Integrating Software Performance Evaluation in Software-Engineering

During a case study we encountered some problems, which could be solved manually this time, but pose a grand challenge regarding a generally applicable methodology. The case study was about verification and performance evaluation of a Fault Tolerant Computer (FTC) System to be employed in the International Space Station (ISS). Four different specifications of the FTC had to be developped for different purposes (chronologically ordered): the informal specification (Data Flow Diagram), OCCAM code (implementation), a CSP model (deadlock-analysis), and a GSPN-model for performance evaluation. Each model has been derived from the predecessors, mostly manually. This was an enduring and error-prone process, for which an integrated methodology should be developed. Why this is urgently necessary, and why this is a challenge and what steps might lead to a possible solution, these questions will be answered in this paper.