Publications – Chair of Software Engineering

@article{DRAGULE2025101330,

title = {Effects of specifying robotic missions in behavior trees and state machines},

author = {Swaib Dragule and Engineer Bainomugisha and Patrizio Pelliccione and Thorsten Berger},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cola.2025.101330},

issn = {2590-1184},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-01-01},

urldate = {2025-01-01},

journal = {Journal of Computer Languages},

volume = {85},

pages = {101330},

abstract = {The task of defining the robot’s mission is moving from professional developers and roboticists to the end-users. Robot missions, traditionally implemented in source code with text-based programming languages, present challenges for non-programmers. To this end, many domain-specific languages (DSLs) have been established in robotics. They are typically built upon an established paradigm, where behavior trees and state machines have become the most popular ones in robotics. These paradigms offer different levels of abstraction and control structures, which promise to improve the comprehension, correctness, and usability of missions. However, so far, there are no evaluation and validation studies to determine the effects of using either paradigm for mission specification by end-users. We present a controlled experiment on the effectiveness and efficiency of these paradigms for specifying robot missions by end-users. It measures mission comprehension, correctness and usability by examining language constructs, documentation, and usage. Our findings indicate that participants rated both paradigms above the neutral midpoint that is, greater than three on a 5-point scale in comprehension, with negligible variance in preference. However, state machine received marginally higher ratings in overall usability. The results further indicate that in the concrete syntax of the DSLs used in the experiments, user interfaces need improvement, more tutorials (including videos/audios) are required. End-users also need basic training in behavior trees, state machines, programming, and robotics. While the DSLs provide reasonable abstraction compared to text-based languages, further refinement is needed to enhance usability and correctness. We discuss actionable insights for improving the usability of behavior trees and state machines in robotics and automation.},

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Jude Gyimah; Jan Sollmann; Ole Schuerks; Patrick Franz; Thorsten Berger

A Demo of ConfigFix: Semantic Abstraction of Kconfig, SAT-based Configuration, and DIMACS Export Proceedings Article

In: 19th International Working Conference on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems (VaMoS), 2025.

Links | BibTeX

2024

Johan Martinson; Wardah Mahmood; Jude Gyimah; Thorsten Berger

FM-PRO: A Feature Modeling Process Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), 2024.

Links | BibTeX

Thorsten Berger; Wardah Mahmood; Johan Martinson; Jude Gyimah

FM-PRO Feature Modeling Process, Technical Documentation Technical Report

2024.

Links | BibTeX

Tabea Viktoria Röthemeyer

Extending Git for Feature-Oriented Software Development Masters Thesis

2024.

Links | BibTeX

Sven Peldszus; Davide Brugali; Daniel Strüber; Patrizio Pelliccione; Thorsten Berger

Software Reconfiguration in Robotics Journal Article

In: Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE) Journal, 2024.

Links | BibTeX

Constanze Ohrem

Development of a DL-Based Classifier for Software Repositories Bachelor Thesis

2024.

Links | BibTeX

Constanze Ohrem

Development of a DL-Based Classifier for Software Repositories Bachelor Thesis

2024.

Links | BibTeX

Markus Krausz; Sven Peldszus; Francesco Regazzoni; Thorsten Berger; Tim Güneysu

120 Domain-Specific Languages for Security Technical Report

2024.

Links | BibTeX

Yorick Sens; Henriette Knopp; Sven Peldszus; Thorsten Berger

A Large-Scale Study of Model Integration in ML-Enabled Software Systems Technical Report

2024.

Links | BibTeX

Hasanain Qaddoori Hussein Al-Aassi

A Controlled Experiment on Using Embedded Annotations for Documenting Feature Locations in Code Masters Thesis

2024.

Links | BibTeX

Ahmad Al Shihabi; Jan Sollmann; Johan Martinson; Wardah Mahmood; Thorsten Berger

An IDE Plugin for Clone Management Proceedings Article

In: 28th ACM International Systems and Software Product Line Conference (SPLC), Demonstrations and Tools, 2024.

BibTeX

Sven Peldszus; Henriette Knopp; Yorick Sens; Thorsten Berger

Towards ML-Integration and Training Patterns for AI-Enabled Systems Proceedings Article

In: AISOLA’23 Post-Proceedings, 2024.

Links | BibTeX

Mariana Hohashvili

HAnS: Feature Visualisation Bachelor Thesis

2024.

Links | BibTeX

Mariana Hohashvili

HAnS: Feature Visualisation Bachelor Thesis

2024.

Links | BibTeX

Wardah Mahmood; Gül Calikli; Daniel Strüber; Ralf Lämmel; Mukelabai Mukelabai; Thorsten Berger

Virtual Platform: Effective and Seamless Variability Management for Software Systems Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), 2024.

BibTeX

Ricardo Caldas; Juan Antonio Piñera García; Matei Schiopu; Patrizio Pelliccione; Genaína Rodrigues; Thorsten Berger

Runtime Verification and Field Testing for ROS-Based Robotic Systems Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), 2024.

Links | BibTeX

Leuson Da Silva; Paulo Borba; Toni Maciel; Wardah Mahmood; Thorsten Berger; Joao Moisakis; Aldiberg Gomes; Vinicius Leite

Detecting Semantic Conflicts with Unit Tests Journal Article

In: Journal of Systems and Software, 2024.

BibTeX

Jacob Krüger; Yi Li; Kirill Lossev; Chenguang Zhu; Marsha Chechik; Thorsten Berger; Julia Rubin

A Meta-Study of Software-Change Intentions Journal Article

In: ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), 2024.

BibTeX

Rodrigo Queiroz; Divit Sharma; Ricardo Caldas; Krzysztof Czarnecki; Sergio García; Thorsten Berger; Patrizio Pelliccione

A Driver-Vehicle Model for ADS Scenario-based Testing Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems (T-ITS), 2024.

Links | BibTeX

Sandra Greiner; Klaus Schmid; Thorsten Berger; Sebastian Krieter; Kristof Meixner

Generative AI And Software Variability – A Research Vision Proceedings Article

In: 18th International Working Conference on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems, 2024.

BibTeX

Samuel Idowu; Yorick Sens; Thorsten Berger; Jacob Krueger; Michael Vierhauser

A Large-Scale Study of ML-Related Python Projects Proceedings Article

In: 39th ACM/SIGAPP Symposium On Applied Computing (SAC), 2024.

BibTeX

Samuel Idowu; Osman Osman; Daniel Strüber; Thorsten Berger

Machine Learning Experiment Management Tools: A Mixed-Methods Empirical Study Journal Article

In: Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE) Journal, 2024.

BibTeX

Mukelabai Mukelabai; Kevin Hermann; Thorsten Berger; Jan-Philipp Steghöfer

FeatRacer: Locating Features Through Assisted Traceability (Summary) Proceedings

2024.

BibTeX

Razan Ghzouli; Thorsten Berger; Einar Broch Johnsen; Andrzej Wasowski; Swaib Dragule

Behavior Trees and State Machines in Robotics Applications (Summary) Proceedings

2024.

BibTeX

Sven Peldszus; Jens Bürger; Jan Jürjens

UMLsecRT: Reactive Security Monitoring of Java Applications With Round-Trip Engineering Journal Article

In: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE), vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 16–47, 2024.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

@article{PBJ2024,

title = {UMLsecRT: Reactive Security Monitoring of Java Applications With Round-Trip Engineering},

author = {Sven Peldszus and Jens Bürger and Jan Jürjens},

url = {https://peldszus.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2024-TSE-UMLsecRT-preprint.pdf},

doi = {10.1109/TSE.2023.3326366},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

journal = {IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE)},

volume = {50},

number = {1},

pages = {16–47},

abstract = {Today's software systems tend to be long-living and often process security-critical data, so keeping up with ever-changing security measures, attacks, and mitigations is critical to maintaining their security. While it has become common practice to consider security aspects during the design of a system, OWASP still identifies insecure design as one of the top 10 threats to security. Furthermore, even if the planned design is secure, verifying that the planned security assumptions hold at run-time and investigating any violations that may have occurred is cumbersome. In particular, the configuration of run-time monitors such as the Java Security Manager, which could enforce design-time security assumptions, is non-trivial and therefore used in practice rarely. To address these challenges, we present UMLsecRT for automatically supporting model-based security engineering with run-time monitoring of design-time security specifications and round-trip engineering for propagating run-time observations to the design level. Following the established security-by-design approach UMLsec, security experts annotate system models with security properties that UMLsecRT automatically synchronizes with corresponding source code annotations for the automatic configuration of UMLsecRT's run-time monitor. To this end, UMLecRT monitors these security properties at run-time without additional effort to specify monitoring policies. Developers can define mitigations for attacks detected at run-time in advance by adjusting the automatically synchronized annotations at implementation time. Triggered by a security violation, UMLsecRT can adapt the design-time models based on run-time findings to facilitate the investigation of security violations. We evaluated UMLsecRT concerning its effectiveness and applicability to security violations extracted from real-world attacks and the DaCapo benchmark, conducted user studies on the usability of the adapted models and the feasibility of UMLsecRT in practice, especially concerning countermeasures, and investigated the scalability of UMLsecRT. To study the applicability of the whole development process, we applied UMLsecRT in two case studies to the Eclipse Secure Storage and the electronic health record system iTrust.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

Today's software systems tend to be long-living and often process security-critical data, so keeping up with ever-changing security measures, attacks, and mitigations is critical to maintaining their security. While it has become common practice to consider security aspects during the design of a system, OWASP still identifies insecure design as one of the top 10 threats to security. Furthermore, even if the planned design is secure, verifying that the planned security assumptions hold at run-time and investigating any violations that may have occurred is cumbersome. In particular, the configuration of run-time monitors such as the Java Security Manager, which could enforce design-time security assumptions, is non-trivial and therefore used in practice rarely. To address these challenges, we present UMLsecRT for automatically supporting model-based security engineering with run-time monitoring of design-time security specifications and round-trip engineering for propagating run-time observations to the design level. Following the established security-by-design approach UMLsec, security experts annotate system models with security properties that UMLsecRT automatically synchronizes with corresponding source code annotations for the automatic configuration of UMLsecRT's run-time monitor. To this end, UMLecRT monitors these security properties at run-time without additional effort to specify monitoring policies. Developers can define mitigations for attacks detected at run-time in advance by adjusting the automatically synchronized annotations at implementation time. Triggered by a security violation, UMLsecRT can adapt the design-time models based on run-time findings to facilitate the investigation of security violations. We evaluated UMLsecRT concerning its effectiveness and applicability to security violations extracted from real-world attacks and the DaCapo benchmark, conducted user studies on the usability of the adapted models and the feasibility of UMLsecRT in practice, especially concerning countermeasures, and investigated the scalability of UMLsecRT. To study the applicability of the whole development process, we applied UMLsecRT in two case studies to the Eclipse Secure Storage and the electronic health record system iTrust.

Sven Peldszus

Security Compliance in Model-Driven Software Development Book Chapter

In: Bodden, Eric; Felderer, Michael; Hasselbring, Wilhelm; Herber, Paula; Koziolek, Heiko; Lilienthal, Carola; Matthes, Florian; Prechelt, Lutz; Rumpe, Bernhard; Schaefer, Ina (Ed.): Ernst Denert Award for Software Engineering 2022: Practice Meets Foundations, pp. 73–104, Springer Nature Switzerland, Cham, 2024, ISBN: 978-3-031-44412-8.

Abstract | Links | BibTeX

@inbook{Peldszus2024,

title = {Security Compliance in Model-Driven Software Development},

author = {Sven Peldszus},

editor = {Eric Bodden and Michael Felderer and Wilhelm Hasselbring and Paula Herber and Heiko Koziolek and Carola Lilienthal and Florian Matthes and Lutz Prechelt and Bernhard Rumpe and Ina Schaefer},

url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44412-8_4},

doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-44412-8_4},

isbn = {978-3-031-44412-8},

year  = {2024},

date = {2024-01-01},

booktitle = {Ernst Denert Award for Software Engineering 2022: Practice Meets Foundations},

pages = {73–104},

publisher = {Springer Nature Switzerland},

address = {Cham},

abstract = {To ensure the security of a software system, it is vital to keep up with changing security precautions, attacks, and mitigations. Although model-based development enables addressing security already at design-time, design models are often inconsistent with the implementation or among themselves. Such inconsistencies hinder the effective realization and verification of secure software systems. In addition, variants of software systems are another burden to developing secure systems. Vulnerabilities must be identified and fixed on all variants or else attackers could be well-guided in attacking unfixed variants. To ensure security in this context, in the thesis (Peldszus, Security Compliance in Model-driven Development of Software Systems in Presence of Long-Term Evolution and Variants. Springer, Berlin; 2022), we present GRaViTY, an approach that allows security experts to specify security requirements on the most suitable system representation. To preserve security, based on continuous automated change propagation, GRaViTY automatically checks all system representations against these security requirements. To systematically improve the object-oriented design of a software-intensive system, GRaViTY provides security-preserving refactorings. For both continuous security compliance checks and refactorings, we show the application to variant-rich software systems. To support legacy systems, GRaViTY allows to automatically reverse-engineer variability-aware UML models and semi-automatically map existing design models to the implementation. Besides evaluations of the individual contributions, we demonstrate applicability of the approach in two real-world case studies, the iTrust electronics health records system and the Eclipse Secure Storage. This book chapter provides a summary of the thesis, focusing on the addressed problems, identified and answered research questions, the general solution, and its application of it to two case studies. For details on the individual solutions, please refer to the thesis and the corresponding publications referenced in this book chapter.},

keywords = {},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inbook}

}

To ensure the security of a software system, it is vital to keep up with changing security precautions, attacks, and mitigations. Although model-based development enables addressing security already at design-time, design models are often inconsistent with the implementation or among themselves. Such inconsistencies hinder the effective realization and verification of secure software systems. In addition, variants of software systems are another burden to developing secure systems. Vulnerabilities must be identified and fixed on all variants or else attackers could be well-guided in attacking unfixed variants. To ensure security in this context, in the thesis (Peldszus, Security Compliance in Model-driven Development of Software Systems in Presence of Long-Term Evolution and Variants. Springer, Berlin; 2022), we present GRaViTY, an approach that allows security experts to specify security requirements on the most suitable system representation. To preserve security, based on continuous automated change propagation, GRaViTY automatically checks all system representations against these security requirements. To systematically improve the object-oriented design of a software-intensive system, GRaViTY provides security-preserving refactorings. For both continuous security compliance checks and refactorings, we show the application to variant-rich software systems. To support legacy systems, GRaViTY allows to automatically reverse-engineer variability-aware UML models and semi-automatically map existing design models to the implementation. Besides evaluations of the individual contributions, we demonstrate applicability of the approach in two real-world case studies, the iTrust electronics health records system and the Eclipse Secure Storage. This book chapter provides a summary of the thesis, focusing on the addressed problems, identified and answered research questions, the general solution, and its application of it to two case studies. For details on the individual solutions, please refer to the thesis and the corresponding publications referenced in this book chapter.