On the use of requirement patterns to analyse request for proposal documents

Requirements reuse is still today a difficult goal to achieve. One particular context in which requirements reuse may give more benefits than costs is that of call for tenders projects, due to the similarity of the requirements documents (which take the form of requests for proposal documents, RfPs) from one project to another. In this paper, we present an approach aimed at making systematic the assessment of RfPs that technology providers need to conduct in order to decide whether they present a bid or not in a call for tenders project. The approach extends a metamodel we already defined for the former PABRE method, which has a similar goal but from the perspective of the organization that issues the call for tenders. The method is illustrated with an exploratory case study in the field of the railway systems domain.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Feasibility report: Delivering case-study based learning using artificial intelligence and gaming technologies

This document describes an investigation into the technical feasibility of a game to support learning based on case studies. Information systems students using the game will conduct fact-finding interviews with virtual characters. We survey relevant technologies in computational linguistics and games. We assess the applicability of the various approaches and propose an architecture for the game based on existing techniques. We propose a phased development plan for the development of the game

HACCP plan fresh fish processing Marituna

In the past regulatory authorities for food products had a duty to ensure that foods offered tothe consumer are at least safe to eat. The authorities required a positive approach of using Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), producing food in a hygienic manner, and by inspection of finished product. It is now realised that inspection of finished product gives a poor control over the safety of foods. Therefore, since 1 January 1993, regulatory authorities in Europe required that companies take a preventative approach to safety based on the principles of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP). Anyone exporting fish products to Europe or North America will have to implement a programme based on HACCP. If a company cannot demonstrate to the satisfaction of regulating agencies in importing countries that it has an effective programme operating in their processing plant, importers will not be permitted to accept the products. The United Nations food standard group Codex Alimentarius Commission has recommended HACCP's adoption as a system for ensuring the safety of foods (including finfish and shellfish) and the prevention of foodborne diseases

Rhetoric in standard setting : the case of the going-concern audit

This paper seeks to explore in depth the ways in which the rhetoric of the standard setter responds to comments received during development of a standard. Previous research has explored the use of rhetorical strategies in accounting standards to construct and persuade as to what is 'good' and to silence potential criticisms and alternative proposals. The exploration is extended to the development of an auditing standard and is strengthened by relating the opinions of lobbyists to the rhetoric used in the response. The analysis shows that, in a situation where the standard setter's position changed significantly during the exposure of proposals to comment, rhetorical strategies in the exposure draft or standard were adapted to match the changing direction of persuasion, with silencing of potential counter-argument evidenced in the surrounding explanatory material. Research implications/limitations - The research demonstrates that those using standards should be aware of the normative nature of these documents and the subjectivity inherent in the nature of the text. The paper builds on Young's 2003 paper by exploring the dynamics of the ways in which the rhetoric of the standard setter responds to comment during the consultation process

Analysing how constraints impact architectural decision-making

Architectural design projects are characterised by a high number of constraints. Along with planning, energy performance and fire safety regulations, current designers have to face constraining factors related to budget, acoustics, orientation, wind turbulence, accessibility for the disabled, and so forth. These constraints steer the design process implicitly and explicitly in certain directions as soon as architectural designers aim at satisfying design briefs. We aim in this article at analysing the impact of such constraints on the design process. At this end, we have studied four design sessions in a particular (student) design use case. In analysing these four sessions, we used linkography as a method, because this appeared to be one of the better options to obtain a more quantitative assessment of the design process. The linkography method was combined with an interview of the student design team, in order to check the correctness of our conclusions

Architecture for Provenance Systems

This document covers the logical and process architectures of provenance systems. The logical architecture identifies key roles and their interactions, whereas the process architecture discusses distribution and security. A fundamental aspect of our presentation is its technology-independent nature, which makes it reusable: the principles that are exposed in this document may be applied to different technologies

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

Doing pedagogical research in engineering

This is a book