Case studies to explore indexing issues in product design traceability framework

Little is currently understood about the requirements for engineering information traceability in product development environment, and there are few methods by which effective traceability can be ensured. First part of paper presents two case studies: an analysis of current traceability practice in automotive industry supplier, and an experiment in implementation of taxonomy based software tool for knowledge indexing in medium sized company. Based on findings from case studies, the further research seeks the answers how the ontology based approach to defining the context and associated set of indices could lead towards generation of navigable semantic network that will be able to fulfil complex traceability requirements in customizable environment. Proposed approach suggests the definition of the context for tracing by "extracting " the subsets of ontology. Elements of ontology subset are associated with information objects (design documentation) belonging to design episode which is to be traced. Tracing procedure is focused (but not exclusively) on events that are the part of the process of information object management in PLM system

Adding Executable Context to Executable Architectures: Enabling an Executable Context Simulation Framework (ECSF)

A system that does not stand alone is represented by a complex entity of component combinations that interact with each other to execute a function. In today\u27s interconnected world, systems integrate with other systems - called a system-of-systems infrastructure: a network of interrelated systems that can often exhibit both predictable and unpredictable behavior. The current state-of-the-art evaluation process of these system-of-systems and their community of practitioners in the academic community are limited to static methods focused on defining who is doing what and where. However, to answer the questions of why and how a system operates within complex systems-of-systems interrelationships, a system\u27s architecture and context must be observed over time, its executable architecture, to discern effective predictable and unpredictable behavior. The objective of this research is to determine a method for evaluating a system\u27s executable architecture and assess the contribution and efficiency of the specified system before it is built. This research led to the development of concrete steps that synthesize the observance of the executable architecture, assessment recommendations provided by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Code of Best Practice for Command and Control (C2) Assessment, and the metrics for operational efficiency provided by the Military Missions and Means Framework. Based on the research herein, this synthesis is designed to evaluate and assess system-of-systems architectures in their operational context to provide quantitative results

An Evidence-based Roadmap for IoT Software Systems Engineering

Context: The Internet of Things (IoT) has brought expectations for software inclusion in everyday objects. However, it has challenges and requires multidisciplinary technical knowledge involving different areas that should be combined to enable IoT software systems engineering. Goal: To present an evidence-based roadmap for IoT development to support developers in specifying, designing, and implementing IoT systems. Method: An iterative approach based on experimental studies to acquire evidence to define the IoT Roadmap. Next, the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge life cycle was used to organize the roadmap and set temporal dimensions for IoT software systems engineering. Results: The studies revealed seven IoT Facets influencing IoT development. The IoT Roadmap comprises 117 items organized into 29 categories representing different concerns for each Facet. In addition, an experimental study was conducted observing a real case of a healthcare IoT project, indicating the roadmap applicability. Conclusions: The IoT Roadmap can be a feasible instrument to assist IoT software systems engineering because it can (a) support researchers and practitioners in understanding and characterizing the IoT and (b) provide a checklist to identify the applicable recommendations for engineering IoT software systems

Reducing ambiguity during enterprise design

Requirements elicitation is one of the most important phases in the design process and applied by many engineering disciplines. A more recent application of the design process is to design the enterprise as an artefact, also called enterprise engineering (EE). Even though there are limits to formal enterprise design due to enterprise complexity, strategic intentions are not realised spontaneously or accidently. Intentional enterprise design is required, starting with the strategic context, eliciting enterprise intentions. Similar to the ad hoc evolution of enterprises, EE as a discipline also developed in a fragmented way with enterprise design knowledge mostly encapsulated in several enterprise design approaches. A previous study analysed eight different enterprise design/alignment approaches, inductively developing a common framework to represent and compare these approaches in terms of four main components. One of the components represents the scope of enterprise design/alignment in terms of three dimensions: design domains, intentions and constraints, and enterprise scope. Since existing approaches use inconsistent means of defining the first dimension, namely the design domains, previous work already provides some guidance on demarcating design domains in a more consistent way. This article focuses on the second dimension, i.e. intentions and constraints, and the need to distinguish between different intention-related concepts to reduce possible ambiguity. The study applies design science research to develop a method for enterprise intentions concept clarification (MEICC) as a theoretical contribution. The study also offers a practical contribution, demonstrating how the MEICC was used to clarify intention-related concepts that feature within a specific approach, namely Hoogervorst’s approach. A coding strategy (including coding conditions, a refined codebook and a coding method), developed for Hoogervorst’s approach via MEICC, is presented as a secondary contribution, since the coding strategy will also be useful to practitioners that use Hoogervorst’s approach.https://link.springer.com/journal/766hj2021Industrial and Systems Engineerin

An Activity Theory-based Architecture To Enhance Context-aware Collaboration In Software Development In The Cloud

This research study reviews collaborative software development and assesses the impact of cloud computing in this domain. This is with a view towards identifying challenges to effective context-aware collaboration, as well as opportunities, risks, and potential benefits that could come from a well-defined structured leverage of cloud capabilities. Findings from systematic review of literature indicate that adoption of cloud computing played a significant part in bringing about trends such as: movement of traditional applications and processes to the cloud; cloud development environments; increased distribution in teams and resources; increased diversity in requirements; changes in how software is developed, tested, deployed, accessed, and maintained. These trends have in turn introduced factors such as: massive scale; additional layers of complexity in abstraction levels, entity characteristics and entity relationships within the development process. This additional layer of complexity translates into increase in contexts i.e., information that can be used to characterize states of entities. This is in addition to existing traditional complexity i.e., measure of proportionality of activities and tasks within the process. Some notable efforts towards improving collaboration in software development in the cloud include: transitioning development environments, tools and teams to the cloud; provision of code repositories and version control functionality to support collaboration between developers; provision of platforms to enhance collaboration between developers and end-users in early stages of the process via registered project campaigns and targeted questionnaires; provision of platforms with integrated social networking tools. However, an essential missing piece for more effective context-aware collaboration in the process is, the need for ways of addressing resultant complexity from cloud adoption and capturing actionable contexts. Capturing and communicating contextual information can help improve awareness and understanding and facilitate role-based coordination of distributed team members including users, and not just developers. This would ensure all stakeholders are always on the same page even if not in same location, across all phases of development. The main aim of this research study is to apply a new architecture framework underpinned by the right theoretical foundations, capable of leveraging cloud capabilities, harnessing contexts and addressing complexity to enhance context-aware collaboration in cloud-based software development. To achieve this aim, knowledge gleaned from the systematic literature review and the gap-impact analysis was thematized and synthesized to provide optimal recommendations to serve as roadmap guide for the development and evaluation carried out, and subsequent knowledge contributions. Key dimensions were adapted, along with development of classifications for approaches to enhancing collaboration in software development in the cloud. The key dimensions created were for - assessing collaboration needs; definition of context data and levels; collecting, categorizing, analysing, and applying contextual information to tasks, activities, and stages within software development in the cloud. These dimensions and classifications are useful for identification of reliable ways of measuring collaboration and success factors, as well as managing complexity and ensuring synchronous regularity of process and understanding within the development process in the cloud. A formal process was proposed to aid selection of an appropriate theoretical basis and assembling of a theoretical framework and methodology to underpin the architecture for enhancing context-aware collaboration in cloud-based software development. This was necessary due to the current lack of a de-facto architecture method for cloud-based software development. An activity theory-based architecture has been designed and developed, along with a Proof-of-Concept (POC) implementation that leverages cloud capabilities, for evaluation of the architecture. This architecture presents a novel approach for enhancing collaboration in software development in the cloud due to its underlying activity theory-based tenets that considers ‘activity’ as the unit of analysis, and ideal for activity systems and ease of identification of congruencies and contradictions present or capable impacting related components of the activity system and its ecosystem. The conclusions for this research study, limitations and future research directions have been discussed at the end of this thesis work

The RQ-Tech Methodology: A New Paradigm for Conceptualizing Strategic Enterprise Architectures

The purpose of this research is to develop and apply a system-theoretic based methodology and corresponding model for Enterprise Architecture development. Enterprise Architectures can assist managers by illustrating the systemic relationships within an organization and the impact changes to the organization could make. Unfortunately, today\u27s modeling practices are proprietary, time-consuming, and generally ineffective as tools for understanding the consequences of strategic-level planning decisions across all levels of the enterprise. This research supports the conclusion that system-specific solutions produce islands of technology and can be prevented by employing better enterprise change planning. This research combined the practice of Enterprise Architectures with a modern perspective grounded in Systems Theory and the theory regarding the computer science-oriented Semantic Web to present a distinctive methodology for developing models. A review of literature in all three areas provided an illustration of the overlap common to all three domains. It provided support for critical thinking concerning how to enrich the Enterprise Architecture practice. This research was conducted to answer to two primary questions. The first research question investigated the most significant factors to consider when translating authoritative text and rich pictures into semantic models. The second research question qualitatively measured the extent to which models aligned to important organizational guidance are useful for representing the organization as a whole. Reusable Quality Technical Architectures (RQ-Tech) is the methodology developed from this research. It demonstrates that a complex system of systems organization that must creatively respond to a variety of events can be holistically represented using a dynamic model. RQ-Tech techniques provide ways to map and link the multitudes of scope-level authoritative business documents so that together they can effectively represent the nature and essence of the organization as one organic structure. The marriage of authorized enterprise documentation and the Semantic Web produces a model of the holistic enterprise. This model had previously only been experienced at a tacit level by those exceptionally well-trained in the depth and breadth of organizational culture, supporting laws, policies and related publications. This research effort provides the vision that encourages a paradigm shift away from the mechanistic approach toward organizational change to analogy of a socially connected, interdependent enterprise. New horizons for using the common language of the Semantic Web to capture an understanding of the many interactive systems of the enterprise are substantiated. The research concludes with identification of future research themes prompted by this investigation

A framework for the analysis and evaluation of enterprise models

Bibliography: leaves 264-288.The purpose of this study is the development and validation of a comprehensive framework for the analysis and evaluation of enterprise models. The study starts with an extensive literature review of modelling concepts and an overview of the various reference disciplines concerned with enterprise modelling. This overview is more extensive than usual in order to accommodate readers from different backgrounds. The proposed framework is based on the distinction between the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic model aspects and populated with evaluation criteria drawn from an extensive literature survey. In order to operationalize and empirically validate the framework, an exhaustive survey of enterprise models was conducted. From this survey, an XML database of more than twenty relatively large, publicly available enterprise models was constructed. A strong emphasis was placed on the interdisciplinary nature of this database and models were drawn from ontology research, linguistics, analysis patterns as well as the traditional fields of data modelling, data warehousing and enterprise systems. The resultant database forms the test bed for the detailed framework-based analysis and its public availability should constitute a useful contribution to the modelling research community. The bulk of the research is dedicated to implementing and validating specific analysis techniques to quantify the various model evaluation criteria of the framework. The aim for each of the analysis techniques is that it can, where possible, be automated and generalised to other modelling domains. The syntactic measures and analysis techniques originate largely from the disciplines of systems engineering, graph theory and computer science. Various metrics to measure model hierarchy, architecture and complexity are tested and discussed. It is found that many are not particularly useful or valid for enterprise models. Hence some new measures are proposed to assist with model visualization and an original "model signature" consisting of three key metrics is proposed.Perhaps the most significant contribution ofthe research lies in the development and validation of a significant number of semantic analysis techniques, drawing heavily on current developments in lexicography, linguistics and ontology research. Some novel and interesting techniques are proposed to measure, inter alia, domain coverage, model genericity, quality of documentation, perspicuity and model similarity. Especially model similarity is explored in depth by means of various similarity and clustering algorithms as well as ways to visualize the similarity between models. Finally, a number of pragmatic analyses techniques are applied to the models. These include face validity, degree of use, authority of model author, availability, cost, flexibility, adaptability, model currency, maturity and degree of support. This analysis relies mostly on the searching for and ranking of certain specific information details, often involving a degree of subjective interpretation, although more specific quantitative procedures are suggested for some of the criteria. To aid future researchers, a separate chapter lists some promising analysis techniques that were investigated but found to be problematic from methodological perspective. More interestingly, this chapter also presents a very strong conceptual case on how the proposed framework and the analysis techniques associated vrith its various criteria can be applied to many other information systems research areas. The case is presented on the grounds of the underlying isomorphism between the various research areas and illustrated by suggesting the application of the framework to evaluate web sites, algorithms, software applications, programming languages, system development methodologies and user interfaces