FESAS IDE: An Integrated Development Environment for Autonomic Computing

While Autonomic Computing can ease the maintenance of systems through adaptations [1], the development of Autonomic Computing systems itself introduces a high complexity. Literature suggests that reusable processes for the development and reusable components in the adaptation logic can reduce the complexity. Existing approaches aim to reduce this complexity with tools and frameworks for specific tasks in the development of the adaptation logic of Autonomic Computing systems. However, to the best of our knowledge, none of these approaches offer an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for it. In this paper, we extend FESAS - our framework for building reusable adaptation logic components - with Eclipse plug-ins integrated into the FESAS IDE for a simplified development of MAPE components as well as a process for deployment of the components. In this paper, we present these tools. Further, we evaluate their potential to ease the development of self-adaptive systems within five example cases. Last, we discuss the benefits and limitations of the FESAS IDE.