Gradual transition towards autonomic software systems based on high-level communication specification

ABSTRACT

While management of today's software systems is usually performed by humans using some user interface (UI), autonomic systems would be self-managed. They would typically consist of a managed element, which provides actual system functionality, and an autonomic manager performing system management. However, truly self-managed systems are hard to achieve and not (yet) in wide-spread use. During the transition towards autonomic software systems it is more realistic to manage a large and complex software system partly by humans and partly by an autonomic manager. For facilitating this approach, the communication between the managed element and human administrators on the one hand and the communication between the managed element and the autonomic manager on the other, should be unified and specified on the same semantic level. However, there is no scientific basis for such a unified communication approach.

We present a unified specification of this communication in a high-level discourse model based on insights from theories of human communication. This approach would make this communication "natural" for humans to define and to understand. In addition, we propose to use the same specification for the automated generation of user interfaces for management by human administrators. As a consequence, a smooth and gradual transition towards self-managed software systems will be facilitated, where the portion managed by human administrators becomes smaller and smaller.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

Additional Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS

General Terms:
Design, Management

Keywords:
autonomic computing, interaction modeling, self-managing systems