Systematic and Automated Software Migration via Model-Driven Engineering

背景软件迁移是将软件应用程序从一个操作环境转换到另一个操作环境的过程。它影响到所有软件密集型行业，包括企业系统、航空电子、汽车--这些行业的操作系统、硬件、语言或框架可能会发生变化。迁移是昂贵的。英国合作银行在一次失败的移民项目中损失了15亿英镑。网景花了两年时间进行迁移，这导致了市场份额的损失，最终导致了公司的倒闭。许多现实世界中的迁移问题都是手动处理的，开发人员的工作强度很大，自动化支持很少。因此，软件迁移涉及耗时、重复和容易出错的任务。这项提案描述的工作将产生基于模型驱动工程(MDE)的新工具和理论，以支持从事软件迁移的工程师。它提供工具来支持工程师自动执行迁移任务，并支持工程师预测可能遇到的问题。目标本研究的目标是开发和评估用于跨越应用程序操作环境变化的软件迁移的技术和工具。这与我长期致力于使用MDE自动化重复性和容易出错的任务的研究相吻合。我的研究将考虑由硬件或软件更改触发的一系列迁移方案，以及一种新的软件迁移方法，该方法允许及早分析潜在的计时属性违规。挑战(1)移徙情况多种多样，通常是单独解决的。(2)对具体的迁移问题提供自动化支持，但不支持端到端流程。(3)几乎没有人支持在移徙前预测问题。(4)关于何时可以部分支持移徙的指导意见基本上不存在。(5)编程语言对与时机有关的移徙问题的影响知之甚少。研究成果和方向我将建立一个新的目录，列出在一系列不同的操作环境中迁移中反复出现的问题，并开发创新的可执行模型转换来解决这些问题。我将开发一种新的方法来确定迁徙的“热点”，以及预测时机问题的新机制。我将就何时可能/有益地进行部分迁移制定新的指导方针。影响维护是软件工程中最昂贵的部分；当公司必须进行迁移时，拟议的工作将产生生产力改进，从而降低总体成本。这项研究将导致软件迁移问题和模式的创新目录，以及预测迁移对软件时间特性的影响的新机制。它将加强加拿大在软件移植方面的领先地位，无论是在学术界还是工业界，并将建立在加拿大大学和从事软件维护工作的公司之间的强大协同效应基础上。

Background Software migration is the process of transforming software applications from one operating environment to another. It impacts on all software intensive industries, including enterprise systems, avionics, automotive - where operating systems, hardware, languages or frameworks may change. Migration is expensive. The Cooperative Bank UK lost GBP 1.5B on a failed migration project. Netscape spent 2 years on a migration which led to loss of market share and ultimately the collapse of the company. Many real-world migration problems are handled manually, with intensive developer effort and little automated support. Software migration thus involves time-consuming, repetitive and error-prone tasks. The work this proposal describes will produce novel tools and theories, based on Model-Driven Engineering (MDE), to support engineers engaged in software migration. It provides tools to support engineers in automating migration tasks and supporting engineers in predicting what problems may be encountered. Goal The goal of the research is to develop and evaluate techniques and tools for software migration across changes to application operating environments. This fits with my long-term research focusing on automating repetitive & error-prone tasks using MDE. My research will consider a broad set of migration scenarios triggered by hardware or software changes, as well as a new method for software migration that allows early analysis of potential violations of timing properties. Challenges (i) Migration scenarios are diverse and are generally tackled individually. (ii) Automated support exists for specific migration problems but not for an end-to-end process. (iii) There is little support for prediction of problems prior to migration. (iv) Guidance on when migration can be partially supported is largely non-existent. (v) The influence of programming language on migration problems related to timing is poorly understood. Research Outcomes and Directions I will build a novel catalogue of recurring problems in migration across a range of different operating environments, and develop innovative executable model transformations to address them. I will develop a new methodology identifying migration 'hotspots', as well as novel mechanisms for prediction of timing problems. I will develop new guidance on when partial migration may be possible/beneficial. Impact Maintenance is the most expensive part of software engineering; the proposed work will yield productivity improvements that will reduce overall costs when companies must undertake migration. The research will lead to an innovative catalogue of software migration problems and patterns, as well as new mechanisms for predicting the impact of migration on timing characteristics of software. It will strengthen Canada's position as a leader in software migration, both in academia and industry, and will build on strong synergies between Canadian universities and companies working in software maintenance.