An Embedded Domain Specific Language to Model, Transform and Quality Assure Business Processes in Business-Driven Development

Business process models are produced by business analysts to graphically communicate the business requirements to IT specialists. As business processes are updated to meet the new demands in the competitive market, the underlying IT solution is adapted, to reflect precisely the current goals of the organisation. The models should then act as an abstract representation of the solution. It is essential to adapt to Business-Driven Development (BDD), whereby models are refined into the IT solution and implemented in a Service-Oriented Architecture. This means that models must be free from data and control-flow errors, such as deadlocks. If models are not quality assured at the modelling phase, errors would be discovered later and the entire BDD lifecycle would have to be repeated. Combining model transformations with quality assurance would help modellers to preserve the correctness of models and rapidly carry out modifications. Although various modelling languages have been developed to assist modellers in the production of high quality business process models, none of them adopted a functional approach, based on higher-order logic. As BDD is being adopted by most organisations, the need for such a language is becoming more evident. Since specialized functionality is required, a general-purpose language is not really necessary. Instead, a domain-specific language which provides the right abstraction and captures precisely the semantics of the business process modelling domain, should be developed. The definitions of the models would be easy to comprehend and reason about, by anyone who is not necessarily an IT specialist. However, since languages are made up of domain independent and dependent linguistic components, it is more cost effective and feasible to embed the new language in a general-purpose language. In this project we present a domain specific language embedded in the functional language, Haskell, to model, transform and quality assure business processes in Business-Driven Development. By adopting a functional approach, we developed a language: 1) with which various models can rapidly be produced in a concise and abstract manner, 2) allows users to focus on the required behaviour rather than its implementation, 3) ensures that all the required details, to generate the executable code, are specified, 4) the abstract representation can be interpreted, analysed and transformed in various ways, 5) quality assures models by carrying out three types of checks; by Haskell’s type checker, at construction-time through our embedded type system, and by specialised functions that analyse the components in the model. By embedding our language in Haskell, the models, quality assurance checks and transformations are essentially functions which can easily be composed and defined. Connection patterns, defined in the language, play an important role to ensure that definitions are concise, readable and easy to comprehend. Different from other previous modelling tools, users are able to define their own parameterized models and transformations. By generating a directed graph for the models, various types of analysis can be carried out with greater ease. Moreover, quality assurance can be combined to model transformations by declaratively defining pre and post conditions for each transformation. These conditions as well as transformations can easily be composed of other previously defined checks or transformations. With this language, we aim to capture the domain semantics of IBM’s WebSphere Business Modeler Advanced v6.0.2

An Embedded Domain Specific Language to Model, Transform and Quality Assure Business Processes in Business-Driven Development

In Business-Driven Development (BDD), business process models are produced by business analysts. To ensure that the business requirements are satisfied, the IT solution is directly derived through a process of model refinement. If models do not contain all the required technical details or contain errors, the derived implementation would be incorrect and the BDD lifecycle would have to be repeated. In this project we present a functional domain specific language embedded in Haskell, with which: 1) models can rapidly be produced in a concise and abstract manner, 2) enables focus on the specifications rather than the implementation, 3) ensures that all the required details, to generate the executable code, are specified, 4) models can be transformed, analysed and interpreted in various ways, 5) quality assures models by carrying out three types of checks; by Haskell.s type checker, at construction-time and by functions that analyse the soundness of models, 6) enables users to define quality assured composite model transformations

A Model-Driven Approach for Business Process Management

The Business Process Management is a common mechanism recommended by a high number of standards for the management of companies and organizations. In software companies this practice is every day more accepted and companies have to assume it, if they want to be competitive. However, the effective definition of these processes and mainly their maintenance and execution are not always easy tasks. This paper presents an approach based on the Model-Driven paradigm for Business Process Management in software companies. This solution offers a suitable mechanism that was implemented successfully in different companies with a tool case named NDTQ-Framework.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TIN2010-20057-C03-02Junta de Andalucía TIC-578

An embedded domain specific language to model, transform and quality assure business processes in business-driven development

In Business-Driven Development (BDD), business process models are produced by business analysts. To ensure that the business requirements are satisfied, the IT solution is directly derived through a process of model refinement. If models do not contain all the required technical details or contain errors, the derived implementation would be incorrect and the BDD lifecycle would have to be repeated. In this project we present a functional domain specific language embedded in Haskell, with which: 1) models can rapidly be produced in a concise and abstract manner, 2) enables focus on the specifications rather than the implementation, 3) ensures that all the required details, to generate the executable code, are specified, 4) models can be transformed, analysed and interpreted in various ways, 5) quality assures models by carrying out three types of checks; by Haskell‟s type checker, at construction-time and by functions that analyse the soundness of models, 6) enables users to define quality assured composite model transformations.peer-reviewe

Embedding Requirements within the Model Driven Architecture

The Model Driven Architecture (MDA) brings benefits to software development, among them the potential for connecting software models with the business domain. This paper focuses on the upstream or Computation Independent Model (CIM) phase of the MDA. Our contention is that, whilst there are many models and notations available within the CIM Phase, those that are currently popular and supported by the Object Management Group (OMG), may not be the most useful notations for business analysts nor sufficient to fully support software requirements and specification. Therefore, with specific emphasis on the value of the Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) for business analysts, this paper provides an example of a typical CIM approach before describing an approach which incorporates specific requirements techniques. A framework extension to the MDA is then introduced; which embeds requirements and specification within the CIM, thus further enhancing the utility of MDA by providing a more complete method for business analysis

A Model-Driven approach for functional test case generation

Test phase is one of the most critical phases in software engineering life cycle to assure the final system quality. In this context, functional system test cases verify that the system under test fulfills its functional specification. Thus, these test cases are frequently designed from the different scenarios and alternatives depicted in functional requirements. The objective of this paper is to introduce a systematic process based on the Model-Driven paradigm to automate the generation of functional test cases from functional requirements. For this aim, a set of metamodels and transformations and also a specific language domain to use them is presented. The paper finishes stating learned lessons from the trenches as well as relevant future work and conclusions that draw new research lines in the test cases generation context.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TIN2013-46928-C3-3-

Enriching the values of micro and small business research projects : two sides of a story

Copyright and all rights therein are retained by the authors. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and conditions invoked by each author's copyright. These works may not be re-posted without the explicit permission of the copyright holdersThe research aim was to critically examine the two sides of co-creation from the small business and GCU researcher perspectives. The interest is in the value created and delivered. Previous studies have suggested the importance of identity and trust in these types of collaborative projects. The approach used a single case study to explore indepth the development of identity and trust, and the subsequent movement of the project participants to the creation of value. The results of the study revealed important action learning and knowledge management developments. A strong focus at the beginning on identifying key propositional knowledge needs, later led to more opportunities to co-create value for both parties. The understanding of the processes and importance of trust in these significant knowledge exchange projects reveals both a strength and weakness in these university-business collaborative projects. The indepth undersrtanding and interpretation of the value derived in-action and on-action speaks highly of the role of these university-business collaborative projects. Suggesting that the university has a key role to play in future economic development. KeywordsFinal Published versio

Service architecture design for E-Businesses: A pattern-based approach

E-business involves the implementation of business processes over the Web. At a technical level, this imposes an application integration problem. In a wider sense, the integration of software and business levels across organisations becomes a significant challenge. Service architectures are an increasingly adopted architectural approach for solving Enterprise Applications Integration (EAI). The adoption of this new architectural paradigm requires adaptation or creation of novel methodologies and techniques to solve the integration problem. In this paper we present the pattern-based techniques supporting a methodological framework to design service architectures for EAI. The techniques are used for services identification, for transformation from business models to service architectures and for architecture modifications

Barriers to Implementing the International Integrated Reporting Framework: A Contemporary Academic Perspective

Purpose: This paper is motivated by the International Integrated Reporting Council’s (IIRC) call for feedback from all stakeholders with knowledge of the International Integrated Reporting Framework , and specifically of the enablers, incentives and barriers to its implementation. The paper synthesises insights from contemporary accounting research into integrated reporting (IR) as a general concept, and integrated reporting as espoused by the IIRC in the (IIRC, 2013). We specifically focus on possible barriers and emphasise the specific issues we feel could be rectified to advance the , along with the areas that may potentially hinder wider adoption and implementation. Design/methodology/approach: The paper draws upon and synthesises academic analysis and insights provided in the IR and academic literature as well as various directives, policy and framework pronouncements. Findings: The flexibility and lack of prescription concerning actual disclosures and metrics in the could allow it to be used for compliance, regardless of the other benefits lauded by the IIRC. Thus we see forces, both external and internal, driving adoption, with one prominent example being the European Union Directive on non-financial reporting. Because of the different ways in which IR is understood and enacted, there are numerous theoretical and empirical challenges for academics. Our paper highlights potential areas for further robust academic research, and the need to contribute to policy and practice. Research limitations/implications: The paper provides the IIRC, academics, regulators and reporting organisations with insights into current practice and the framework. We highlight the need for further development and evidence to help inform improvements both from a policy and a practice perspective. A key limitation of our work is that we draw upon a synthesis of the existing literature which is still in an early stage of development. Originality/value: The paper provides the IIRC with several insights into the current , and specifically with the enablers, incentives and barriers to its implementation. Also, it provides academic researchers with a number of important observations and an agenda upon which they can build their future research