[Pgi-wg] OGF PGI Software Engineering Use Case Template

[Etienne URBAH]

Johannes, Morris and all,


Short summary
-------------
The OGSA-based 'PGI Use Case Template' is trash.  Forget it.

I propose a 'PGI Software Engineering Use Case Template' (based on 
Wikipedia work) at http://forge.gridforum.org/sf/go/doc16024?nav=1

Are you ready to invest your work into professional Software Engineering ?


Detailed argumentation
----------------------
As promised, I have studied the 'PGI Use Case Template' based on the 
OGSA template.


Regrettably, this OGSA-based template :

-  puts the focus on 'Customers', which are very specific roles, and and 
more useful in 'for-profit business' than in 'scientific data processing',

-  puts the focus on 'Scenarios', which is a plural, whereas best 
practice is to describe in detail only the primary scenario,

-  puts the focus on 'Applications', whereas for Service Grids, an 
Application is just one of the several files given as input to an Activity,

-  puts the focus on 'Involved resources', which are internal to the 
system, and MUST STAY HIDDEN following the very basic OO principle of 
ENCAPSULATION,

-  forgets to request the definition of the SYSTEM and the description 
of its BOUNDARIES, whereas such definition and description is a core 
issue for Distributed Data Processing,

-  forgets to request the definition of preconditions (apart security, 
which is mentioned only after the scenario(s) which uses the security 
context).

So, this template is perhaps suited for dissemination and for submission 
of 'papers', but NOT AT ALL for professional Software Engineering.

This is perhaps one of the causes of the very moderate success of OGSA.

Therefore, writing comments inside this OGSA-based template in the hope 
of improving it would be a complete waste of time.


Instead, I have used http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_case as basis to 
write my own proposal, which I call 'PGI Software Engineering Use Case 
Template', and is available at 
http://forge.gridforum.org/sf/go/doc16024?nav=1

The goal of this template is professional Software Engineering, 
permitting technical understanding, technical criticism and technical 
improvement.
Therefore, the focus is NOT AT ALL on the scientific applications, but 
on the precise definition of :
- The boundaries of the system for which the 'Use Case' captures one 
behavior,
- The list of actors, stakeholders, participants, roles,
- The detailed description of the primary scenario of interactions 
between the actors and the system.

The Use Cases which I already published as simple text already contain 
most of the information required by this professional Software 
Engineering template.  I will easily reformat them accordingly.


This 'PGI Software Engineering Use Case template' is to be improved.  Do 
not hesitate to provide comments and suggestions.


Best regards.

-----------------------------------------------------
Etienne URBAH         LAL, Univ Paris-Sud, IN2P3/CNRS
                       Bat 200   91898 ORSAY    France
Tel: +33 1 64 46 84 87      Skype: etienne.urbah
Mob: +33 6 22 30 53 27      mailto:urbah at lal.in2p3.fr
-----------------------------------------------------


On Thu, 08/07/2010 19:45, Etienne URBAH wrote:
> OGF PGI telephone conference on 2010-07-08
> ------------------------------------------
>
> ...
>
> Everyone can add comments to the template for Use Cases
> http://forge.gridforum.org/sf/go/doc16013?nav=1
> - Etienne will add some comments
>
> Following people should upload their Use Cases following the template to
> GridForge
> http://forge.gridforum.org/sf/docman/do/listDocuments/projects.pgi-wg/docman.root.input_documents.use_cases
> :
> - Emmanouil for Globus
> - Luigi for gLite
> - Morris for Unicore
>
> Following people should convert their Use Cases according to the
> provided template :
> - Etienne for EDGI
> - Aleksandr for ARC
>
> Next OGF PGI telephone conference on Thursday 2010-07-15 at 15h30 CET

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