Incremental Product Release of Java Applications using Dynamic Updates

Despite all the advances that have been made in the field of software development, a software product can still be in need of changes after the delivery. The maintenance and update process of an application have traditionally involved the classic halt, redeploy and restart scheme. However for some companies the cost of a system shutdown can be prohibitive in terms of economic outlay, safety and availability of service. A Dynamic Software Updating system (DSU) allows overcoming the update problem enabling applications to be updated without recurring to the halt-update-redeploy scheme. In this work we examine a software-based DSU system called Javeleon, developed at the University of Southern Denmark – Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Institute by Allan Raundahl Gregersen, Professor Bo Nørregaard Jørgensen and Michael Rasmussen. Following the evolution of a case study application we will show how the capability of dynamically updating software with Javeleon impacts on the software development process.