Ontology-based software development : semantically enhanced information management and software component reuse in the air traffic management industry

Abstract

This thesis addresses the reusability challenge to reuse software components across various domains. By using ontology-based technologies, software development costs shall be lowered and the semantic interoperability gap shall be closed. The main goal is to improve the quality of the software products in order to save costs. Ontology-Based Software Development tries to address significant problems of traditional software development in order to improve the code quality and to avoid redundant development. It focuses on improving efficiency and increasing the code reusability. The thesis follows the design science research paradigm to answer the defined research questions. Domain-specific development leads to similar software solutions for different areas. Usually this raises the costs for efficient software development and increases the time-to-market. The motivation for this thesis is to show the benefits of an ontology-based methodology to enhance software development with semantic technologies and further, to avoid redundant development of similar software-components within large companies. To meet the requirements, state-of-the-art information management techniques are evaluated and picked to conquer the reusability challenge. The operational context and the special requirements, a safety critical environment is accompanied by, are described. The Ontology-Based Software Development life-cycle is outlined in detail including the methodology, semantic concept, and techniques for the underlying processes. The semantic information is captured in models which are then transferred into the solution model. The various roles and responsibilities which are required by the different processes are mentioned. The key principles used to design the knowledge base are described. The ontology mediation further details the reasoning, the semantic mapping and the semantic description transformation process. This thesis examines if ontology-based development methods are capable of reusing software components efficiently. A case study was carried out to evaluate and analyze the differences between classical development processes and the newly introduced concept. The evaluation framework is intended to provide evaluation measurements with appropriate metrics, which should enable an assessment of the presented approach. The goal is to incorporate feedback from the evaluation into the Ontology-Based Software Development processes in order improve the existing processes.