Model-driven design, simulation and implementation of service compositions in COSMO

The success of software development projects to a large extent depends on the quality of the models that are produced in the development process, which in turn depends on the conceptual and practical support that is available for modelling, design and analysis. This paper focuses on model-driven support for service-oriented software development. In particular, it addresses how services and compositions of services can be designed, simulated and implemented. The support presented is part of a larger framework, called COSMO (COnceptual Service MOdelling). Whereas in previous work we reported on the conceptual support provided by COSMO, in this paper we proceed with a discussion of the practical support that has been developed. We show how reference models (model types) and guidelines (design steps) can be iteratively applied to design service compositions at a platform independent level and discuss what tool support is available for the design and analysis during this phase. Next, we present some techniques to transform a platform independent service composition model to an implementation in terms of BPEL and WSDL. We use the mediation scenario of the SWS challenge (concerning the establishment of a purchase order between two companies) to illustrate our application of the COSMO framework

An OMG model-based approach for aligning information systems requirements and architectures with business

Tese de Doutoramento (Programa Doutoral em Tecnologias e Sistemas de Informação)The challenges involved in developing information systems (which are able to adapt to rapidly changing business and technological conditions) are directly related to the importance of their alignment with the business counterpart. These challenges comprise issues that cross management and information systems domains, relating and aligning them in order to attain superior performance for the organization, while identifying its strategy and tailoring its business processes. As this relation is increasingly intertwined its concepts are conducted to pragmatic methods, incorporating both management and information systems components, for how, when and where this alignment really matters. The related topics of the alignment between business and information systems comprise diverse paths of research, though with little common ground established inside the community, where problems arouse due to the fast moving business and technological environments. According to these circumstances, the process of developing information systems to support the alignment benefits from incorporating the use of structured and model-based approaches. So, as the development of evermore complex information systems presents a challenge for the currently available methods, the use of models to support the alignment with business stands as an increasingly important issue. Following those challenges, we set out to question how to develop solutions aligning information systems with business in a model-based approach. Accordingly, we support our research on the need to understand what are the perspectives involved in aligning information systems with business, and, moreover, to comprehend in what sense model adoption drives information systems development. So, the proposed goals for this thesis are: (1) set the basis for the elicitation of business requirements in order to support a well-grounded development of information systems; (2) provide for the generation of business models based on the business requirements, while assuring their alignment and traceability; and (3) arrange for the derivation of information system architectures from the business requirements, while attaining alignment and traceability for their mutual transformation and adaptation. Several issues surrounding these goals have already been described and approached in diverse ways by other researchers, where existing approaches and associated methods achieved good results. Nevertheless, these approaches are not without their shortfalls, sometimes failing to present a complete solution, others being unable to adapt to new challenges, or even incapable of reacting to recent trends. In order to tackle these issues we propose to build upon those approaches by adapting, evolving and innovating on solutions in each of the three proposed goals, respectively intertwining with perspectives from related standards and reference models. Answering the first goal, in what regards the main contributions of this thesis, we propose to broaden the elicitation of requirements by relating functional and nonfunctional requirements from business processes. So, we present a unified metamodel representation for those requirements, accompanied by a customizable method for their joint elicitation, based-on business-driven use-cases, goals and rules. This approach adopts the Rational Unified Process (RUP) development methodology and the Business Motivation Model (BMM) standard model language representation for business requirements. Moreover, the metamodel representation and method operationalization are accompanied by a prototype support tool that completes this first contribution. For the second goal, a more business-oriented one correlated to the higher-level requirements, we propose to generate business models directly from the inferred functional and nonfunctional requirements. So, we present a three-dimensional approach built on the relation of the referred requirements with the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) reference model, where an additional mapping to the Business Model Canvas (BMC) is also made available. This proposal provides an associated metamodel representation for the relation between the elements involved and a customizable method for their operationalization, all accompanied by a prototype support tool. On the third goal, focused on system architectures and connected to the lower-level requirements, we propose to derive service-oriented participants from the functional requirements, while aligning the nonfunctional requirements with the quality characteristics of the solution to-be. First, we present an evolution of an existing method for the derivation of a logical architecture, in order to adapt it to a service-oriented approach (SOA). Then, following on the existing relation between the nonfunctional and functional side of the low-level requirements, our approach is able to associate these last with its related services on the derived architecture, in another three-dimensional approach. Additionally, a mapping of the nonfunctional requirements with the system quality characteristics (CISQ) is made available. Once more, an associated metamodel, a customizable method and a prototype support tool are also provided. The development of these three approaches is supported through the execution of tasks which originate artifacts and lead to publications associated to their respective research and development efforts, all according to the Design Science Research (DSR) methodology. These are applied in ongoing projects involving experimental scenarios in industrial settings and associated to established research reference patterns, balancing the interests of both researchers and practitioners while focused both on technology and management audiences. The results obtained from their evaluation reflect the quality and depth of our findings, helping to validate the scientific contribution of this work.Os desafios implicados no desenvolvimento de sistemas de informação (que sejam capazes de se adaptar a condições tecnológicas e de negócios em rápida mutação) estão diretamente relacionados à importância do seu alinhamento com a contraparte do negócio. Esses desafios envolvem questões que cruzam os domínios da gestão e dos sistemas de informação, relacionando-os e alinhando-os com o intuito de alcançar um desempenho superior para a organização, ao mesmo tempo que identificam a sua estratégia e adequam os seus processos de negócio. Como esta relação está cada vez mais interligada, os seus conceitos são canalizados para métodos pragmáticos, incorporando ambos os componentes de sistemas de informação e de gestão, para saber como, quando e onde este alinhamento realmente interessa. Os tópicos relacionados com o alinhamento entre negócio e sistemas de informação abrangem diversos caminhos de pesquisa, embora com poucos alicerces em comum estabelecidos dentro da comunidade, onde os problemas surgem devido às rápidas mudanças nos negócios e nos ambientes tecnológicos. De acordo com estas circunstâncias, o processo de desenvolvimento de sistemas de informação para apoiar o alinhamento beneficia de incorporar o uso de abordagens estruturadas e baseadas em modelos. Assim, dado que o desenvolvimento de sistemas de informação cada vez mais complexos apresenta um desafio para os métodos atualmente disponíveis, o uso de modelos para apoiar o alinhamento com o negócio destaca-se como uma questão cada vez mais importante. Em linha com esses desafios, estabelecemos a questão de como desenvolver soluções para alinhar sistemas de informações com o negócio numa abordagem baseada em modelos. Neste sentido, apoiamos a nossa pesquisa na necessidade de compreender quais são as perspetivas envolvidas no alinhamento dos sistemas de informação com o negócio, e, além disso, de compreender em que sentido a adoção de modelos capacita o desenvolvimento desses sistemas. Assim, os objetivos propostos para esta tese são: (1) definir as bases para o levantamento de requisitos de negócio a fim de suportar um desenvolvimento bem fundamentado de sistemas de informação; (2) disponibilizar a geração de modelos de negócio baseados nos requisitos de negócio, garantindo o alinhamento e a rastreabilidade entre ambos; e (3) estruturar a derivação de arquiteturas de sistema de informação a partir dos requisitos de negócio, preservando o alinhamento e rastreabilidade para a sua mútua transformação e adaptação. Várias questões envolvendo estes objetivos foram já descritas e tratadas de diversas maneiras por outros investigadores, tendo as abordagens existentes e os métodos associados alcançado bons resultados. No entanto, essas abordagens têm as suas lacunas, umas vezes falham em apresentar uma solução completa, noutras são ineficientes ao se adaptarem a novos desafios, ou mesmo incapazes de reagir às novas tendências. Para lidar com estas questões, propomo-nos apoiar nessas abordagens, adaptando, evoluindo e inovando em soluções para cada um dos três objetivos propostos, intersetando-as, respetivamente, com perspetivas de modelos de referência e padrões relacionados. Relativamente ao primeiro objetivo, no que concerne aos principais contributos desta tese, propomos alargar o levantamento de requisitos, relacionando os requisitos funcionais e nãofuncionais dos processos de negócios. Assim, apresentamos um meta-modelo para a representação unificada desses requisitos, acompanhado por um método personalizável para o seu levantamento conjunto, baseada em casos-de-uso, metas e regras orientadas a negócio. Esta abordagem adota a metodologia de desenvolvimento do Rational Unified Process (RUP) e a representação padrão do modelo de linguagem do Business Motivation Model (BMM), para os requisitos de negócio. Além disso, a representação meta-modelo e a operacionalização do método são acompanhados por um protótipo de uma ferramenta de suporte que completa esta primeira contribuição. Quanto ao segundo objetivo, mais orientado ao negócio e correlacionado com os requisitos de nível superior, propomos gerar modelos de negócio a partir dos requisitos funcionais e não-funcionais inferidos. Assim, apresentamos uma abordagem tridimensional, construída sobre a relação dos referidos requisitos com o modelo de referência do Balanced Scorecard (BSC), em que um mapeamento adicional para o Business Model Canvas (BMC) é também disponibilizado. Esta proposta inclui um meta-modelo para representação da relação entre os elementos envolvidos e um método personalizável para a sua operacionalização, tudo acompanhado por um protótipo de uma ferramenta de suporte. No terceiro objetivo, focado em arquiteturas de sistema e ligado aos requisitos de nível inferior, propomos derivar participantes orientados-a-serviços desde os requisitos funcionais, alinhando os requisitos não-funcionais com as características de qualidade da solução a obter. Primeiro, apresentamos uma evolução de um método existente para a derivação de uma arquitetura lógica, adaptando-o a uma abordagem-orientada-a-serviços (SOA). Assim, prosseguindo a relação existente entre o lado não-funcional e funcional dos requisitos de baixo nível, a nossa abordagem associa estes últimos com os serviços relacionados na arquitetura derivada, numa outra abordagem tridimensional. Além disso, um mapeamento dos requisitos não-funcionais com as características de qualidade do sistema (CISQ) é disponibilizado. Mais uma vez, um meta-modelo associado, um método personalizável e um protótipo da ferramenta de suporte são disponibilizados. O desenvolvimento destas três abordagens é suportado pela execução de tarefas, as quais dão origem a artefatos e levam a publicações associadas aos seus esforços de pesquisa e desenvolvimento respetivamente, tudo de acordo com a metodologia DSR. Estas são aplicadas a projetos em andamento, os quais envolvem cenários experimentais em ambientes industriais e associados a padrões de investigação de referência, equilibrando os interesses de investigadores e profissionais assim como dos diferentes públicos de tecnologia e gestão. Os resultados obtidos na sua avaliação refletem a qualidade e a profundidade dos nossos resultados, ajudando a validar a contribuição científica deste trabalho

Study and proposal of a framework for designing tailorable user interfaces

Orientador: Maria Cecilia Calani BaranauskasTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de ComputaçãoResumo: A socialização dos sistemas computacionais trouxe um desafio a mais para os pesquisadores de Interação Humano-Computador: como prover interfaces que propiciem acesso ao maior número possível de usuários independentemente de suas capacidades sensoriais, físicas, cognitivas e emocionais? Um dos caminhos que se apresenta é desenvolver sistemas flexíveis, i.e. que permitam modificações em seu comportamento durante a interação, oferecendo ao usuário a possibilidade de ajustar a interface de acordo com as suas preferências, necessidades e situações de uso. O design de interfaces flexíveis, que façam sentido e sejam acessíveis a mais pessoas, demanda abordagens que permitam conhecer e formalizar os diferentes requisitos de interação, definir funcionalidades e determinar o comportamento ajustável do sistema. Soluções encontradas na literatura relacionadas ao tema interfaces ajustáveis, (ou tailoring em inglês) enfatizam questões relacionadas à infra-estrutura necessária para o ajuste, não tendo sido encontrados trabalhos que apoiassem os designers de forma prática durante o processo de concepção dessas interfaces. Esta tese propõe e apresenta um framework para o design de interfaces de usuário ajustáveis, denominado PLuRaL. O termo framework é utilizado aqui no seu sentido mais amplo como uma estrutura composta por diretrizes, mecanismos, artefatos e sistemas usados no planejamento e na tomada de decisões de design. O PLuRaL adota uma perspectiva sócio-técnica para a concepção das interfaces ajustáveis e uma visão abrangente dos requisitos de interação, incluindo aqueles que são controversos ou minoritários e advindos não somente de usuários, mas também de diferentes dispositivos e ambientes de interação. Aspectos semânticos, pragmáticos e o impacto social da interação também são considerados. Por fim, o comportamento ajustável do sistema é modelado utilizando-se o conceito de normas. O referencial teórico-metodológico adotado para o trabalho de pesquisa envolveu as disciplinas de Interação Humano-Computador e Semiótica Organizacional. A construção do framework foi pautada por 2 estudos de caso envolvendo populações de usuário heterogêneas em contextos de sistemas de governo eletrônico e de rede social inclusiva. A validação do framework foi realizada com 17 designers e os resultados sugerem uma avaliação positiva considerando a utilidade, flexibilidade para apoiar mudanças, liberdade de criação e satisfação com as propostas de design resultantesAbstract: The socialization of computer systems has brought a new challenge to Human-Computer Interaction researchers: how to design interfaces that provide access to as many users as possible regardless of their sensory, physical, cognitive and emotional characteristics? One approach to answer this question is to develop flexible systems, i.e. those that allow changes in their behavior during the interaction, offering users the possibility to tailor the interface according to their preferences, needs and situations of use. The design of flexible interfaces, which make sense and are accessible to more people, demands approaches to understand and formalize the different interaction requirements, define functionalities and determine the system tailorable behavior. Solutions found in the literature about tailorable interfaces have focused on the infrastructure needed to offer flexibility and works to support designers in a practical way during the conception of such interfaces were not found. This thesis proposes and presents a framework for the design of tailorable user interfaces, named PLuRaL. The term framework is used here in its broadest sense as a structure consisting of guidelines, mechanisms, artifacts and systems used in design planning and decision-making. PLuRaL adopts a socio-technical approach to design tailorable interfaces and a comprehensive view for interaction requirements, including those that are controversial or from minority, and arising not only from users, but also from different devices and interaction environments. The semantic, pragmatic and social impacts of the interaction are also considered. Finally, the behavior of the tailorable system is modeled using the concept of norms. The theoretical and methodological references adopted in this work involved the disciplines of Human-Computer Interaction and Organizational Semiotics. The framework's construction was guided by 2 case studies with heterogeneous populations, in the context of electronic government and inclusive social network system. The framework's validation was performed with 17 designers and the results suggest a positive evaluation considering the usefulness and flexibility to support changes, freedom to create and satisfaction with the final design proposalsDoutoradoMetodologia e Tecnicas da ComputaçãoDoutor em Ciência da Computaçã

ASSESSMENT OF MODEL CONVERSION FROM GENESYS TO MAGIC SYSTEM OF SYSTEMS ARCHITECT FOR MODEL-BASED SYSTEMS ENGINEERING INTEROPERABILITY

This thesis investigates whether the information contained in a Vitech Genesys model can retain its informational accuracy after conversion into a Dassault Systemes’ Magic System of Systems Architect (MSOSA) model. The thesis uses a sample system model in Vitech that implements the system definition language (SDL) and converts it to MSOSA, which uses the systems modeling language (SysML). The study reviewed conversion methods available to the user and converted a Genesys model to an MSOSA model using the only available method, Excel. The study then assessed the converted model and outlined any post-migration remediation. The results of this thesis demonstrate that the currently available methods are feasible but inefficient, as only 34% of the entities and 9% of the relationships transferred successfully during the experiment. Genesys can output tabular data that represents system model entities and relationships; however, the MSOSA import function was unable to correctly import entities that had one-to-many relationships with other entities. Consequently, the user must perform manual manipulation during the conversion process. Furthermore, ontological differences between the tools prevented the complete import of behavioral data, since many SDL entities map to more than one SysML entity. Based on the results, this thesis recommends pursuing an extensible markup language–based software solution for Genesys and MSOSA and developing a formal Navy and Marine Corps ontology.Civilian, Department of the NavyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

A grounded theory of requirements documentation in the practice of software development

This thesis is concerned with the concept of a “ good enough” requirements document. It takes the position, based on empirical observations, that standard prescriptive approaches have failed to identify the necessary and sufficient characteristics of a good requirements document, because what is good enough in one situation may not be desirable or acceptable in another. Therefore, no single set o f criteria can define “a good requirements document”. The thesis presents a grounded theory which attempts to explain the diversity of styles of requirements documents found in practice, in relation to the variety of situations in which software products and systems are developed. It identifies the factors that might be useful to categorise situations from the point of view of requirements documentation. Requirements documents are widely used in software development, an activity typically carried out in an organisational context. Organisational theory suggests that the best approach in any situation depends on the factors that affect that situation. In the research, it was found that experienced practitioners employ a wide variety of constituent elements, structures, and styles when documenting requirements. This is in contrast with much of the literature on requirements engineering. The contribution o f this research is in three parts (a) an analysis o f requirements documents as texts, (b) a scheme for classifying system development situations with respect to the requirements documentation process, and (c) a framework matching typical requirements documents with the types o f situations identified in (a). As a grounded theory, it is the result of a detailed and systematic investigation into the role of requirements documents in the practice of software development Its status as a theory implies that it is tentative and provisional. An outline of how the theory might be validated for its usefulness, applicability, and generality is presented in the concluding chapter

Harmonising knowledge for safer materials via the “NanoCommons” Knowledge Base

In mediaeval Europe, the term “commons” described the way that communities managed land that was held “in common” and provided a clear set of rules for how this “common land” was used and developed by, and for, the community. Similarly, as we move towards an increasingly knowledge-based society where data is the new oil, new approaches to sharing and jointly owning publicly funded research data are needed to maximise its added value. Such common management approaches will extend the data’s useful life and facilitate its reuse for a range of additional purposes, from modelling, to meta-analysis to regulatory risk assessment as examples relevant to nanosafety data. This “commons” approach to nanosafety data and nanoinformatics infrastructure provision, co-development, and maintenance is at the heart of the “NanoCommons” project and underpins its post-funding transition to providing a basis on which other initiatives and projects can build. The present paper summarises part of the NanoCommons infrastructure called the NanoCommons Knowledge Base. It provides interoperability for nanosafety data sources and tools, on both semantic and technical levels. The NanoCommons Knowledge Base connects knowledge and provides both programmatic (via an Application Programming Interface) and a user-friendly graphical interface to enable (and democratise) access to state of the art tools for nanomaterials safety prediction, NMs design for safety and sustainability, and NMs risk assessment, as well. In addition, the standards and interfaces for interoperability, e.g., file templates to contribute data to the NanoCommons, are described, and a snapshot of the range and breadth of nanoinformatics tools and models that have already been integrated are presented Finally, we demonstrate how the NanoCommons Knowledge Base can support users in the FAIRification of their experimental workflows and how the NanoCommons Knowledge Base itself has progressed towards richer compliance with the FAIR principles

UBIDEV: a homogeneous service framework for pervasive computing environments

This dissertation studies the heterogeneity problem of pervasive computing system from the viewpoint of an infrastructure aiming to provide a service-oriented application model. From Distributed System passing through mobile computing, pervasive computing is presented as a step forward in ubiquitous availability of services and proliferation of interacting autonomous entities. To better understand the problems related to the heterogeneous and dynamic nature of pervasive computing environments, we need to analyze the structure of a pervasive computing system from its physical and service dimension. The physical dimension describes the physical environment together wit the technology infrastructure that characterizes the interactions and the relations within the environment; the service dimension represents the services (being them software or not) the environment is able to provide [Nor99]. To better separate the constrains and the functionalities of a pervasive computing system, this dissertation classifies it in terms of resources, context, classification, services, coordination and application. UBIDEV, as the key result of this dissertation, introduces a unified model helping the design and the implementation of applications for heterogeneous and dynamic environments. This model is composed of the following concepts: • Resource: all elements of the environment that are manipulated by the application, they are the atomic abstraction unit of the model. • Context: all information coming from the environment that is used by the application to adapts its behavior. Context contains resources and services and defines their role in the application. • Classification: the environment is classified according to the application ontology in order to ground the generic conceptual model of the application to the specific environment. It defines the basic semantic level of interoperability. • Service: the functionalities supported by the system; each service manipulates one or more resources. Applications are defined as a coordination and adaptation of services. • Coordination: all aspects related to service composition and execution as well as the use of the contextual information are captured by the coordination concept. • Application Ontology: represents the viewpoint of the application on the specific context; it defines the high level semantic of resources, services and context. Applying the design paradigm proposed by UBIDEV, allows to describe applications according to a Service Oriented Architecture[Bie02], and to focus on application functionalities rather than their relations with the physical devices. Keywords: pervasive computing, homogenous environment, service-oriented, heterogeneity problem, coordination model, context model, resource management, service management, application interfaces, ontology, semantic services, interaction logic, description logic.Questa dissertazione studia il problema della eterogeneit`a nei sistemi pervasivi proponendo una infrastruttura basata su un modello orientato ai servizi. I sistemi pervasivi sono presentati come un’evoluzione naturale dei sistemi distribuiti, passando attraverso mobile computing, grazie ad una disponibilit`a ubiqua di servizi (sempre, ovunque ed in qualunque modo) e ad loro e con l’ambiente stesso. Al fine di meglio comprendere i problemi legati allintrinseca eterogeneit`a dei sistemi pervasivi, dobbiamo prima descrivere la struttura fondamentale di questi sistemi classificandoli attraverso la loro dimensione fisica e quella dei loro servizi. La dimensione fisica descrive l’ambiente fisico e tutti i dispositivi che fanno parte del contesto della applicazione. La dimensione dei servizi descrive le funzionalit`a (siano esse software o no) che l’ambiente `e in grado di fornire [Nor99]. I sistemi pervasivi vengono cos`ı classificati attraverso una metrica pi `u formale del tipo risorse, contesto, servizi, coordinazione ed applicazione. UBIDEV, come risultato di questa dissertazione, introduce un modello uniforme per la descrizione e lo sviluppo di applicazioni in ambienti dinamici ed eterogenei. Il modello `e composto dai seguenti concetti di base: • Risorse: gli elementi dell’ambiente fisico che fanno parte del modello dellapplicazione. Questi rappresentano l’unit`a di astrazione atomica di tutto il modello UBIDEV. • Contesto: le informazioni sullo stato dell’ambiente che il sistema utilizza per adattare il comportamento dell’applicazione. Il contesto include informazioni legate alle risorse, ai servizi ed alle relazioni che li legano. • Classificazione: l’ambiente viene classificato sulla base di una ontologia che rappresenta il punto di accordo a cui tutti i moduli di sistema fanno riferimento. Questa classificazione rappresenta il modello concettuale dell’applicazione che si riflette sull’intero ambiente. Si definisce cos`ı la semantica di base per tutto il sistema. • Servizi: le funzionalit`a che il sistema `e in grado di fornire; ogni servizio `e descritto in termini di trasformazione di una o pi `u risorse. Le applicazioni sono cos`ı definite in termini di cooperazione tra servizi autonomi. • Coordinazione: tutti gli aspetti legati alla composizione ed alla esecuzione di servizi cos`ı come l’elaborazione dell’informazione contestuale. • Ontologia dell’Applicazione: rappresenta il punto di vista dell’applicazione; definisce la semantica delle risorse, dei servizi e dell’informazione contestuale. Applicando il paradigma proposto da UBIDEV, si possono descrivere applicazioni in accordo con un modello Service-oriented [Bie02] ed, al tempo stesso, ridurre l’applicazione stessa alle sue funzionalit`a di alto livello senza intervenire troppo su come queste funzionalit` a devono essere realizzate dalle singole componenti fisiche