engineering method is not

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Vision

Provide quality assurance of DSL engineering– Engineering process impelled by domain‘ s characteristics and

domain expert‘s expertise· Strong influence on DSL design

– Enable construction of high-quality DSLs· determine quality criteria

Better formalization of requirements using DSLs– Involve domain experts– Use DSLs for generation and testing

Better software and verification

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BIZWARE Project

Fraunhofer FIRSTTU Berlin, DIMAadesso AGakquinet tech@spree GmbHCedavis Technology GmbHClinPath GmbHFMK GmbHKlopotek & Partner GmbHModel Labs GmbHPI Informatik GmbH

BIZWARE

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BIZWARE Goals

Ease the development of DSLs– Support a complete DSL engineering and

lifecycle process

Enable domain experts to be involved in the software development process

Generate

Test

Business growth for partners– Enter new markets

BIZWARE

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Proposed solution and contributions

Identify requirements for a framework for a complete DSL engineering and lifecycle process.– How to support evolution– Support rapid prototyping– Supervise a domain expert‘s usage of a DSL prototype during

development (framework‘s tracking and assessment components)· Identify preferences and develop an individual metric· Embrace learning effects

– Provide a description of the engineering process

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Results so far

Literature ReviewPartner contacts forged; analysis of their DSL development goalsSome requirements for Assessment, Tracking, Repository components

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Ongoing and future Work

Analysis of backgrounds and motivation for DSL developments of the different partners– Currenty 8 different domains, but security-related ones wanted!

Development of a metric to measure a domain expert‘s cognitive load

Define a process to identify a domain expert‘s modeling preferences

Analyze DSL developments

Use students to do modeling experiments

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Quality assurance

„Rapid DSL Prototyping“– Involve domain expert and dsl engineer

DSL Testing

DSL Debugging

Multi Modeling

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DSL Quality

What makes a good DSL?

Save seconds for model checking?

Help find bugs?

Design effort, cost?

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Far from finished

But end of talk.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Welcome!

Thank you.

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How to validate a DSL development

Is the Problem suitable for a DSL development?

When is it beneficial to develop a DSL

Identify qualitative criteria– Quantitative?

Define a process for DSL engineering

Shorten the gap between requirements and formalization Apply to the built system– Identify good test cases