An approach to resource modelling in support of the life cycle engineering of enterprise systems

Enterprise modelling can facilitate the design, analysis, control and construction of contemporary enterprises which can compete in world-wide Product markets. This research involves a systematic study of enterprise modelling with a particular focus on resource modelling in support of the life cycle engineering of enterprise systems. This led to the specification and design of a framework for resource modelling. This framework was conceived to: classify resource types; identify the different functions that resource modelling can support, with respect to different life phases of enterprise systems; clarify the relationship between resource models and other modelling perspectives provide mechanisms which link resource models and other types of models; identify guidelines for the capture of information - on resources, leading to the establishment of a set of resource reference models. The author also designed and implemented a resource modelling tool which conforms to the principles laid down by the framework. This tool realises important aspects of the resource modeffing concepts so defined. Furthermore, two case studies have been carried out. One models a metal cutting environment, and the other is based on an electronics industry problem area. In this way, the feasibility of concepts embodied in the framework and the design of the resource modelling tool has been tested and evaluated. Following a literature survey and preliminary investigation, the CIMOSA enterprise modelling and integration methodology was adopted and extended within this research. Here the resource modelling tool was built by extending SEWOSA (System Engineering Workbench for Open System Architecture) and utilising the CIMBIOSYS (CINI-Building Integrated Open SYStems) integrating infrastructure. The main contributions of the research are that: a framework for resource modelling has been established; means and mechanisms have been proposed, implemented and tested which link and coordinate different modelling perspectives into an unified enterprise model; the mechanisms and resource models generated by this research support each Pfe phase of systems engineering projects and demonstrate benefits by increasing the degree to which the derivation process among models is automated

Capturing ergonomics requirements in the global automotive industry

This thesis examines the issues surrounding the collection and dissemination of customer ergonomics requirements in the automotive industry. The aim of the research is to develop a Toolset of methods, known as the Lifestyle Scenario Toolset, for gathering customer requirements in overseas markets, and for presenting the information collected to design teams, taking a user-centred design approach. The Toolset was developed and evaluated with the co-operation of employees from a major UK automotive company. Four studies were conducted, the first comprised a series of interviews to establish the needs of both the data gatherers and data users for a Toolset of methods to collect and communicate overseas customer information. The data gatherers were drawn from the company's Market Researchers, Ergonomists and people responsible for the company's overseas operations. The data users were the design team responsible for the development of the company's next generation 4X4 vehicle. Results showed that the data collection tools which formed part I of the Toolset should be quick to use, require no ergonomics expertise to implement and be cost effective to use. The interviews with data users identified the need for tools which could communicate customer ergonomics requirements to them in a way which fitted in with their current working practices. In addition the tools needed to communicate information in language which was familiar to the design team, and be visually based where possible. The second study explored the development of suitable data collection tools for inclusion in the Lifestyle Scenario Toolset. Building on the needs identified in the first study together with information from the current literature a number of data collection tools were developed for inclusion in part I of the Lifestyle Scenario Toolset. These tools were a questionnaire, driving diary and photographs, focus group, ergonomics audit and background information tool. The tools were designed to collect a range of different data types, e.g. qualitative, quantitative, pictorial and customer verbatims, to provide a rich picture of users and their activities. The tools were used in a field trial to collect data from overseas customers about their ergonomics requirements and the tasks they carried out using their vehicle, in the context of their lifestyle. The third study focused on the development of a set of tools to communicate the data collected in part 1 of the Toolset, to the design team who would use it in their work. The data communication tools were developed to provide information to design teams at a number of levels, enabling them to use the data at an appropriate level for their needs. High level summaries of each of the tools were developed and scenarios presented on storyboards were used to integrate information from all of the data collection tools to provide detailed information about customers' ergonomics requirements and lifestyle. The data communication tools also used a variety of data types and presentation mediums, such as pictures, graphs and customer quotes to increase the richness of the data presented. The fourth study involved the evaluation of the suitability of the Toolset for collecting and communicating overseas customer ergonomics requirements. The data gatherers, and data users (design team) carried out a field trial using the Toolset to establish its usefulness to them in their work. The results of the evaluation showed that the data gatherers found the Toolset easy to implement and were able to use it to pick up overseas customers ergonomics requirements. The communication tools were able to provide the design team with new and useful customer ergonomics information, in a range of formats which they felt comfortable using in their work. The implementation of a user-centred design approach to the development of methods for collecting and communicating overseas customer ergonomics requirements enabled the creation of a Toolset which met the needs of the people who will use it. This increased its acceptance by people in the company and thus the likelihood of the Lifestyle Scenario Toolset's continued use within the company

State Event Models for the Formal Analysis of Human-Machine Interactions

The work described in this paper was motivated by our experience with applying a framework for formal analysis of human-machine interactions (HMI) to a realistic model of an autopilot. The framework is built around a formally defined conformance relation called "fullcontrol" between an actual system and the mental model according to which the system is operated. Systems are well-designed if they can be described by relatively simple, full-control, mental models for their human operators. For this reason, our framework supports automated generation of minimal full-control mental models for HMI systems, where both the system and the mental models are described as labelled transition systems (LTS). The autopilot that we analysed has been developed in the NASA Ames HMI prototyping tool ADEPT. In this paper, we describe how we extended the models that our HMI analysis framework handles to allow adequate representation of ADEPT models. We then provide a property-preserving reduction from these extended models to LTSs, to enable application of our LTS-based formal analysis algorithms. Finally, we briefly discuss the analyses we were able to perform on the autopilot model with our extended framework

Development of a software safety process and a case study of its use

The goal of this research is to continue the development of a comprehensive approach to software safety and to evaluate the approach with a case study. The case study is a major part of the project, and it involves the analysis of a specific safety-critical system from the medical equipment domain. The particular application being used was selected because of the availability of a suitable candidate system. We consider the results to be generally applicable and in no way particularly limited by the domain. The research is concentrating on issues raised by the specification and verification phases of the software lifecycle since they are central to our previously-developed rigorous definitions of software safety. The theoretical research is based on our framework of definitions for software safety. In the area of specification, the main topics being investigated are the development of techniques for building system fault trees that correctly incorporate software issues and the development of rigorous techniques for the preparation of software safety specifications. The research results are documented. Another area of theoretical investigation is the development of verification methods tailored to the characteristics of safety requirements. Verification of the correct implementation of the safety specification is central to the goal of establishing safe software. The empirical component of this research is focusing on a case study in order to provide detailed characterizations of the issues as they appear in practice, and to provide a testbed for the evaluation of various existing and new theoretical results, tools, and techniques. The Magnetic Stereotaxis System is summarized

Supporting ergonomics in concept design

Supporting ergonomics in concept desig