A notion of a system pattern (tri-integration) and its instantiation in enterprise application development

How to develop reusable software still needs research. Broadly, there are two approaches to software development: masterplan and piecemeal growth. This thesis investigates how a system pattern can help software development according to a piecemeal growth approach. Firstly, a new concept for software development, a system pattern, is proposed. It describes a particular recurring development problem that arises in specific application contexts, and presents a generic framework for its solution. The solution framework is specified by describing its constituent components, their responsibilities and relationships, the ways in which they collaborate, the range from architectural level to idiom level and the method for their construction. Secondly, a unified pattern, Tri-Integration pattern, is defined as a system pattern to build an integrated, secure and expandable network application system. The pattern has three elements: Service, Component and Data. It presents a system-level solution through service integration, component integration and data integration. Service integration represents a mechanism that can integrate various services into one application system; component integration supports the development and deployment of application components using well-designed construction methods; data integration can compose all separate data in a resource repository that may be distributed between different machines. Thirdly, a software platform based on the Tri-Integration Pattern was developed successfully to accelerate and extend practical software development. Several system tools were integrated with the platform. Through case studies in three typical domains and extensive usage of the software platform, the usefulness and success of the Tri-Integration pattern design and its applications are vindicated. The proposed system pattern is thus consider to provide valuable assistance in software development, especially in helping support the development of complex, large-scale systems and in supporting effective industrial software production and the integration of application systems.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

PhD

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

De Montfort University

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Zhou, Hua

Licence

• https://dora.dmu.ac.uk/bitstreams/d6972734-1011-4027-a6e3-8a505d4cbaae/download