Designinig Coordination among Human and Software Agents

The goal of this paper is to propose a new methodology for designing coordination between human angents and software agents and, ultimately, among software agents. The methodology is based on two key ideas. The first is that coordination should be designed in steps, according to a precise software engineering methodology, and starting from the specification of early requirements. The second is that coordination should be modeled as dependency between actors. Two actors may depend on one another because they want to achieve goals, acquire resources or execute a plan. The methodology used is based on Tropos, an agent oriented software engineering methodology presented in earlier papers. The methodology is presented with the help of a case study

Location-based software modeling and analysis: Tropos-based approach

Abstract. The continuous growth of interest in mobile applications makes the concept of location essential to design and develop software systems. Location-based software is supposed to be able to monitor the surrounding location and choose accordingly the most appropriate behavior. In this paper, we propose a novel conceptual framework to model and analyze location-based software. We mainly focus on the social facets of locations adopting concepts such as actor, resource, and location-based behavior. Our approach is based on Tropos methodology and allows the analyst to elicit and model software requirements according to the different locations where the software will operate. We propose an extension of Tropos modeling and adapt its process to suit well with the development of location-based software. The proposed framework also includes automated analysis techniques to reason about the relation between location and location-based software.

Applying tropos to socio-technical system design and runtime configuration

Recent trends in Software Engineering have introduced the importance of reconsidering the traditional idea of software design as a socio-tecnical problem, where human agents are integral part of the system along with hardware and software components. Design and runtime support for Socio-Technical Systems (STSs) requires appropriate modeling techniques and non-traditional infrastructures. Agent-oriented software methodologies are natural solutions to the development of STSs, both humans and technical components are conceptualized and analyzed as part of the same system. In this paper, we illustrate a number of Tropos features that we believe fundamental to support the development and runtime reconfiguration of STSs. Particularly, we focus on two critical design issues: risk analysis and location variability. We show how they are integrated and used into a planning-based approach to support the designer in evaluating and choosing the best design alternative. Finally, we present a generic framework to develop self-reconfigurable STSs

A Tool for Supporting Multi-Perspective System Development Through Security Risk Management

Infosüsteemid leiavad tänapäeval järjest enam ja enam kasutust erinevates valdkondades.Laialdane infosüsteemide kasutamine tähendab, et nende süsteemideturvalisus on ülimalt oluline. On saadud aru, et tähtis on turvalisuse peale mõelda juba süsteemide varajases arenguprotsessis. Üks võimalik lähenemine on modelleerida turvalisus mudelitesse juba süsteemi disainimise faasis.Käesolev magistritöö annab ülevaate, mis on infosüsteemi turvariski haldamisedomeenimudel ja kuidas erinevate modelleerimiskeelte turvalaiendused on selledomeeni mudeliga joondatud. Töö põhiväljund on arendatud rakendus, mis aitab kasutajatel õppida ja mõista eelpool mainitud joondusi ning õppida, kuidas transformeerida sama süsteemi mudeleid erinevatesse modelleerimiskeeltesse. Töö viimases osas valideeritakse loodud lahendus.Information systems are used more and more in variousFields in everyday life.Broad usage of information systems means that security of these systems is vital.The importance of bearing security in mind in early stages of developing newsystems has been acknowledged. One possible approach is to model security intomodels when designing the system.This master thesis will give an overview what is Information System SecurityRisk Management domain model and how secure extensions of different modelling languages have been aligned to it. The main output of this thesis is a developed tool which helps users learn and understand those alignments as well as learn the process of how to transform models about same system from one secure modelling language to another.In the final part of the thesis, the created solution is validated

Location-based Modeling and Analysis: Tropos-based Approach

The continuous growth of interest in mobile applications makes the concept of location essential to design and develop software systems. Location-based software is supposed to be able to monitor the location and choose accordingly the most appropriate behavior. In this paper, we propose a novel conceptual framework to model and analyze location-based software. We mainly focus on the social facets of locations adopting concepts such as social actor, resource, and location-based behavior. Our approach is based on Tropos methodology and allows the analyst to elicit and model software requirements according to the different locations where the software will operate. We propose an extension of Tropos modeling and adapt its process to suit well with the development of location-based software. The proposed framework also includes automated analysis techniques to reason about the relation between location and location-based behavior

Supporting Tropos concepts in Agent OPEN

The growth of interest in agent-orientation as a new paradigm has introduced the need for developing concepts, tools and techniques for modeling and engineering agent-based software systems. Object technology has been supporting the development of information systems for many years but is now slowly evolving to encompass more recent ideas relating to the concept of "agent". Integrating agent concepts into existing OO methodologies has resulted in several agent-oriented methodologies, one of which is Agent OPEN. In this paper, we evaluate the existing Agent OPEN description against ideas formulated within Tropos, an agent-oriented software development methodology. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004

Using a situational method engineering approach to identify reusable method fragments from the secure TROPOS methodology

Situational method engineering (SME) has as a focus a repository of method fragments, gleaned from extant methodologies and best practice. Using one such example, the OPF (OPEN Process Framework) repository, we identify deficiencies in the current SME support for securityrelated issues in the context of agent-oriented software engineering. Specifically, theoretical proposals for the development of reusable security-related method fragments from the agent-oriented methodology Secure Tropos are discussed. Since the OPF repository has already been enhanced by fragments from Tropos and other non-security-focussed agent-oriented software development methodologies, the only method fragments from Secure Tropos not already contained in this repository are those that are specifically security-related. These are identified, clearly defined and recommended for inclusion in the current OPF repository of method fragments. ©JOT 2010

Towards interoperability of i* models using iStarML

Goal-oriented and agent-oriented modelling provides an effective approach to the understanding of distributed information systems that need to operate in open, heterogeneous and evolving environments. Frameworks, firstly introduced more than ten years ago, have been extended along language variants, analysis methods and CASE tools, posing language semantics and tool interoperability issues. Among them, the i* framework is one the most widespread. We focus on i*-based modelling languages and tools and on the problem of supporting model exchange between them. In this paper, we introduce the i* interoperability problem and derive an XML interchange format, called iStarML, as a practical solution to this problem. We first discuss the main requirements for its definition, then we characterise the core concepts of i* and we detail the tags and options of the interchange format. We complete the presentation of iStarML showing some possible applications. Finally, a survey on the i* community perception about iStarML is included for assessment purposes.Preprin

A metamodelling approach for i* model translations

The i* (i-star) framework has been widely adopted by the information systems community. Since the time it was proposed, different variations have arisen. Some of them just propose slight changes in the language definition, whilst others introduce constructs for particular usages. This flexibility is one of the reasons that makes i* attractive, but it has as counterpart the impossibility of automatically porting i* models from one context of use to another. This lack of interoperability makes difficult to build a repository of models, to adopt directly techniques defined for one variation, or to use i* tools in a feature-oriented instead of a variant-oriented way. In this paper, we explore in more detail the interoperability problem from a metamodel perspective. We analyse the state of the art concerning variations of the i* language, from these variations and following a proposal from Wachsmuth, we define a supermetamodel hosting identified variations, general enough so as to embrace others yet to exist. We present a translation algorithm oriented to semantic preservation and we use the XML-based iStarML interchange format to illustrate the interconnection of two tools.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft