Traceability Links Recovery among Requirements and BPMN models

Tesis por compendio[EN] Throughout the pages of this document, I present the results of the research that was carried out in the context of my PhD studies. During the aforementioned research, I studied the process of Traceability Links Recovery between natural language requirements and industrial software models. More precisely, due to their popularity and extensive usage, I studied the process of Traceability Links Recovery between natural language requirements and Business Process Models, also known as BPMN models. In order to carry out the research, I focused my work on two main objectives: (1) the development of the Traceability Links Recovery techniques between natural language requirements and BPMN models, and (2) the validation and analysis of the results obtained by the developed techniques in industrial domain case studies. The results of the research have been redacted and published in forums, conferences, and journals specialized in the topics and context of the research. This thesis document introduces the topics, context, and objectives of the research, presents the academic publications that have been published as a result of the work, and then discusses the outcomes of the investigation.[ES] A través de las páginas de este documento, presento los resultados de la investigación realizada en el contexto de mis estudios de doctorado. Durante la investigación, he estudiado el proceso de Recuperación de Enlaces de Trazabilidad entre requisitos especificados en lenguaje natural y modelos de software industriales. Más concretamente, debido a su popularidad y uso extensivo, he estudiado el proceso de Recuperación de Enlaces de Trazabilidad entre requisitos especificados en lenguaje natural y Modelos de Procesos de Negocio, también conocidos como modelos BPMN. Para llevar a cabo esta investigación, mi trabajo se ha centrado en dos objetivos principales: (1) desarrollo de técnicas de Recuperación de Enlaces de Trazabilidad entre requisitos especificados en lenguaje natural y modelos BPMN, y (2) validación y análisis de los resultados obtenidos por las técnicas desarrolladas en casos de estudio de dominios industriales. Los resultados de la investigación han sido redactados y publicados en foros, conferencias y revistas especializadas en los temas y contexto de la investigación. Esta tesis introduce los temas, contexto y objetivos de la investigación, presenta las publicaciones académicas que han sido publicadas como resultado del trabajo, y expone los resultados de la investigación.[CA] A través de les pàgines d'aquest document, presente els resultats de la investigació realitzada en el context dels meus estudis de doctorat. Durant la investigació, he estudiat el procés de Recuperació d'Enllaços de Traçabilitat entre requisits especificats en llenguatge natural i models de programari industrials. Més concretament, a causa de la seua popularitat i ús extensiu, he estudiat el procés de Recuperació d'Enllaços de Traçabilitat entre requisits especificats en llenguatge natural i Models de Processos de Negoci, també coneguts com a models BPMN. Per a dur a terme aquesta investigació, el meu treball s'ha centrat en dos objectius principals: (1) desenvolupament de tècniques de Recuperació d'Enllaços de Traçabilitat entre requisits especificats en llenguatge natural i models BPMN, i (2) validació i anàlisi dels resultats obtinguts per les tècniques desenvolupades en casos d'estudi de dominis industrials. Els resultats de la investigació han sigut redactats i publicats en fòrums, conferències i revistes especialitzades en els temes i context de la investigació. Aquesta tesi introdueix els temes, context i objectius de la investigació, presenta les publicacions acadèmiques que han sigut publicades com a resultat del treball, i exposa els resultats de la investigació.Lapeña Martí, R. (2020). Traceability Links Recovery among Requirements and BPMN models [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/149391TESISCompendi

Design of a Machine Learning-based Approach for Fragment Retrieval on Models

[ES] El aprendizaje automático (ML por sus siglas en inglés) es conocido como la rama de la inteligencia artificial que reúne algoritmos estadísticos, probabilísticos y de optimización, que aprenden empíricamente. ML puede aprovechar el conocimiento y la experiencia que se han generado durante años en las empresas para realizar automáticamente diferentes procesos. Por lo tanto, ML se ha aplicado a diversas áreas de investigación, que estudian desde la medicina hasta la ingeniería del software. De hecho, en el campo de la ingeniería del software, el mantenimiento y la evolución de un sistema abarca hasta un 80% de la vida útil del sistema. Las empresas, que se han dedicado al desarrollo de sistemas software durante muchos años, han acumulado grandes cantidades de conocimiento y experiencia. Por lo tanto, ML resulta una solución atractiva para reducir sus costos de mantenimiento aprovechando los recursos acumulados. Específicamente, la Recuperación de Enlaces de Trazabilidad, la Localización de Errores y la Ubicación de Características se encuentran entre las tareas más comunes y relevantes para realizar el mantenimiento de productos software. Para abordar estas tareas, los investigadores han propuesto diferentes enfoques. Sin embargo, la mayoría de las investigaciones se centran en métodos tradicionales, como la indexación semántica latente, que no explota los recursos recopilados. Además, la mayoría de las investigaciones se enfocan en el código, descuidando otros artefactos de software como son los modelos. En esta tesis, presentamos un enfoque basado en ML para la recuperación de fragmentos en modelos (FRAME). El objetivo de este enfoque es recuperar el fragmento del modelo que realiza mejor una consulta específica. Esto permite a los ingenieros recuperar el fragmento que necesita ser trazado, reparado o ubicado para el mantenimiento del software. Específicamente, FRAME combina la computación evolutiva y las técnicas ML. En FRAME, un algoritmo evolutivo es guiado por ML para extraer de manera eficaz distintos fragmentos de un modelo. Estos fragmentos son posteriormente evaluados mediante técnicas ML. Para aprender a evaluarlos, las técnicas ML aprovechan el conocimiento (fragmentos recuperados de modelos) y la experiencia que las empresas han generado durante años. Basándose en lo aprendido, las técnicas ML determinan qué fragmento del modelo realiza mejor una consulta. Sin embargo, la mayoría de las técnicas ML no pueden entender los fragmentos de los modelos. Por lo tanto, antes de aplicar las técnicas ML, el enfoque propuesto codifica los fragmentos a través de una codificación ontológica y evolutiva. En resumen, FRAME está diseñado para extraer fragmentos de un modelo, codificarlos y evaluar cuál realiza mejor una consulta específica. El enfoque ha sido evaluado a partir de un caso real proporcionado por nuestro socio industrial (CAF, un proveedor internacional de soluciones ferroviarias). Además, sus resultados han sido comparados con los resultados de los enfoques más comunes y recientes. Los resultados muestran que FRAME obtuvo los mejores resultados para la mayoría de los indicadores de rendimiento, proporcionando un valor medio de precisión igual a 59.91%, un valor medio de exhaustividad igual a 78.95%, una valor-F medio igual a 62.50% y un MCC (Coeficiente de Correlación Matthews) medio igual a 0.64. Aprovechando los fragmentos recuperados de los modelos, FRAME es menos sensible al conocimiento tácito y al desajuste de vocabulario que los enfoques basados en información semántica. Sin embargo, FRAME está limitado por la disponibilidad de fragmentos recuperados para llevar a cabo el aprendizaje automático. Esta tesis presenta una discusión más amplia de estos aspectos así como el análisis estadístico de los resultados, que evalúa la magnitud de la mejora en comparación con los otros enfoques.[CAT] L'aprenentatge automàtic (ML per les seues sigles en anglés) és conegut com la branca de la intel·ligència artificial que reuneix algorismes estadístics, probabilístics i d'optimització, que aprenen empíricament. ML pot aprofitar el coneixement i l'experiència que s'han generat durant anys en les empreses per a realitzar automàticament diferents processos. Per tant, ML s'ha aplicat a diverses àrees d'investigació, que estudien des de la medicina fins a l'enginyeria del programari. De fet, en el camp de l'enginyeria del programari, el manteniment i l'evolució d'un sistema abasta fins a un 80% de la vida útil del sistema. Les empreses, que s'han dedicat al desenvolupament de sistemes programari durant molts anys, han acumulat grans quantitats de coneixement i experiència. Per tant, ML resulta una solució atractiva per a reduir els seus costos de manteniment aprofitant els recursos acumulats. Específicament, la Recuperació d'Enllaços de Traçabilitat, la Localització d'Errors i la Ubicació de Característiques es troben entre les tasques més comunes i rellevants per a realitzar el manteniment de productes programari. Per a abordar aquestes tasques, els investigadors han proposat diferents enfocaments. No obstant això, la majoria de les investigacions se centren en mètodes tradicionals, com la indexació semàntica latent, que no explota els recursos recopilats. A més, la majoria de les investigacions s'enfoquen en el codi, descurant altres artefactes de programari com són els models. En aquesta tesi, presentem un enfocament basat en ML per a la recuperació de fragments en models (FRAME). L'objectiu d'aquest enfocament és recuperar el fragment del model que realitza millor una consulta específica. Això permet als enginyers recuperar el fragment que necessita ser traçat, reparat o situat per al manteniment del programari. Específicament, FRAME combina la computació evolutiva i les tècniques ML. En FRAME, un algorisme evolutiu és guiat per ML per a extraure de manera eficaç diferents fragments d'un model. Aquests fragments són posteriorment avaluats mitjançant tècniques ML. Per a aprendre a avaluar-los, les tècniques ML aprofiten el coneixement (fragments recuperats de models) i l'experiència que les empreses han generat durant anys. Basant-se en l'aprés, les tècniques ML determinen quin fragment del model realitza millor una consulta. No obstant això, la majoria de les tècniques ML no poden entendre els fragments dels models. Per tant, abans d'aplicar les tècniques ML, l'enfocament proposat codifica els fragments a través d'una codificació ontològica i evolutiva. En resum, FRAME està dissenyat per a extraure fragments d'un model, codificar-los i avaluar quin realitza millor una consulta específica. L'enfocament ha sigut avaluat a partir d'un cas real proporcionat pel nostre soci industrial (CAF, un proveïdor internacional de solucions ferroviàries). A més, els seus resultats han sigut comparats amb els resultats dels enfocaments més comuns i recents. Els resultats mostren que FRAME va obtindre els millors resultats per a la majoria dels indicadors de rendiment, proporcionant un valor mitjà de precisió igual a 59.91%, un valor mitjà d'exhaustivitat igual a 78.95%, una valor-F mig igual a 62.50% i un MCC (Coeficient de Correlació Matthews) mig igual a 0.64. Aprofitant els fragments recuperats dels models, FRAME és menys sensible al coneixement tàcit i al desajustament de vocabulari que els enfocaments basats en informació semàntica. No obstant això, FRAME està limitat per la disponibilitat de fragments recuperats per a dur a terme l'aprenentatge automàtic. Aquesta tesi presenta una discussió més àmplia d'aquests aspectes així com l'anàlisi estadística dels resultats, que avalua la magnitud de la millora en comparació amb els altres enfocaments.[EN] Machine Learning (ML) is known as the branch of artificial intelligence that gathers statistical, probabilistic, and optimization algorithms, which learn empirically. ML can exploit the knowledge and the experience that have been generated for years to automatically perform different processes. Therefore, ML has been applied to a wide range of research areas, from medicine to software engineering. In fact, in software engineering field, up to an 80% of a system's lifetime is spent on the maintenance and evolution of the system. The companies, that have been developing these software systems for a long time, have gathered a huge amount of knowledge and experience. Therefore, ML is an attractive solution to reduce their maintenance costs exploiting the gathered resources. Specifically, Traceability Link Recovery, Bug Localization, and Feature Location are amongst the most common and relevant tasks when maintaining software products. To tackle these tasks, researchers have proposed a number of approaches. However, most research focus on traditional methods, such as Latent Semantic Indexing, which does not exploit the gathered resources. Moreover, most research targets code, neglecting other software artifacts such as models. In this dissertation, we present an ML-based approach for fragment retrieval on models (FRAME). The goal of this approach is to retrieve the model fragment which better realizes a specific query in a model. This allows engineers to retrieve the model fragment, which must be traced, fixed, or located for software maintenance. Specifically, the FRAME approach combines evolutionary computation and ML techniques. In the FRAME approach, an evolutionary algorithm is guided by ML to effectively extract model fragments from a model. These model fragments are then assessed through ML techniques. To learn how to assess them, ML techniques takes advantage of the companies' knowledge (retrieved model fragments) and experience. Then, based on what was learned, ML techniques determine which model fragment better realizes a query. However, model fragments are not understandable for most ML techniques. Therefore, the proposed approach encodes the model fragments through an ontological evolutionary encoding. In short, the FRAME approach is designed to extract model fragments, encode them, and assess which one better realizes a specific query. The approach has been evaluated in our industrial partner (CAF, an international provider of railway solutions) and compared to the most common and recent approaches. The results show that the FRAME approach achieved the best results for most performance indicators, providing a mean precision value of 59.91%, a recall value of 78.95%, a combined F-measure of 62.50%, and a MCC (Matthews correlation coefficient) value of 0.64. Leveraging retrieved model fragments, the FRAME approach is less sensitive to tacit knowledge and vocabulary mismatch than the approaches based on semantic information. However, the approach is limited by the availability of the retrieved model fragments to perform the learning. These aspects are further discussed, after the statistical analysis of the results, which assesses the magnitude of the improvement in comparison to the other approaches.Marcén Terraza, AC. (2020). Design of a Machine Learning-based Approach for Fragment Retrieval on Models [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/158617TESI

Information Retrieval based requirement traceability recovery approaches- A systematic literature review

Abstract: The term traceability is an important concept regarding software development. It enables software engineers to trace requirements from their origin to fulfillment. Maintaining traceability manually is a time consuming and expensive job. Information retrieval methods provide a mean of automation for requirement traceability. A visible number of IR based traceability techniques have been proposed in the literature, but the adoption of these techniques in the industry is limited. In this paper, we examine the information retrieval-based traceability recovery approaches through systematic literature review. We presented a synthesis of these techniques. We also identified challenges that are potentially limiting the adoption of IR based traceability recovery approaches. We conclude that term mismatch is a major barrier faced by IR based approaches. We also did classify the approaches that are attempting to solve the term mismatch problem

A semantically-enriched goal-oriented requirements engineering framework for systems of systems using the i* framework applied to cancer care

In recent years, monolithic systems are being composed into bigger systems as Systems of Systems (SoSs). This evolution of SoS raises several software engineering key challenges, such as the management of emerging inconsistent goals and requirements, which may occur among the various Constituent Systems (CSs) themselves, as well as between the entire SoS and the participating CSs. Another significant challenge is that Systems of Systems Engineering (SoSE) involves more stakeholders than traditional systems engineering, i.e. stakeholders at the SoS-level and the CS-level, where each CS has its own needs and objectives which establish a complex stakeholder environment. To respond to these challenges, this research is aimed at investigating the implications of applying a goal-oriented requirements engineering approach in identifying, modelling and managing emerging goals and their conflicts in SoS context. The key artefact of this research is the development of a Semantically-Enriched Goal-Oriented Requirements Engineering Framework for Systems of Systems using the i* framework, namely the OntoSoS.GORE framework.The OntoSoS.GORE is a three-layered framework designed, developed, demonstrated and then evaluated through following multiple iterations of the Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) phases, to accomplish the following main objectives: (1) identifying and modelling the SoS global goals and the CSs local goals at different levels of an SoS using the i* framework, in which a new process to extract i* modelling elements from existing user documentation is proposed; (2) maintaining the consistency and integrity of SoS goals at multiple levels through developing a semantic Goals Referential Integrity (sGRI) model in SoS context which consists of an SoSGRI model and an ontology-based model; and (3) managing any conflicts that may occur amongst goals at both the SoS-level and the CS-level, by developing and applying a new goal conflict management approach in SoS context, which consists of two main processes: goal conflict detection and goal conflict resolution.The research framework has been instantiated and validated by applying a real Cancer Care case study at King Hussein Cancer Center (KHCC), Amman, Jordan. Results revealed the effectiveness of applying the framework compared to the current approach applied at KHCC, in terms of addressing higher consistency, completeness and correctness with regard to goal management and conflict management in SoS context. Moreover, the framework provides automation of the processes of following the satisfaction of goals and goals’ conflict management at multiple SoS levels, instead of the manual approach applied currently at KHCC. This automation is accomplished through developing a strategic goal-oriented management tool that is anticipated to be delivered and utilised at KHCC, as well as applying it to other SoS organisations as a proposed solution for goal and conflict management. Another contribution to the Cancer Care and SoS domains is developing a reference i* goal-oriented model for access to Cancer Care which provides a wider system engineering perspective and offers an accessible level of abstraction about Cancer Care goals and their dependencies for stakeholders and domain experts. The reference model provides standardisation of common generic concepts about the domain, in which other Cancer Care organisations can considerably reuse to facilitate the process of capturing and specifying goals and requirements for their practice and validating choices among alternative designs

SUPPORTING ENGINEERING DESIGN OF ADDITIVELY MANUFACTURED MEDICAL DEVICES WITH KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT THROUGH ONTOLOGIES

Medical environments pose a substantial challenge for engineering designers. They combine significant knowledge demands with large investment for new product development and severe consequences in the case of design failure. Engineering designers must contend with an often-chaotic environment to which they have limited access and familiarity, a user base that is difficult to engage and highly diverse in many attributes, and a market structure that often pits stakeholders against one another. As medical care in general moves towards personalized models and surgical tools towards less invasive options emerging manufacturing technologies in additive manufacturing offer significant potential for the design of highly innovative medical devices. At the same time however these same technologies also introduce yet more challenges to the design process. This dissertation presents a knowledge-based approach to addressing the existing and emerging challenges of medical device design. The approach aims to address these challenges using knowledge captured in a suite of modular ontologies modeling knowledge domains that must be considered in medical device design. These include ontologies for understanding clinical context, human factors, regulation, enterprise, and manufacturability. Together these ontologies support design ideation, knowledge capture, and design verification. These ontologies are subsequently used to formulate a comprehensive knowledge framework for medical device design, and to enable an innovative design process. Case studies analyzing the design of surgical tools in several medical specialties are used to assess the capabilities of this approach

Ontology in Information Security

The past several years we have witnessed that information has become the most precious asset, while protection and security of information is becoming an ever greater challenge due to the large amount of knowledge necessary for organizations to successfully withstand external threats and attacks. This knowledge collected from the domain of information security can be formally described by security ontologies. A large number of researchers during the last decade have dealt with this issue, and in this paper we have tried to identify, analyze and systematize the relevant papers published in scientific journals indexed in selected scientific databases, in period from 2004 to 2014. This paper gives a review of literature in the field of information security ontology and identifies a total of 52 papers systematized in three groups: general security ontologies (12 papers), specific security ontologies (32 papers) and theoretical works (8 papers). The papers were of different quality and level of detail and varied from presentations of simple conceptual ideas to sophisticated frameworks based on ontology

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Semantic adaptability for the systems interoperability

In the current global and competitive business context, it is essential that enterprises adapt their knowledge resources in order to smoothly interact and collaborate with others. However, due to the existent multiculturalism of people and enterprises, there are different representation views of business processes or products, even inside a same domain. Consequently, one of the main problems found in the interoperability between enterprise systems and applications is related to semantics. The integration and sharing of enterprises knowledge to build a common lexicon, plays an important role to the semantic adaptability of the information systems. The author proposes a framework to support the development of systems to manage dynamic semantic adaptability resolution. It allows different organisations to participate in a common knowledge base building, letting at the same time maintain their own views of the domain, without compromising the integration between them. Thus, systems are able to be aware of new knowledge, and have the capacity to learn from it and to manage its semantic interoperability in a dynamic and adaptable way. The author endorses the vision that in the near future, the semantic adaptability skills of the enterprise systems will be the booster to enterprises collaboration and the appearance of new business opportunities

A framework for analyzing changes in health care lexicons and nomenclatures

Ontologies play a crucial role in current web-based biomedical applications for capturing contextual knowledge in the domain of life sciences. Many of the so-called bio-ontologies and controlled vocabularies are known to be seriously defective from both terminological and ontological perspectives, and do not sufficiently comply with the standards to be considered formai ontologies. Therefore, they are continuously evolving in order to fix the problems and provide valid knowledge. Moreover, many problems in ontology evolution often originate from incomplete knowledge about the given domain. As our knowledge improves, the related definitions in the ontologies will be altered. This problem is inadequately addressed by available tools and algorithms, mostly due to the lack of suitable knowledge representation formalisms to deal with temporal abstract notations, and the overreliance on human factors. Also most of the current approaches have been focused on changes within the internal structure of ontologies, and interactions with other existing ontologies have been widely neglected. In this research, alter revealing and classifying some of the common alterations in a number of popular biomedical ontologies, we present a novel agent-based framework, RLR (Represent, Legitimate, and Reproduce), to semi-automatically manage the evolution of bio-ontologies, with emphasis on the FungalWeb Ontology, with minimal human intervention. RLR assists and guides ontology engineers through the change management process in general, and aids in tracking and representing the changes, particularly through the use of category theory. Category theory has been used as a mathematical vehicle for modeling changes in ontologies and representing agents' interactions, independent of any specific choice of ontology language or particular implementation. We have also employed rule-based hierarchical graph transformation techniques to propose a more specific semantics for analyzing ontological changes and transformations between different versions of an ontology, as well as tracking the effects of a change in different levels of abstractions. Thus, the RLR framework enables one to manage changes in ontologies, not as standalone artifacts in isolation, but in contact with other ontologies in an openly distributed semantic web environment. The emphasis upon the generality and abstractness makes RLR more feasible in the multi-disciplinary domain of biomedical Ontology change management