Requirements modelling and formal analysis using graph operations

The increasing complexity of enterprise systems requires a more advanced analysis of the representation of services expected than is currently possible. Consequently, the specification stage, which could be facilitated by formal verification, becomes very important to the system life-cycle. This paper presents a formal modelling approach, which may be used in order to better represent the reality of the system and to verify the awaited or existing system’s properties, taking into account the environmental characteristics. For that, we firstly propose a formalization process based upon properties specification, and secondly we use Conceptual Graphs operations to develop reasoning mechanisms of verifying requirements statements. The graphic visualization of these reasoning enables us to correctly capture the system specifications by making it easier to determine if desired properties hold. It is applied to the field of Enterprise modelling

Information Systems and Web Information Systems: A Methodological Perspective

International audienceThe Development of Information Systems (ISD) is a complex activity that requires methodological support. Current ISD methods are predominantly following an object driven paradigm that allows us to capture the static as well as the dynamic dimensions of real world objects into information objects. However, Web Information Systems have facets such as information presentation, user profile, navigation structure etc. which pose new challenges to ISD methods. The keynote talk will provide an overview of current ISD methods and discuss the new challenges raised by the development of Web Information Systems. This paper is a brief overview of the key points developed in the talk

L'E-Lyee, Coupling L'Ecritoire and LyeeALL

International audienceThe paper deals with the requirements engineering environment provided by L'Ecritoire to the L'E-Lyee project. The project aims to reduce the software development cycle to two explicit steps, requirements engineering and program generation, by coupling L'Ecritoire to the program generation features of LyeeALL. The basis of L'Ecritoire is a set of enactable rules to guide the requirements elicitation process through interleaved goal modelling and scenario authoring. The paper gives an overview of the enactment rules and illustrates their use through a L'Ecritoire session. Thereafter, the matching of the technical features of L'Ecritoire with those of LyeeALL is outlined and the resulting benefits are highlighted

Modelling the Requirements Process: where are the people?

This paper reports the outcomes of a three year study into the requirements process, an important but poorly understood part of systems development. Humans play an essential role in determining requirements yet few models of the requirements process include human actors. This paper presents an understanding of the requirements process expressed in a descriptive model that integrates the social and technical aspects of the requirements process. The model comprises five key areas: the problem domain, analysts’ domain, requirements sub-processes, problem space and management of the requirements process. The model may be used to support, manage and improve the requirements process in practice

A User Centric View of Lyee Requirements

National audienceThe paper deals with the modelling of Lyee user requirements and guidelines to support their capture. The Sorbonne contribution to the Lyee collaborative project aims to reduce the software development cycle to two explicit steps, requirements engineering and code generation by coupling the code generation features of LyeeALL with an interface to capture user requirements. The paper presents a 2-layer meta-model relating the set of concepts to capture user requirements to the set of concepts for the formulation of software requirements that are the input of the LyeeALL generation mechanism. It exemplifies the concepts with example and introduces the guidance support for capturing these user centric requirements

Automatic refinement of user requirements : a case study in software tool evaluation

This paper presents an assessment of system effectiveness in automatic requirements refinement by comparing results obtained from experts and novices with those achieved by the system. As the investigated system was a combination of a tightly inter-connected methods and a tool, the evaluation framework melded together a number of distinct methodological approaches structured into three empirical studies, which aimed at the construction of a case problem domain, calibrating the system using this defined domain elements and finally using the calibrated system to assess its effectiveness. In consequence, it was concluded that the evaluated methods and tools were effective in supporting requirements refinement.<br /

Bridging the Gap Between Organisational Needs and ERP Functionality

International audienceWe argue that ERP installations are difficult to align to specific requirements of the enterprise because of the low level at which ERP functionality is described. We raise this level from a functional description to a goal-oriented one. We use SAP R/3 to illustrate this. A SAP goal expresses the task that a SAP function carries out and abstracts away from the performance of this task. Since a SAP goal can be achieved in many ways, we introduce the notion of SAP strategies. We organise goals and strategies as a directed graph called a map. We illustrate the map with the Materials Management Module of SAP. In order to evaluate and compare the use of the map with the functional approach, we develop an evaluation framework. The evaluation and comparison is presented. The materials management map is then used to align the SAP module to the stores and purchase department of an academic institute

Specifying the reuse context of scenario method chunks

International audienceThere has been considerable recent interest in scenarios for accompanying many of the various activities occurring in the development life cycle of computer based systems. Besides the integration of scenarios in methods such as Objectory and software tools such as Rationale Rose has proven useful and successful. Consequently, there is a demand for adapting existing methods to support specific design activities using scenario based approaches. The view developed in this paper is that scenario based approaches should be looked upon as reusable components. Our concern is therefore twofold : first, to represent scenario based approaches in a modular way which eases their reusability and second, to specify the design context in which these approaches can be reused in order to facilitate their integration in existing methods. The paper concentrates on these two aspects, presents an implementation of our proposal using SGML to store available scenario based approaches in a multimedia hypertext document and illustrates the retrieval of components meeting the requirements of the user by the means of SgmlQL queries

A Multi-Model View of Process Modelling

International audienceSituatedness of development processes is a key issue in both the software engineering and the method engineering communities, as there is a strong felt need for process prescriptions to be adapted to the situation at hand. The assumption of the process modelling approach presented in this paper is that process prescriptions shall be selected according to the actual situation at hand i.e. dynamically in the course of the process. The paper focuses on a multi-model view of process modelling which supports this dynamicity. The approach builds on the notion of a labelled graph of intentions and strategies called a map as well as its associated guidelines. The map is a navigational structure which supports the dynamic selection of the intention to be achieved next and the appropriate strategy to achieve it whereas guidelines help in the operationalization of the selected intention. The paper presents the map and guidelines and exemplifies the approach with the CREWS-L'Ecritoire method for requirements engineering

From Conceptual Modelling to Requirements Engineering

International audienceConceptual modelling is situated in the broader view of information systems requirements engineering. Requirements Engineering (RE) explores the objectives of different stakeholders and the activities carried out by them to meet these objectives in order to derive purposeful system requirements and therefore lead to better quality systems i.e. systems that meet the requirements of their users. Thus RE product models use concepts for modelling these instead of concepts like data, process, events etc. used in conceptual models. Since the former are more stable than the latter, requirements engineering manages change better. The paper gives the rationale for extending traditional conceptual models and introduces some RE product models. Furthermore, in contrast to conceptual modelling, requirements engineering lays great stress on the engineering process employed. The paper introduces some RE process models and considers their effect on tool support