Improvement of Competitiveness by Distributed Component-Based Development of Embedded Software

Project Description  Partners Events/Meetings Documents Related Links Deliverables

The DISCOMP project (IST-1999-21100) is supported by the Information Societies Technology Programme of the European Community Fifth Framework Programme

The main objective of the DISCOMP project is the introduction of a new software engineering (SE) methodology at SAM and ATB regarding a distributed software development process, which will enable the achievement of a higher extendibility, modifiability and a more efficient maintenance of embedded software for sensor based measurement systems (e.g. hydrographic surveying systems). The component based development and object oriented (CBD/OO) SE methods and tools are promising approaches to achieve these requirements.

The proposed best practice action focuses on the single, most critical step in this improvement process: The selection, introduction and testing of the CBD/OO methods and tools for the design and implementation of the software modules for sensor based measurement systems.

Based on the above considerations the following technical objectives of the DISCOMP project can be defined:

• to investigate and select an appropriate component based distributed design approach using OO principles regarding software for embedded systems
• to select an appropriate tool-set supporting a component based distributed design
• to apply internet based communication technologies for distributed development satisfying confidentiality constraints
• to test the application of the selected method/tool-set for the design and implementation of a restricted number of software modules in hydrographic surveying systems
• to test the extendibility, modifiability and maintainability of the modules whose development was based on the introduced distributed CBD SE technology and compare these features with those presented by modules whose development was based on a classical functional approach, actually applied in the scope of the baseline project.

The long-term objective of the DISCOMP project is to provide a clear assessment and judgement, regarding the efficiency and both the technical and commercial benefits of the selected and distributed SE method/tools for both partners involved in the project. This will serve as a basis for the definition of the detailed migration path to establish the component based development SE methodology in co-operation with third parties and sensor vendors for the entire SAM enterprise, to guarantee on a long-term basis the maximum use of geographical distributed competencies and resources. This will also increase the SE competence of ATB as a co-operation partner for SAM and other industrial partners active in embedded software development.

The DISCOMP project has been successfully finished in June 2002.