JP2013069086A - Software component combination support device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To present a suitable combination of optimum software components that satisfies dependency relation among software components in software development in which control software controlling facilities is developed with an existent combination of software components.SOLUTION: A software component combination support device extracts direct-indirect simultaneous selection relation (XNOR) and direct-indirect exclusive selection relation (XOR) as dependency relation among software components by using process flow information showing a flow of processes of control software, interlocking relation information showing interlocking relation among facilities that the processes access, and process negation relation information showing negation relation among the processes, and presents to a user a software component combination pattern satisfying the extracted dependency relation and interlocking relation information on a product to be newly developed.

Description

  The present invention relates to a software component combination support apparatus that presents an optimal combination pattern of software components in software development in which control software for controlling equipment is developed using existing software component combinations.

  In recent years, product line development technology that enables the development of small-quantity, multi-product products to meet various user needs has attracted attention.

Product series development technology is a technology that makes it possible to clarify common parts of products and variable parts for each product by variability analysis from the product roadmap, and to make common parts a framework and variable parts as software components. It is. As a result of using this technology, software products can be developed using only software component combinations of variable parts. Since there are implicit dependencies between software components, it is expected that software components will be combined while ignoring them. May cause malfunctions.
As a means for solving this problem, there is an apparatus that presents a combination of software components that seems to be optimal.

  Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-151867 discloses a device that preferentially presents a combination pattern in which each software component is digitized and arranged on a coordinate plane, the software components are grouped by a distance on the coordinate plane, and the software components of the same group are used simultaneously. Is disclosed. With this apparatus, it is possible to present an optimum software component combination pattern at least in the past results using statistical information of past use results of software components.

JP 11-053191 A

  However, since the technique described in Patent Document 1 derives how to combine software components from past statistics, it is necessary to collect a large number of development achievements in order to improve accuracy, and it takes time until it can be applied. It takes.

  In addition, the technology described in Patent Document 1 cannot distinguish software components that are used together by accident and software components that are used together by chance in the past results. Will end up.

  Therefore, there is a need for a software component combination support technology that can reliably extract the relationship between software components even with a small number of development results and present a combination pattern using related software components.

  In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the present invention provides a method in a software component combination extraction support apparatus for extracting a combination of related software components from among a plurality of software components constituting equipment control software, the software component The combination extraction support apparatus includes a product design information database and a direct relationship extraction unit, and the product design information database includes, for each of one or more processes executed by the facility control software, the process and the process And the processing flow information registered by associating the software component that executes the software component and the facility on which the software component operates, the direct relationship extracting unit acquiring the processing flow information, and the processing Based on the flow information, a plurality of software specified by the processing flow information is obtained. Comprising extracting a combination of software components that act on the same equipment from the component as a combination of software components that are in a relationship of direct simultaneous selection, the.

  According to the present invention, the relationship between software components can be extracted even with a small number of development results.

It is a block diagram which shows the software structural example of the software component combination assistance apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the hardware structural example of the software component combination assistance apparatus which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the processing flow hold | maintained in all the product design information DB. It is a figure which shows an example of the execution log used in order to generate a processing flow automatically. It is a figure which shows an example of the interlocking relationship information hold | maintained in all the product design information DB. It is a figure which shows an example of the process negative relation information hold | maintained in all the product design information DB. It is a figure which shows an example of the dependency relation information between components hold | maintained in dependency relation DB between components. It is a figure which shows an example of the processing flow after updating the particle size of components by the component feedback part. It is a figure which shows an example of the flow which extracts simultaneous selection relationship (XNOR) as a software component dependence relationship. It is a figure which shows an example of the flow which extracts an exclusive selection relationship (XOR) as a software component dependence relationship.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration example of the software component combination support apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  The software component combination support device 200 includes a CPU 201, a display device 202, an input device 203, a memory 204, and an external storage device 205. The CPU 201 reads a program and data held in the external storage device 205 onto the memory 204, executes processing related to software component combination support, and outputs an optimum software component combination. The display device 202 displays the output result of the CPU 201 to the user. The input device 203 receives product information input from the user. The memory 204 is a main storage device, and reads a program and data to be executed by the CPU 201. The external storage device 205 is an auxiliary storage device and holds programs and data necessary for execution.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a software configuration example of a software component combination support apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  The software component combination support apparatus 200 includes a product processing flow information registration unit 101, a product linkage relationship information registration unit 102, a product processing negative relationship information registration unit 103, a direct dependency extraction unit 105, an indirect dependency extraction unit 106, a dependency It is composed of a program of a relation coupling unit 108, a combination pattern sort display unit 109, a part feedback unit 110, data of all product design information DB 104, and an inter-part dependency DB 107. These programs and data are held in the external storage device 205. The product processing flow information registration unit 101 stores processing flow information obtained by user input for each product development in the all product design information DB 104. Further, as an option, processing flow information can be automatically generated from the product execution log. The product linkage information registration unit 102 stores linkage relationship information obtained by user input for each product development in the all product design information DB 104. The product processing negative relationship information registration unit 103 stores processing negative relationship information obtained by user input for each product development in the all product design information DB 104.

  The direct dependency relationship extraction unit 105 extracts (direct) dependency relationships between software components using the processing flow information stored in the all product design information DB 104. The indirect dependency relationship extracting unit 106 extracts the dependency relationship between the software components (indirect) using the processing flow information and the link relationship information held in the all product design information DB 104, and (direct) the software component. Are stored in the inter-component dependency DB 107 together with the inter-component dependency relationship. As the dependency relationship between software components, for example, a simultaneous selection relationship (XNOR) in which both or both of the software components are used during product development, or an exclusive selection relationship (XOR) in which only one of them is used can be extracted. Note that “simultaneous” in the simultaneous selection relationship does not mean simultaneous in time.

  The dependency relationship combining unit 108 acquires the dependency relationship information stored in the inter-component dependency DB 107 and combines them, thereby extracting an implicit dependency relationship. For example, there are four software parts, part A, part B, part C, and part D, and an exclusive selection relationship (XOR) exists between part A and part B, part C and part D, and part B and part. When a simultaneous selection relationship (XNOR) exists between C, an implicit simultaneous selection relationship (XNOR) can be extracted as a relationship between the component A and the component D by combining them. As another example, when there are three software parts, part A, part B, and part C, and a simultaneous selection relationship (XNOR) exists between part A and part B, and part B and part C, the part An implicit simultaneous selection relationship (XNOR) can be extracted as the relationship between A and part C. As another example, there are four software parts, part A, part B, part C, and part D, and an exclusive selection relationship between part A and part B, part B and part C, part C and part D, respectively ( XOR), an implicit simultaneous selection relationship (XNOR) can be extracted as the relationship between component A and component C and component B and component D, respectively.

  The combination pattern sort display unit 109 creates all combination patterns satisfying the dependency relationship using the dependency relationship combined by the dependency relationship combining unit 108, and uses all the combination patterns from the link relationship information of the newly developed product. The optimum combination pattern of software parts that satisfy the linkage information in the new product is selected and displayed to the user. For example, a case will be described in which there are part A, part B, and part C as three pieces of equipment, equipment 1, equipment 2, and equipment 3 and three software parts that access the equipment. As a premise, only part A has access to equipment 1, part B has access to equipment 2 and part C has access to equipment 3, and the relation between equipment 1 and equipment 2 is defined as the relation information of the newly developed product. And Here, since it is possible to select whether or not to use each component, there are 2 × 2 × 2 = 8 patterns for all combinations of components. Among the eight patterns, the pattern satisfies the interlocking relationship between the equipment 1 and the equipment 2, that is, the pattern that simultaneously uses the parts A and B accessing the equipment (part A, part B), (part A, Two patterns of component B and component C) are extracted as an optimum combination pattern of software components. When a plurality of candidates are extracted, they are finally selected manually, but the number of candidates is limited as the number of interlocking relationships increases.

  The component feedback unit 110 reviews the granularity of the software component using the dependency relationship combined by the dependency relationship combining unit 108 and updates the processing flow information in the all product design information DB 104. For example, a software component group having a direct simultaneous selection relationship (XNOR) and an indirect simultaneous selection relationship (XNOR) can be regarded as one software component for management because it is always used in the same product. Therefore, by re-registering as one software component, it is possible to reduce the trouble of selecting a component.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a processing flow held in the all product design information DB. The process flow information 300 includes a process name 301, an equipment type 302, an equipment ID 303, and a software part name 304, and the order of a plurality of processes can be described as one process and one line. For example, in the control software, a unit for referring to or updating equipment can be set as one process. In the process name 301, the names of processes to be executed are described in the order of execution. In the facility type 302, the type of facility accessed during the execution of the process described in each row of the process name 301 is described. In the facility ID 303, identification information for uniquely identifying the target facility is described. The software component name 304 describes the name of the software component on which the processing name 301 is mounted. For example, in train operation management, a traffic signal and lever status are monitored to determine the status of the train and the status of the station. A flow can be described in the process flow information as a plurality of processes. Generally, a system related to equipment control is composed of a plurality of processing flows, with a finite processing flow of equipment monitoring, situation determination, and equipment control as one set. Therefore, it is possible to express these systems using a plurality of processing flow information in which a finite number of processes are described. The software component name 304 is set so that the initial value is one software component per process, but this granularity can be appropriately updated by the component feedback unit described later.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of an execution log used when processing flow information used in the product processing flow information input unit is automatically generated. The execution log 400 includes, for example, the time when the process is executed, the process name, the equipment name of the equipment accessed by the process, and the equipment number. By describing the time when the process was executed, it is possible to correct the difference between the process execution order and the execution log description order. Further, by setting a NULL value as the equipment name, it becomes possible to exclude supplementary processing that is not related to essential processing for accessing the equipment.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of interlocking relationship information stored in the all product design information DB. The interlocking relationship information 500 includes, for example, a facility name and facility number for the target facility 501, and a facility name and facility number for the interlocking facility 502 that is linked to the target facility 501. In the interlocking relationship information 500, one interlocking relationship is described in multiple lines as one line. For example, as a facility related to train operation management, when an on-site traffic signal that permits entry into a station is operating, a switch that determines the direction of the track operates at the same time, but the interlocking relationship is linked as a single interlocking relationship. It is possible to describe in one line in the information.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of processing negative relationship information stored in the all product design information DB. The process negative relationship information 600 includes, for example, a process name 601 and a process name 602 of a process having a negative relationship with the process name 601 of the target process. In the process negation relationship information 600, information in which the relationship between the processes is a negation relationship is described. Here, the negative relationship indicates that the state of the equipment appearing as a processing result is the opposite. For example, in train operation management, the state value that the equipment can take is often a binary value of ON / OFF, and the relationship between the process of turning on the equipment state and the process of turning off the equipment state is negative. Can be defined as The processes in the negative relationship are not used at the same time, and can be utilized when extracting the exclusive selection relationship by describing this as the negative relationship processing information 600.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of inter-component dependency relationship information held in the inter-component dependency DB. The inter-component dependency relationship information 700 includes, for example, component names 702, 703, and 704 that individually define software component sets having a dependency relationship with a dependency relationship type 701 that represents the type of dependency relationship. In the inter-component dependency relationship information 700, the dependency relationship between the software components in a plurality of rows is described as one dependency relationship. For example, when the component 1 and the component 8 are in the simultaneous selection relationship (XNOR), the dependency relationship can be described as one line in the inter-component dependency relationship information.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of processing flow information after the granularity of the software component is updated by the component feedback unit. The processing flow information 800 has the same configuration as the processing flow information 300. In the processing flow information 300, software component items are set as one process per software component. In the example shown in the processing flow information 800, when there is the dependency shown in FIG. 7, one software component for controlling the same equipment is selected from the XNOR relationships described in the first row and the second row in FIG. The part granularity of the processing flow information 300 is reviewed. For example, when the component 1 and the component 8 are in the simultaneous selection relationship (XNOR), the component 1 and the component 8 can be regarded as one component, so that the component 8 of the processing flow information 300 is set as the component 1 again. As described above, by making the software component item of the processing flow information variable, it is possible to optimize the software component granularity.

  FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a flow for extracting a simultaneous selection relationship (XNOR) as a dependency relationship between software components.

  After the execution is started by the direct dependency relationship extraction unit (step 901), the link relationship information is acquired (step 902) and the processing flow information is acquired (step 903) from the all product design information DB. Of the processes in the acquired process flow information, select a process group that accesses the same equipment, extract software components corresponding to each selected process, and group these parts as a direct simultaneous selection relationship ( Step 904).

  Subsequently, an indirect dependency relationship extraction unit refers to the acquired link relationship information, and acquires a facility that is linked to the facility that is the key in extracting the direct simultaneous selection relationship. Then, software component groups that access the interlocking facilities are grouped as an indirect simultaneous selection relationship (step 905). Thereafter, step 904 and step 905 are performed for all facilities included in the processing flow information. After performing the above processing, the direct simultaneous selection relationship and the indirect simultaneous selection relationship group are collectively stored in the all product design information DB as an XNOR dependency relationship (step 906). Thereafter, Steps 903 to 906 are executed by the number of product processing flow information.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a flow for extracting an exclusive selection relationship (XOR) as a dependency relationship between software components.

  After starting the execution by the direct dependency extraction unit (step 1001), the interlocking relationship information and the processing negative relationship information are acquired from the all product design information DB (step 1002), and the processing flow information for one product is acquired together. (Step 1003). An applied software component group that is a software component used in the product is extracted from the processing flow information for one product (step 1004). Subsequently, an unapplied software component group that is a software component that is not used in the product is extracted from the entire design information DB (step 1005). A software component pair is created by selecting an arbitrary software component from the applied software component group and the unapplied software component group (step 1006). Among the pairs of software components, a pair in which each software component accesses the same facility is set as a direct exclusive selection candidate (step 1007). Then, with reference to the acquired processing negation relationship information, the processing associated with each software component that is a direct exclusive selection relationship candidate pair is set as a XOR dependency relationship (step 1008).

  Subsequently, the indirect dependency relationship extraction unit refers to the acquired interlocking relationship information, and among the pairs of software components that are not set as the direct exclusive selection relationship in step 1008 among the pairs created in step 1006, respectively. A pair in which the facilities accessed by the software component are linked is set as an indirect exclusive selection relationship (step 1009).

200 ... Software component combination support device,
101 ... Product processing flow information registration unit,
102 ... Product linkage information registration section,
103 ... Product processing negative relation information registration section,
104 ... All product design information DB,
105 ... a direct dependency extraction unit,
106 ... an indirect dependency extraction unit,
107 ... inter-component dependency DB
108 ... dependency connection unit 109 ... combination pattern sort display unit 110 ... component feedback unit

Claims (13)

A method in a software component combination extraction support apparatus for extracting a combination of related software components from among a plurality of software components constituting the equipment control software,
The software component combination extraction support device includes:
Has a product design information database and a direct relationship extractor,
The product design information database is
For each of one or more processes executed by the facility control software, processing flow information in which the process, a software component that executes the process, and a facility on which the software component acts are registered in association with each other,
Have
The direct relationship extraction unit
Obtaining the processing flow information;
Based on the processing flow information, extracting a combination of software components acting on the same equipment from a plurality of software components specified by the processing flow information as a combination of software components in a direct simultaneous selection relationship;
The method characterized by performing. A method according to claim 1, comprising:
The software component combination extraction support device further includes an indirect relationship extraction unit,
The product design information database further includes interlocking relationship information in which one facility operates and the other facility also operates in association with the associated facility,
The indirect relationship extraction unit
Obtaining the processing flow information and the linkage relationship information;
Extracting a combination of software components acting on the facility in the interlocking relationship as a software component in an indirect simultaneous selection based on the interlocking relationship information;
The method characterized by performing. A method in a software component combination extraction support device for extracting a combination of related software components from a plurality of software components constituting equipment control software,
The software component combination extraction support device includes:
Has a product design information database and a direct relationship extractor,
The product design information database is a plurality of equipment control software,
For each of a plurality of processing flow processes executed by the equipment control software, processing flow information in which the software parts that execute the processing and the equipment that the software parts act on are registered in association with each other;
For a plurality of processing flows executed by the facility control software, negative relationship information in which processing that is opposite to the state of the facility that appears as a result of processing is registered in association with each other,
Have
The direct relationship extraction unit includes:
From the processing flow information of one equipment control software among the plurality of equipment control software, a step of extracting a software parts group constituting the one equipment control software to be a first software parts group;
Software components constituting equipment control software other than the one equipment control software among the plurality of equipment control software,
Extracting a software component not included in the first software component group into a second software component group; and
Selecting a software component from each of the first software component group and the second software component group to form a set;
Based on the processing flow information, determining whether software parts constituting the set are software parts that act on the same equipment;
When the software components that make up the set act on the same equipment, based on the negative relationship information, the equipment that appears as a result of processing by the software parts that make up the set is in the opposite relationship. Extracting as related software parts;
The method characterized by performing. A method according to claim 3, comprising:
The software component combination extraction support device further includes an indirect relationship extraction unit,
The product design information database further includes interlocking relationship information in which one facility operates and the other facility also operates in association with the associated facility,
The indirect relationship extraction unit
A step of extracting the software component as a software component having an indirect exclusive selection relationship when the software component constituting the extracted set is a software component acting on the facility having the interlocking relationship based on the interlocking relationship information When,
The method characterized by performing. A method according to claim 2 and claim 4, comprising:
The software component combination extraction support device further includes a dependency connection unit,
The dependency connection part is:
Software component implicit relationship that occurs through two or more relationships that are the same or different in the direct simultaneous selection relationship, the indirect simultaneous selection relationship, the direct exclusive selection relationship, and the indirect exclusive selection relationship Means for extracting,
A software component combination extraction support apparatus characterized by comprising: . A method according to claim 5, comprising:
The software component combination extraction support device further includes a combination display unit,
The combination display section
A newly generated equipment control software receives information on equipment to be controlled and registers it in the product design information database; and
Of the combination of software components satisfying either the direct simultaneous selection relationship, the indirect simultaneous selection relationship, the direct exclusive selection relationship or the indirect exclusive selection relationship, the new facility control software Outputting the combination of the software parts related to the equipment to be controlled in the above as candidates of software parts constituting the newly generated equipment control software;
The method characterized by performing. A method according to claim 6, comprising:
The software component combination extraction support device further includes a component feedback unit,
The component feedback unit is
A method of performing the step of updating the processing flow information by regarding a combination of software components in the direct simultaneous selection relationship as one software component. A method according to claim 7, comprising:
The software component combination extraction support device further includes a product processing flow registration unit,
The product processing flow registration unit
A step of accumulating execution log information including information for identifying the software component executed during the execution of the facility control software and the facility on which the software component has acted;
Generating the processing flow information based on the execution log information;
The method characterized by performing. A software component combination extraction support device for extracting a combination of related software components from among a plurality of software components constituting the equipment control software,
The software component combination extraction support device includes:
Has a product design information database and a direct relationship extractor,
The product design information database is
For each of one or more processes executed by the facility control software, processing flow information in which the process, a software component that executes the process, and a facility on which the software component acts are registered in association with each other,
Have
The direct relationship extraction unit includes:
Means for obtaining the processing flow information;
Based on the processing flow information, means for extracting a combination of software components acting on the same equipment from a plurality of software components specified by the processing flow information as a combination of software components in a direct simultaneous selection relationship;
A software component combination extraction support apparatus, characterized in that A software component combination extraction support device according to claim 9,
The software component combination extraction support device further includes an indirect relationship extraction unit,
The product design information database further includes interlocking relationship information in which one facility operates and the other facility also operates in association with the associated facility,
The indirect relationship extraction unit
Means for acquiring the processing flow information and the interlocking relationship information;
Based on the link relationship information, means for extracting a combination of software components acting on the linked facilities as a software component in an indirect simultaneous selection relationship;
A software component combination extraction support apparatus, characterized in that A software component combination extraction support device that extracts a combination of related software components from a plurality of software components constituting equipment control software,
The software component combination extraction support device includes:
Has a product design information database and a direct relationship extractor,
The product design information database is a plurality of equipment control software,
For each of a plurality of processing flow processes executed by the equipment control software, processing flow information in which the software parts that execute the processing and the equipment that the software parts act on are registered in association with each other;
For a plurality of processing flows executed by the facility control software, negative relationship information in which processing that is opposite to the state of the facility that appears as a result of processing is registered in association with each other,
Have
The direct relationship extraction unit includes:
Means for extracting a software component group constituting the one equipment control software from the processing flow information of one equipment control software among the plurality of equipment control software, and making the first software component group;
Software components constituting equipment control software other than the one equipment control software among the plurality of equipment control software,
Means for extracting a software component not included in the first software component group into a second software component group;
Means for selecting a software component from each of the first software component group and the second software component group,
Based on the processing flow information, means for determining whether software parts constituting the set are software parts acting on the same equipment;
When the software components that make up the set act on the same equipment, based on the negative relationship information, the equipment that appears as a result of processing by the software parts that make up the set is in the opposite relationship. Means for extracting as related software parts;
And a software component combination extraction support apparatus. A software component combination extraction support device according to claim 11,
The software component combination extraction support device further includes an indirect relationship extraction unit,
The product design information database further includes interlocking relationship information in which one facility operates and the other facility also operates in association with the associated facility,
The indirect relationship extraction unit
Means for extracting the software component as a software component having an indirect exclusive selection relationship when the software component constituting the extracted set is a software component acting on the facility having the interlocking relationship based on the linkage relationship information When,
A software component combination extraction support apparatus, characterized in that A software component combination extraction support device according to claim 10 and claim 12,
The software component combination extraction support device further includes a dependency connection unit,
The dependency connection part is:
Software component implicit relationship that occurs through two or more relationships that are the same or different in the direct simultaneous selection relationship, the indirect simultaneous selection relationship, the direct exclusive selection relationship, and the indirect exclusive selection relationship Means for extracting,
A software component combination extraction support apparatus characterized by comprising:

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