CpSc 875

Exam 2

Name______________________________________________

Answer any FOUR of the five questions. Place a large X on the page for the question you are not answering. If you answer all five, I will not count the one on which you did the best. All questions are counted the same: 25 points each. Be certain to answer ALL parts of the questions you select to answer. When a question refers to either the architecture you developed in the project or specific examples that we developed in class, be certain to answer using the correct system. You are allowed the notes you have taken and handouts.

a. What types of attributes does a cyber-physical system possess that the typical data processing system does not have?

b. The uncertainty record in a ReqSpec requirement has 2 fields: volatility and impact. Explain what each means in this context.

c. There are product-based approaches and process-based approaches to evaluating a system. Explain the difference between these two approaches.

a. Explain the purpose of evidence in an assurance case. Give at least 2 examples of evidence.

b. Explain the DIFFERENCE between an AADL connection and a flow.

c. AADL is a standard and there are thousands of software engineering standards. Developing a standard is an expensive process. What is the value of a standard that offsets the cost of its creation?

a. Explain the relationship between the module view and the component/connector view for architecture documentation.

b. Errors are incorrect flows or values in an architecture. Error propagation occurs when errors from one element affect another element. What can the architect do to identify error propagation as early as possible? What tool did we use to automate this?

c. A layered architecture has constraints intended to prevent cycles among architectural elements. What is detrimental about having cycles?

a. An architecture can be chosen to support a business strategy. The platform strategy is used by organizations such as Eclipse. Describe how the architecture looks to realize a platform that supports multiple similar products.

b. What AADL constructs are used to derive a product architecture from a reference architecture?

c. Explain the difference between extensibility and flexibility.

a. The behavior of a system (both nominal and error) is often partitioned into a set of states (or modes). How is the architecture improved by this action?

b. Describe the actions taken to derive a product architecture from a reference architecture.

c. Both the quality attribute workshop and the ATAM include human discussion and voting. What part of the process is intended to overcome human bias and misconceptions?