Argumentation-based Methodology for Goal-oriented Requirements Language (GRL)

Goal-oriented Requirements Language (GRL) aims to capture goals and non-functional requirements of stakeholders and analyzing alternative solutions for realizing these goals. GRL also documents the rationale behind selecting certain goals or alternatives. However, it does not have any means to document and trace back all of the arguments that occur during the stakeholder’s discussion process. To address this, we have developed the RationalGRL framework. RationalGRL combines techniques for formal argumentation from artificial intelligence with goal modeling in GRL. However, we did not specify how practitioners can actually use this framework. In this paper we discuss the methodology for RationalGRL, which consists of two processes, goal modeling and argumentation, that can be done interchangeably. We motivate our approach with an example

RationalGRL: A Framework for Argumentation and Goal Modeling

Goal-oriented requirements modeling approaches aim to capture the intentions of the stakeholders involved in the development of an information system as goals and tasks. The process of constructing such goal models usually involves discussions between a requirements engineer and a group of stakeholders. Not all the arguments in such discussions can be captured as goals or tasks: e.g., the discussion whether to accept or reject a certain goal and the rationale for acceptance or rejection cannot be captured in goal models. In this paper, we apply techniques from computational argumentation to a goal modeling approach by using a coding analysis in which stakeholders discuss requirements for a Traffic Simulator. We combine a simplified version of a traditional goal model, the Goal-oriented Requirements Language (GRL), with ideas from argumentation on schemes for practical reasoning into a new framework (RationalGRL). RationalGRL provides a formal semantics and tool support to capture the discussions and outcomes of the argumentation process that leads to a goal model. We also define the RationalGRL development process to create a RationalGRL model

A Conceptual Framework Towards Succession Effectiveness in Family Wineries: The “Winesuccess” Conceptual Framework

Succession effectiveness in family wineries is considered critical for the incumbents and the owning families looking forward to assure winery success and trans-generational continuity, as this endeavour requires substantial commitment, social skills, financial health, and idiosyncratic considerations that are more often than not unstable. Therefore, this thesis provides a platform of critical reflection and theoretical development upon the findings of a doctoral research on the topic of effective succession in family wineries for bringing further and closer theory and professional practice. Systematic literature review of the best available sources of knowledge served as a starting point. It was shown that there is a plethora of academic research on effective family business succession that makes available useful insights into this important process. The review has identified the major theories, models, and frameworks, and provided information on different factors and variables that are believed appropriate to foster succession process further. However, the review findings are often fragmented and subjective which makes it difficult to draw valid conclusions that can be representative for family wineries. Moreover, the review revealed certain gaps and uncertainties in the research that this thesis has aimed to bridge, and allowed the development of a preliminary conceptual framework (version one) with the testable research hypotheses. A primary research that followed in the organizational context of Cypriot family wineries made use of both quantitative and qualitative approaches, at a greater and lesser extent, respectively. These approaches were put forward based on the researcher’s ontological, epistemological and axiological assumptions. The numeric data were largely generated from a self-completed questionnaire survey that was comprehensive with an open aspect. The questionnaire was mailed to the entire population of fifty-four family wineries inclusive with hundred participants. The statistical analysis was undertaken using SPSS software. Pearson correlation analysis was the foremost statistical device used in the direction of establishment significant relationships among different succession factors. In order to enrich the meaning of statistical analysis with wine-specific insights, the researcher made further use of illustrative evidence collected from the survey open aspect

Rationalization of Goal Models in GRL using Formal Argumentation

Abstract—We apply an existing formal framework for practical reasoning with arguments and evidence to the Goal-oriented Requirements Language (GRL), which is part of the User Requirements Notation (URN). This formal framework serves as a rationalization for ele-ments in a GRL model: using attack relations between arguments we can automatically compute the accept-ability status of elements in a GRL model, based on the acceptability status of their underlying arguments and the evidence. We integrate the formal framework into the GRL metamodel and we set out a research to further develop this framework. Index Terms—User Requirements Notation, Goal-oriented Requirements Language, goal modeling, for-mal argumentation I