IT System Design

Week 1-2: Foundations of systems engineering; Requirements engineering

Concepts of model based systems engineering (development processes, requirements, languages, models, verification and validation), engineering processes (V model vs. agile development), dependability.

Functional and extrafunctional requirements: modeling and analysis. Concept of traceability.

Week 3-4: Structural and behavioral modeling,

Structural models: architecture and component design, well-formedness constraints, interface and datatype design, inter-component communication paths, code generators for static models  

Behavioral models: state-based behavioral models of components, dataflow models, scenarios; code generators for behavioral models.

Week 5-6: Platform and Infrastructure modeling 

Platform and infrastructure models: Component based integration techniques, system partitioning, infrastructure models, distributed architectures, Modern platforms (case studies): AUTOSAR, MARTE, Cloud

Foundations of fault tolerance – fault, error, failure, availability vs reliability, types and role of redundancy, fault-tolerant design patterns, links with deployment

Week 7-8: Extrafunctional analysis and optimization, Modell-driven deployment

Model-driven deployment: addressing extrafunctional requirements (performance, throughput, capacity estimation, resource allocation, timeliness: WCET, schedulability, availability, optimization), robust partitioning, automated synthesis of deployment descriptors and configuration files

Week 9-10: System verification and validation 

Testing of critical components: unit testing (JUnit), static source code analysis (FindBugs, PolySpace), isolation (stub, mock), test coverage (MC/DC).

Model based test design (integration, function, extrafunctional): static consistency checks (completeness, consistency, determinism), statemachine based test generation and verification techniques.

Week 11-12: Model transformation and code generation

Model transformation: role and categorization, main approaches, graph based techniques.

Code generators: categorization, template based code generators (e.g. Acceleo / Xtend).

Week 13-14: Case studies

Model based engineering in critical embedded systems (e.g. automotive, avionics, cyber-physical systems)

Engineering and deployment of business-critical systems

Practice lessons:

Students will need to design a complex system including the following phases: 

·         Requirements analysis: capturing requirements, traceability.

·         System modeling: structural and behavioral models.

·         Platform and infrastructure models

·         Model-driven deployment

·         Model based testing

·         Code generation and model transformation.

During practice lessons, consultation will be offered to students to assist them completing their homework assignment.