
This is the help for STAR. 

XOMO [1] is the initial tool which inspired this one. These two tools
both aim at minimizing Effort, Defects, and Threat based on the COCOMO
II [2], Coqualmo, and Threat Models [3] for given project parameters
that are based on these models. However, the two tools take two 
differet approaches for tackling the same problem. While XOMO uses 
Tar3 treatment learning [4], STAR uses simulated annealing [5], 
combined with best or rest discretization (bore) and a linear back 
select algorithm to show the best treatments that can be chosen (i.e. 
the ones discarded last in the back select process). The temperature 
of the SA algorithm is set to exp(A*k/kmax), where kmax is the maximum 
number if iterations allowed, k is the number of iterations so far, 
and A is a constant that is chosen.

The following are options allowed with this version of STAR:

	Option		Description
	------		-----------
	-sim or -SIM	Used in the form of "-sim [value]" to
			determine simulation count during the
			backselect process
						
	-ex or EX	To enable extreme sampling.

	-run or RUN	To indicate run number.

	-al or -AL	To set the weight for the COCOMO II effort
			model (default = 1). This is followed by the
			desired weight in the form of -al [value].

	-be or -BE	To set the weight for the COQUALMO defects
			model (default = 1). This is followed by the
			desired weight in the form of -be [value].

	-ga or -GA	To set the weight for the threat model 
			(default = 1). This is followed by the desired
			weight in the form of -ga [value].

	-de or -DE	To set the weight for the months model 
			(default = 1). This is followed by the
			desired weight in the form of -de [value].

	-rd or -RD	To set the weight between reliability and  
			defects model (default = 1.8). This is followed
			by the desired weight in the form of -rd
			[value].
			
	-cf or -CF	To set the cooling factor used in Simulated
			Annealing (default = -10). This is followed
			by the desired value in the form of -cf
			[value]. Note that this needs to be a 
			negative number.

	-n or -N	Bore for worst: This allows the user to get the
			worst treatments instead of the best.

	-h or -H	To display this help file and exit.

	-l or -L	To enable commandline output of the results

	-png or -PNG	To enable outputting graphs in *.png format

	-er or -ER	To enable energy ranking. The default ranking
			method is Baysian.
	
	-lc or -LC	To output individual simulations within
			back-select runs

	-or or -OR	To output individual back-select runs

	-f or -F 	Used in the form of -f [project name], this 
			indicates the project being analyzed. This
			option must be included for STAR to work.
			Also, both the *.values and *.ranges for
			the project files must be in the STAR_projects
			folder.

	-b or -B	Used in the form of "-b [value]". Sets the
			ratio that bore will use for discretization.

	-e or -E	Used in the form of "-e [value]". Sets the
			min energy threshhold for simulated annealing.

	-k or -K	Used in the form of "-k [value]". Sets the
			max number of iterations for simulated annealing.

	-pol or -POL	Used to specify the back-select policy in the
			form of -pol [policy name].

	-st or -ST	Used to specify the Hoh in strategy in the
			form of -st [strategy name].

	-bf or -BF	Better/Faster

	-fc or -FC	Faster/Cheaper

	-bc or -BC	Better/Cheaper

There are several files included with STAR. The following is a brief
description of each: 

	File Name		Description
	---------		-----------
	graph			This is a bash script that uses
				generated simulation data to produce
				plots in the command line shell.

	graphPNG		This is a bash script that uses
				generated simulation data to produce
				plots in *.png format.

	/eg			This folder contains sample bash
				scripts of running STAR.

	/STAR_projects		This folder contains project files.
				Note that for a single project, the
				ranges and values files are in the form
				"[Project Name].ranges" and "[Project
				Name].values".

	/policies		Contains all the policy files.

Inorder to get started simply make. All the needed files will be in 
$HOME/STAR/, while the executable will be in $HOME/bin. The following is 
an example:

	STAR -pol strategic -l -f ground

After running STAR, plots will be dumped onto the command line. 
Note: gnuplot is needed for this.

References:
-----------
[1] T. Menzies. RST milestone 1.1.5.9: Applying trade space analysis to
recommend CEV/CLV options for SW capabilities and development of
processes and toolshttp://menzies.us/pdf/06xomo202.pdf

[2] B. Boehm, E. Horowitz, R. Madachy, D. Reifer, B. K. Clark, B.
Steece, A. W. Brown, S. Chulani, and C. Abts. Software Cost Estimation
with Cocomo II. Prentice Hall, 2000

[3] R. Madachy. Heuristic risk assessment using cost factors. IEEE
Software, 14(3):51–59, May 1997

[4] T. Menzies and Y. Hu. Data mining for very busy people. In IEEE
Computer, November 2003. Available from
http://menzies.us/pdf/03tar2.pdf

[5] S. Kirkpatrick and C. D. Gelatt and M. P. Vecchi, Optimization by
Simulated Annealing, Science, Vol 220, Number 4598, pages 671-680,
1983.
