A method for building and evaluating formal specifications of object-oriented conceptual models of database systems

This report describes a method called MCM (Method for Conceptual Modeling) for building and evaluating formal specifications of object-oriented models of database system behavior. An important aim of MCM is to bridge the gap between formal specification and informal understanding. Building a MCM model is a process that moves from the informal to the formal, evaluating the model is a process that moves back from the formal to the informal. First, a general framework for information system development methods is given, that is used to indicate which elements are needed to build a particular information system development method. In general, the following elements are needed (see figure 0.1) l. Requirements determination methods that can be used to determine the information needs of the environment, and to find functional and nonfunctional requirements specifications. 2. Conceptual modeling methods that can be used to elaborate the statement of functional require­ ments into a formal specification of observable system behavior. 3. Implementation methods that can be used to transform the conceptual model specification into an implementation within the constraints indicated by the nonfunctional requirements. 4. Project management methods that can be used to manage the development process in the presence of limited resources and a potentially disturbing environment. MCM is a conceptual modeling method, and must therefore in any information system development project be supplemented with three other kinds of methods. MCM contains three kinds of methods (figure 0.1). 1. Observation methods to find relevant data about the required database system. 2. Induction methods that allow one to go from a finite set of data about required system behavior to a conceptual model that represents all of this behavior. 3. Evaluation methods that allow one to test the quality of a specification of a conceptual model. In this report, I concentrate on induction and evaluation methods and merely make a list of relevant observation methods. The induction methods listed in figure 0.1 are not exhaustive. MCM can be viewed as a framework within which methods and techniques for conceptual modeling can be plugged. Some of these methods and techniques are mentioned in this report but not elaborated. There are three kinds of evaluation methods, that deal with the validity of the conceptual model, the utility of the specified behavior, and the quality of the use that is made of the available modeling constructs. Prototyping and animation are briefly discussed as evaluation methods. The quality checks, however, are listed exhaustively. The result of following MCM is a conceptual model. In the philosophy of MCM, a conceptual model consists of three components (see figure 0.2): 1. The UoD model is a model of the part of reality represented by the database system. 2. The DBS model represents DBS behavior, such as the queries to be asked from the DBS, the user interface, the contents and layout of reports produced by the DBS, etc. 3. A model of the boundary between the DBS and the UoD. This is a list of all possible transactions that the DBS can engage in, plus the function that this behavior has for the user of the DBS

A formal technique for the logical design of organisational information systems.

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:D51992/84 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Privacy-preserving social media data publishing for personalized ranking-based recommendation

Personalized recommendation is crucial to help users find pertinent information. It often relies on a large collection of user data, in particular users' online activity (e.g., tagging/rating/checking-in) on social media, to mine user preference. However, releasing such user activity data makes users vulnerable to inference attacks, as private data (e.g., gender) can often be inferred from the users' activity data. In this paper, we proposed PrivRank, a customizable and continuous privacy-preserving social media data publishing framework protecting users against inference attacks while enabling personalized ranking-based recommendations. Its key idea is to continuously obfuscate user activity data such that the privacy leakage of user- specified private data is minimized under a given data distortion budget, which bounds the ranking loss incurred from the data obfuscation process in order to preserve the utility of the data for enabling recommendations. An empirical evaluation on both synthetic and real-world datasets shows that our framework can efficiently provide effective and continuous protection of user-specified private data, while still preserving the utility of the obfuscated data for personalized ranking-based recommendation. Compared to state-of-the-art approaches, PrivRank achieves both a better privacy protection and a higher utility in all the ranking-based recommendation use cases we tested

A theoretical and practical investigation of tools and techniques for the structuring of data and for modelling its behaviour

This thesis is about data and behaviour modelling for information system development. It has been sponsored at different times by two specialist consultancies: CACI Inc International and James Martin Associates. Initially I found problem areas in the field of system development by interviewing practitioners and by consultancy. These initial problem areas were whittled down to: action modelling, entity model clustering and a diagrammer. Action modelling is the modelling of detailed data behaviour using the same structuring concepts as data modelling. It was developed because of a lack of such analysis in systems development. Entity model clustering is about aggregating the entity types in a large entity model to abstract the essential meaning and to identify the most fundamental entity types. It was developed because of a need to summarise large entity relationship models for usability and comprehension. It has been used widely and has many benefits. A parallelism between data and activity modelling was developed as a result of the research into action modelling and entity model clustering. It needed the concepts derived from the other two areas to finally complete the theory, summarised as: every data modelling concept and structure has an exact equivalent in activity modelling and vice-versa. This theory gives a wholeness and completeness to modelling data and activity. A diagrammer was produced for the automatic production and manipulation of entity relationship diagrams from a base description. These diagrams are the basic tool of the data modeller; automating them saves time and potentially raises their accuracy. The main research problem was that few companies were willing to be guinea pigs, so most of the research was developed by thought 'games'. Most areas have been published in refereed publications as this was seen as the best way of establishing their academic credibility. All areas have been incorporated into or had an impact on James Martin Associates and their methodology Information Engineering, which provides a framework for coordinating the research areas. This research can best be techniques for improving summarised as the systems an attempt to find analysis process

Information management within the Nursing Department at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Qatar

Hamad Medical Corporation, the main healthcare provider in the state of Qatar, sponsored this study to investigate the use of electronic records management as the basis for a novel information management system in its Nursing Department. To assess the viability of an electronic records management system a questionnaire survey of a representative sample of the staff and interviews with key post holders were under taken. Results obtained indicated a wide spread dissatisfaction with the existing manual system. However, introduction of any computer-based technology requires great care. To assist with identifying any issues with this technological change, Soft System Methodology (SSM) was employed to discern what changes could be made to improve the current problematic situation found in the Nursing Department. In fact the change archetypes uncovered (procedural, attitudinal, structural and cultural) formed an innovative input into obtaining a roadmap for development of the electronic staff records system. This roadmap was facilitated by the use of Nominal Group Technique (NGT) and Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM): In fact the roadmap was an ISM intent structure. The roadmap suggested that change could be affected by having written policy documents and the top goal to be achieved reflected an improvement in manpower placing and budgetary forecasts. The use of a multi-methods approach meant that as well as this study's main objectives being reached, the process encompassed some methodological innovations. This study is the first to use the output of SSM to facilitate the NGT and ISM interactions. Equally, it is the first study of its sort to be applied to the Nursing Department at HMC, Qatar, which is an example of a cross-cultural eastern philosophical tradition. The methods used here revealed some significant findings, and have helped in the development of an electronic records management system for use at HMC, Qatar

Business strategy driven IT systems for engineer-to-order and make-to-order manufacturing enterprises

This thesis reports research into the specification and implementation of an Information Technology (IT) Route Map. The purpose of the Route Map is to enable rapid design and deployment of IT solutions capable of semi-automating business processes in a manufacturing enterprise. The Map helps structure transition processes involved in “identification of key business strategies and design of business processes” and “choice of enterprise systems and supporting implementation techniques”. Common limitations of current Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are observed and incorporated as Route Map implications and constraints. Scope of investigation is targeted at Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) that employ Engineer-To-Order (ETO) and Make-To-Order (MTO) business processes. However, a feature of the Route Map is that it takes into account contemporary business concerns related to “globalisation”, “mergers and acquisitions” and “typical resource constraint problems of SMEs”. In the course of the research a “Business Strategy Driven IT System Concept” was conceived and examined. The main purpose of this concept is to promote the development of agile and innovative business activity in SMEs. The Road Map encourages strategy driven solutions to be (a) specified based on the use of emerging enterprise engineering theories and (b) implemented and changed using componentbased systems design and composition techniques. Part-evaluation of the applicability and capabilities of the Road Map has been carried out by conducting industrial survey and case study work. This assesses requirements of real industrial problems and solutions. The evaluation work has also been enabled by conducting a pilot implementation of the thesis concepts at the premises of a partner SME