237,610 research outputs found
MICROWAVE: A GENERIC FRAMEWORK FOR MICRO SIMULATIONBASED EX ANTE POLICY EVALUATION
This paper presents the MicroWave approach that has been developed to improve the process of modeling in the context of micro simulation. It leads to a more efficient model development, better quality of models and their output and improvement in knowledge management. A conceptual framework has been developed and translated into a hierarchical structure of GAMS program code. Besides, several software applications and other tools have been developed for support. These products are presented and some examples illustrate how MicroWave can be applied. MicroWave is especially useful in interdisciplinary research in which different persons are involved in the modeling process and when different models have to be combined.Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,
Process and Object Models in Software Engineering: A Study of Their Choice and Subsequent Use
This paper provides a research model to analyze how decisions relating to the choice of modeling approach are made in the context of software engineering and how behavioral variables account for the intention and actual use associated with conceptual modeling frameworks. Modeling approach refers to the part of system development that involves investigating the problems and requirements of the users community and from that, developing a specification of the desired system. To that extent the choice of the conceptual modeling approach is a function of the methodology adopted for the entire software development lifecycle. We consider two broad classes of methodologies – the process-oriented approach (also known as the structured approach) and the object-oriented approach. We formalize the question whether there is a difference between object-oriented and structured approaches when it comes to requirements modeling. Secondly, we study decisions processes regarding the adoption of either an object-oriented, structured or combination approaches
Lupascian Non-Negativity Applied to Conceptual Modeling: Alternating Static Potentiality and Dynamic Actuality
In software engineering, conceptual modeling focuses on creating
representations of the world that are as faithful and rich as possible, with
the aim of guiding the development of software systems. In contrast, in the
computing realm, the notion of ontology has been characterized as being closely
related to conceptual modeling and is often viewed as a specification of a
conceptualization. Accordingly, conceptual modeling and ontology engineering
now address the same problem of representing the world in a suitable fashion. A
high-level ontology provides a means to describe concepts and their
interactions with each other and to capture structural and behavioral features
in the intended domain. This paper aims to analyze ontological concepts and
semantics of modeling notations to provide a common understanding among
software engineers. An important issue in this context concerns the question of
whether the modeled world might be stratified into ontological levels. We
introduce an abstract system of two-level domain ontology to be used as a
foundation for conceptual models. We study the two levels of staticity and
dynamics in the context of the thinging machine (TM) model using the notions of
potentiality and actuality that the Franco-Romanian philosopher Stephane
Lupasco developed in logic. He provided a quasi-universal rejection of
contradiction where every event was always associated with a no event, such
that the actualization of an event entails the potentialization of a no event
and vice versa without either ever disappearing completely. This approach is
illustrated by re-modeling UML state machines in TM modeling. The results
strengthen the semantics of a static versus dynamic levels in conceptual
modeling and sharpen the notion of events as a phenomenon without negativity
alternating between the two levels of dynamics and staticity.Comment: 11 pages, 21 figure
Testing and test-driven development of conceptual schemas
The traditional focus for Information Systems (IS) quality assurance relies on the evaluation of its implementation. However, the quality of an IS can be largely determined in the first stages of its development. Several studies reveal that more than half the errors that occur during systems development are requirements errors. A requirements error is defined as a mismatch between requirements specification and stakeholders¿ needs and expectations.
Conceptual modeling is an essential activity in requirements engineering aimed at developing the conceptual schema of an IS. The conceptual schema is the general knowledge that an IS needs to know in order to perform its functions. A conceptual schema specification has semantic quality when it is valid and complete. Validity means that the schema is correct (the knowledge it defines is true for the domain) and relevant (the knowledge it defines is necessary for the system). Completeness means that the conceptual schema includes all relevant knowledge. The validation of a conceptual schema pursues the detection of requirements errors in order to improve its semantic quality.
Conceptual schema validation is still a critical challenge in requirements engineering. In this work we contribute to this challenge, taking into account that, since conceptual schemas of IS can be specified in executable artifacts, they can be tested. In this context, the main contributions of this Thesis are (1) an approach to test conceptual schemas of information systems, and (2) a novel method for the incremental development of conceptual schemas supported by continuous test-driven validation. As far as we know, this is the first work that proposes and implements an environment for automated testing of UML/OCL conceptual schemas, and the first work that explores the use of test-driven approaches in conceptual modeling.
The testing of conceptual schemas may be an important and practical means for their validation. It allows checking correctness and completeness according to stakeholders¿ needs and expectations. Moreover, in conjunction with the automatic check of basic test adequacy criteria, we can also analyze the relevance of the elements defined in the schema. The testing environment we propose requires a specialized language for writing tests of conceptual schemas. We defined the Conceptual Schema Testing Language (CSTL), which may be used to specify automated tests of executable schemas specified in UML/OCL. We also describe a prototype implementation of a test processor that makes feasible the approach in practice.
The conceptual schema testing approach supports test-last validation of conceptual schemas, but it also makes sense to test incomplete conceptual schemas while they are developed. This fact lays the groundwork of Test-Driven Conceptual Modeling (TDCM), which is our second main contribution. TDCM is a novel conceptual modeling method based on the main principles of Test-Driven Development (TDD), an extreme programming method in which a software system is developed in short iterations driven by tests. We have applied the method in several case studies, in the context of Design Research, which is the general research framework we adopted. Finally, we also describe an integration approach of TDCM into a broad set of software development methodologies, including the Unified Process development methodology, MDD-based approaches, storytest-driven agile methods and goal and scenario-oriented requirements engineering methods.Els enfocaments per assegurar la qualitat deis sistemes d'informació s'han basal tradicional m en! en l'avaluació de la seva
implementació. No obstan! aix6, la qualitat d'un sis tema d'informació pot ser ampliament determinada en les primeres
fases del seu desenvolupament. Diversos estudis indiquen que més de la meitat deis errors de software són errors de
requisits . Un error de requisit es defineix com una desalineació entre l'especificació deis requisits i les necessitats i
expectatives de les parts im plicades (stakeholders ).
La modelització conceptual és una activitat essencial en l'enginyeria de requisits , l'objectiu de la qual és desenvolupar
!'esquema conceptual d'un sistema d'informació. L'esquema conceptual és el coneixement general que un sistema
d'informació requereix per tal de desenvolupar les seves funcions . Un esquema conceptual té qualitat semantica quan és
va lid i complet. La valides a implica que !'esquema sigui correcte (el coneixement definit és cert peral domini) i rellevant (el
coneixement definit és necessari peral sistema). La completes a significa que !'esquema conceptual inclou tot el
coneixement rellevant. La validació de !'esquema conceptual té coma objectiu la detecció d'errors de requisits per tal de
millorar la qualitat semantica.
La validació d'esquemes conceptuals és un repte crític en l'enginyeria de requisits . Aquesta te si contribueix a aquest repte i
es basa en el fet que els es quemes conceptuals de sistemes d'informació poden ser especificats en artefactes executables
i, per tant, poden ser provats. Les principals contribucions de la te si són (1) un enfocament pera les pro ves d'esquemes
conceptuals de sistemes d'informació, i (2) una metodología innovadora pel desenvolupament incremental d'esquemes
conceptuals assistit per una validació continuada basada en proves .
Les pro ves d'esquemes conceptuals poden ser una im portant i practica técnica pera la se va validació, jaque permeten
provar la correctesa i la completesa d'acord ambles necessitats i expectatives de les parts interessades. En conjunció amb
la comprovació d'un conjunt basic de criteris d'adequació de les proves, també podem analitzar la rellevancia deis elements
definits a !'esquema.
L'entorn de test proposat inclou un llenguatge especialitzat per escriure proves automatitzades d'esquemes conceptuals,
anomenat Conceptual Schema Testing Language (CSTL). També hem descrit i implementa! a un prototip de processador
de tes tos que fa possible l'aplicació de l'enfocament proposat a la practica. D'acord amb l'estat de l'art en validació
d'esquemes conceptuals , aquest és el primer treball que proposa i implementa un entorn pel testing automatitzat
d'esquemes conceptuals definits en UML!OCL.
L'enfocament de proves d'esquemes conceptuals permet dura terme la validació d'esquemes existents , pero també té
sentit provar es quemes conceptuals incomplets m entre estant sent desenvolupats. Aquest fet és la base de la metodología
Test-Driven Conceptual Modeling (TDCM), que és la segona contribució principal. El TDCM és una metodología de
modelització conceptual basada en principis basics del Test-Driven Development (TDD), un métode de programació en el
qual un sistema software és desenvolupat en petites iteracions guiades per proves. També hem aplicat el métode en
diversos casos d'estudi en el context de la metodología de recerca Design Science Research. Finalment, hem proposat
enfocaments d'integració del TDCM en diverses metodologies de desenvolupament de software
A conceptual model of knowledge work productivity for software development process: Quality issues
Knowledge is considered as the main competitive asset of the organization.Work on the knowledge work productivity has barely begun, but the most important contribution that management needs to construct in the 21st century is not only to increase the productivity of knowledge work and knowledge workers in the new century.The quality of knowledge work productivity are becomes pivotal in the context of software development today.Software development is a knowledge-intensive activity and its success depends heavily on the developers’ knowledge and experience. A conceptual model will be proposed on a way describing organization to improve quality of knowledge work productivity. The methodology begins with a reviewing a theoretical foundation and expert review that provides the scientific basis for knowledge work productivity specifically for software development. A questionnaire will be
constructing in order to investigate the
relationship between factors of knowledge work
and quality of productivity on knowledge work.
The respondents are software developers from
Small Manufacturing Enterprise(SME). The data
will be analyzed using Structural Equation
Modeling (SEM) to identify the significant direct relationship effect among the factors. The proposed model will be helpful for the software developers to understand the determinant factors for knowledge works
productivity
Conceptual Modeling Founded on the Stoic Ontology: Reality with Dynamic Existence and Static Subsistence
According to the software engineering community, the acknowledgement is
growing that a theory of software development is needed to integrate the
currently myriad popular methodologies, some of which are based on opposing
perspectives. Conceptual modeling (CM) can contribute to such a theory. CM
defines fundamental concepts to create representations of reality to achieve
ontologically sound software behavior that is characterized by truthfulness to
reality and conceptual clarity. In this context, CM is founded on theories
about the world that serve to represent a given domain. Ontologies have made
their way into CM as tools in requirements analysis, implementation
specification, and software architecture. This paper involves building a direct
connection between reality and CM by establishing mapping between reality and
modeling thinging machines (TMs). Specifically, Stoic ontology serves to define
the existence of TM things and actions in reality. Such a development would
benefit CM in addition to demonstrating that classical concepts in philosophy
can be applied to modern fields of study. The TM model includes static and
dynamic specifications. The dynamic level involves time-based events that can
be mapped to reality. The problem concerns the nature of a time-less static
description, which provides regions where the actions in events take place;
without them, the dynamic description collapses. The Stoics came up with a
brilliant move: the assumed reality to be a broader category than being.
Reality is made of things that exist and things that subsist. In this case, the
dynamic TM description is in existence, whereas the static, mapped portion of
the dynamic description is in subsistence. We apply such ontology to a contract
workflow example. The result seems to open a new avenue of CM that may enhance
the theoretical foundation for software and system development.Comment: 11 pages, 21 figure
Modeling System Events and Negative Events Using Thinging Machines Based on Lupascian Logic
This paper is an exploration of the ontological foundations of conceptual
modeling that addresses the concept of events and related notions. Development
models that convey how things change over space and time demand continued
attention in systems and software engineering. In this context, foundational
matters in modeling systems include the definition of an event, the types of
events, and the kinds of relationships that can be recognized among events.
Although a broad spectrum of research of such issues exists in various fields
of study, events have extensive applicability in computing (e.g., event-driven
programming, architecture, data modeling, automation, and surveillance). While
these computing notions are diverse, their event-based nature lets us apply
many of the same software engineering techniques to all of them. In this paper,
the focus is on addressing the dynamic concepts of system events and negative
events. Specifically, we concentrate on what computer scientists would refer to
as an event grammar and event calculus. Analyzing the concept of event would
further the understanding of the event notion and provide a sound foundation
for improving the theory and practice of conceptual modeling. An event in
computer science has many definitions (e.g., anything that happens, changes in
the properties of objects, and the occurrence of and transition between
states). This paper is based upon a different conceptualization using thinging
machines and Lupascian logic to define negative events. An event is defined as
a time penetrated domain s region, which is described in terms of things and
five-action machines. Accordingly, samples from event grammar and event
calculus are remodeled and analyzed in terms of this definition. The results
point to an enriched modeling technique with an enhanced conceptualization of
events that can benefit behavior modeling in systems.Comment: 12 pages, 29 figure
Foundations of systems and properties:methodological support for modeling properties of software-intensive systems
Engineering of software-intensive systems is concerned with the creation and evolution of systems that shall exhibit desired properties in their execution as well as development environment. In this context, the motivation of this thesis, derived from current development practice, was twofold. Firstly, software development methods are increasingly required to extend their scope of applicability towards systems engineering. As a consequence, their modeling approaches must be able to cope with a larger diversity of systems and consequently a larger diversity of properties. But these approaches still need to provide a smooth transition to software modeling. Secondly, non-functional properties, which are largely a result of this implicit systems scope, play a major role in the way we design our software-intensive systems. The conceptual aids of current development methods, however, are still less mature in their explicit support for non-functional properties compared with their ability to support functional ones. The principal objective of this thesis is to contribute toward an improved model-based treatment of non-functional properties in development methods. Because we cannot discuss properties independently of the objects they are ascribed to, this objective amounts to a progression from modeling of software and its properties to modeling of interrelated systems and their properties. To address this aim a philosophy of properties and systems is proposed. The philosophy is expressed as a holistic conceptual model of properties and/of systems. It is complemented with some basic rules, which we call tenets. Tenets formulate how we use the philosophical knowledge. The conceptual model offers the foundations for a more generalized understanding of those fundamentally different types of systems and different types of properties that are relevant in software-intensive systems engineering. The generality of our holistic model draws the benefits from our investigations in the areas of systems science, cognitive science, and basic philosophy. The model helps to scrutinize and make sense of the large amount of data in the literature about "non-functional" issues in software engineering. The model is applicable in the derivation of methodological building blocks that can be incorporated into development methods. The building blocks include (a) a general model to discover stakeholders and properties for a given system, (b) a principled manner to trace the fundamentally different types of properties through hierarchies of systems, and (c) a proposal for the representation of systems, their properties and property traces in the UML. The concrete application of the gained knowledge to software engineering results in a proposal for a context-sensitive, customizable quality attribute model. It also results in a proposal on how to structure quality descriptions of software components. In order for such descriptions to be standardized and possibly tool-automated, this thesis proposes to utilize the Reusable Asset Specification and suggests alternatives for its XML-based representation
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