By invitation only.

The purpose of the workshop is to explore new directions for a science of design for large software-intensive systems facilitated by modeling and simulation (M&S). To do this, researchers in the theory, concepts and methodologies of M&S will meet with counterparts in software development to consider how the disparate elements that exist today can be integrated and further developed into a robust of science of large systems design.

A two-day workshop, by invitation only, will be held in Tucson, Arizona on Dec 3-4 in the neighborhood of the University of Arizona. The workshop format, with approximately 30 participants, will provide a cordial environment that is conducive to free and open exchange of software and system design approaches and examples of large software-intensive design issues to challenge these approaches. The workshop will be centered on three, inter-related, themes:

• Specific design issues characteristic of large software-intensive systems
• Current approaches to design of such systems
• Emerging approaches: toward a science of software-intensive system design

The National Science Foundation Advanced Networking Infrastructure Research Program (NSF/ANIR)

The workshop is organized by:

• The Society for Modeling and Simulation International
• The Arizona Center for Integrative Modeling and Simulation
• High Performance Distributed Computing Lab
• Secure Network Systems Design Laboratory
• Computer Engineering Research Lab
  

Bernard Zeigler : Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Arizona, co-Director of ACIMS .

Salim Hariri : Associate Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Arizona, Director of HPDC Lab .

Hessam Sarjoughian : Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, Arizona State University. co-Director of ACIMS .

Sumit Ghosh , Hatrick Professor , Stevens Institute, Director of SENDLAB

Kevin McNeill, Research Associate Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Arizona. Co-director of CERL

Gabriel Wainer , Assistant Professor, Systems and Computer Engineering, Carlton University

Phillip Hammonds, NGIT  Team Technical Lead, JITC

The results of the workshop will be compiled into a report that will help determine NSF's funding initiatives in software development and modeling and simulation (see for example, a report from prior workshops on Ultra-large Networks.)

Moore's law of exponentially expanding computational and networking infrastructure is fueling a trend toward ever-larger software structures to drive business, science, and military systems Software-intensive systems such as future military systems-of-systems seek to employ software to implement highly integrated and capable command, control and intelligence functionalities. Unfortunately, the science of system design has lagged behind to guide the development of such software-intensive systems. Techniques that work for small software systems fail markedly when the scale is increased by one million fold.

Symptomatic of the lack of well founded design principles is the abundance of examples of projects that cost a lot but fail to meet their objectives. Many issues arise in the design of such large, highly decentralized, collections of interacting parts. The increased connectivity and capability create new complexity that is difficult to control and dynamics that are difficult to predict. Computer-based modeling and simulation (M&S) methodology is required to address these issues since the scale is well beyond what analytical tools alone can handle and there is limited ability to do controlled experiments. Large software-intensive systems demand new M&S approaches for understanding the dynamic behaviors of very large inter-connected networks with very few loci of control and many interacting components.

As detailed in recent DOD-sponsored reports, M&S, when properly performed through various stages of the software-intensive system design lifecycle, can provide effective assistance in formulating the system's capabilities, predicting and comparing the cost/benefit ratios of its various alternative architectures, and evaluating its achieved functional effectiveness. However, to date, the development of simulation systems has become highly costly, yielding unwieldy, unreliable, and non-reusable artifacts. Reuse of off-the-shelf packages is extremely limited, in part, because their experimentation specifications, models and simulations, and are too tightly coupled.. This lack of transparency and modularity makes it extremely unlikely that one will be able to match one's currently needed functionality with that of the off-the-shelf package in each of the three dimensions.

The goal of the proposed workshop is to explore directions for a science of M&S-based design for large software-intensive systems. To do this researchers in the theory and formalisms of M&S will be brought together with researchers in software development concepts and methodologies. The discussion will center on integrating technical, infrastructure, and pragmatic elements into coherent basis for a science of large software-intensive systems.

Among the technical elements to be considered for their contribution to a science of design are:

• Spiral development , a normative, flexible, risk-driven process model that is used to guide multiple stakeholders through concurrent engineering of software-intensive systems. Model-Based (system) Architecting and Software Engineering (MBASE) is a recent extension of the spiral model with the goals of tailoring a project's balance of discipline and flexibility via risk considerations.
  
  
• Formal methods including the possibilities of "lightweight" variants that allow for inclusion of informal elements trading rigor for expressibility. Also, for large systems, a single, complete specification may not be possible and it may be more productive to compose many partial but appropriately abstracted specifications to allow some analysis of properties.
  
  
• Architectural principles that provide uniform structures with known properties to organize the complexity of large systems. Architectural styles, design patterns and Unified Modeling Language constructs provide instances of such principles

Among the infrastructure elements are

• Simulation and Execution Infrastructure provide the means by which software-intensive systems are designed and executed. Executable specifications and model continuity concepts are allowing greater linkage between phases of development with great potential reduced cycle time and increased quality.
  
  
• Modeling of Dynamic Systems - large software-intensive systems multiply the dynamic system complexities encountered by today's real-time control and embedded systems. Dynamic systems modeling formalisms enable specifying both system structure and the environments in which can be tested.
  
  
• Knowledge, Intelligence and Logic are the essential ingredients of emerging large software-intensive systems. Future system developments such as reliable and trusted Cyberinfratructure, critical infrastructure protection, global financial processing and military systems-of-systems all will intrinsically incorporate artificial intelligence, knowledge based approaches and classical and model logic-based data manipulation schemes.

Among the pragmatic elements are

• Education is the basis by which any theory of design that emerges will be promulgated to form the greatly-improved software practice of the future.
  
  
• Research is needed to foster examination of basic software practices and principles, to create new integration frameworks, and to test these out in scientific ways.
  
  
• Practice is the source of issues to be considered in theory development and the ultimate test of success for new theoretical frameworks.

Invited participants with expertise in these elements will share their knowledge and insights with the group. The discussion will then center on integrating technical, infrastructure, and pragmatic elements into coherent basis for a science of design of large software-intensive systems.

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Vaughn, Rayford and George Vinu, "Application of Lightweight Formal Methods in Requirement Engineering", CrossTalk 2003

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