32 research outputs found
The Unified Enterprise Modelling Language – Overview and further work
International audienceThe Unified Enterprise Modelling Language (UEML) aims at supporting integrated use of enterprise and IS models expressed using different languages. To achieve this aim, UEML offers a hub through which modelling languages can be connected, thereby paving the way for also connecting the models expressed in those languages. This paper motivates and presents the most central parts of the UEML approach: a structured path to describing enterprise and IS modelling constructs; a common ontology to interrelate construct descriptions at the semantic level; a correspondence analysis approach to estimate semantic construct similarity; a quality framework to aid selection of languages; a meta-meta model to integrate the different parts of the approach; and a set of tools to aid its use and evolution. The paper also discusses the benefits of UEML and points to paths for further work
The unified enterprise modelling language – Overview and further Work
ISBN 978-1-1234-7890-2/08International audienceThe Unified Enterprise Modelling Language (UEML) aims to support integrated use of enterprise and IS models expressed in a variety of languages. The achieve this aim, UEML provides a hub through which different languages can be connected, thereby paving the way for connecting the models expressed in those languages. UEML offers a structured approach to describing enterprise and IS modelling constructs, a common ontology to interrelate construct descriptions at the semantic level, a correspondence analysis approach to estimate semantic construct similarity, a quality framework to aid selection of languages, a meta-meta model to organise the UEML and a set of tools to aid its use. This paper presents an overview of UEML and points to paths for further work
Extensibility of Enterprise Modelling Languages
Die Arbeit adressiert insgesamt drei Forschungsschwerpunkte. Der erste Schwerpunkt setzt sich mit zu entwickelnden BPMN-Erweiterungen auseinander und stellt deren methodische Implikationen im Rahmen der bestehenden Sprachstandards dar. Dies umfasst zum einen ganz konkrete Spracherweiterungen wie z. B. BPMN4CP, eine BPMN-Erweiterung zur multi-perspektivischen Modellierung von klinischen Behandlungspfaden. Zum anderen betrifft dieser Teil auch modellierungsmethodische Konsequenzen, um parallel sowohl die zugrunde liegende Sprache (d. h. das BPMN-Metamodell) als auch die Methode zur Erweiterungsentwicklung zu verbessern und somit den festgestellten Unzulänglichkeiten zu begegnen.
Der zweite Schwerpunkt adressiert die Untersuchung von sprachunabhängigen Fragen der Erweiterbarkeit, welche sich entweder während der Bearbeitung des ersten Teils ergeben haben oder aus dessen Ergebnissen induktiv geschlossen wurden. Der Forschungsschwerpunkt fokussiert dabei insbesondere eine Konsolidierung bestehender Terminologien, die Beschreibung generisch anwendbarer Erweiterungsmechanismen sowie die nutzerorientierte Analyse eines potentiellen Erweiterungsbedarfs. Dieser Teil bereitet somit die Entwicklung einer generischen Erweiterungsmethode grundlegend vor. Hierzu zählt auch die fundamentale Auseinandersetzung mit Unternehmensmodellierungssprachen generell, da nur eine ganzheitliche, widerspruchsfreie und integrierte Sprachdefinition Erweiterungen überhaupt ermöglichen und gelingen lassen kann. Dies betrifft beispielsweise die Spezifikation der intendierten Semantik einer Sprache
Revitalizing the Retail Trade Sector in Rural Communities: Experiences of 13 North Dakota Towns
Community/Rural/Urban Development,
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
Supporting Automatic Interoperability in Model-Driven Development Processes
By analyzing the last years of software development evolution, it is possible to observe that
the involved technologies are increasingly focused on the definition of models for the
specification of the intended software products. This model-centric development schema is the
main ingredient for the Model-Driven Development (MDD) paradigm.
In general terms, the MDD approaches propose the automatic generation of software
products by means of the transformation of the defined models into the final program code.
This transformation process is also known as model compilation process. Thus, MDD is
oriented to reduce (or even eliminate) the hand-made programming, which is an error-prone and
time-consuming task. Hence, models become the main actors of the MDD processes: the
models are the new programming code.
In this context, the interoperability can be considered a natural trend for the future of
model-driven technologies, where different modeling approaches, tools, and standards can be
integrated and coordinated to reduce the implementation and learning time of MDD solutions
as well as to improve the quality of the final software products. However, there is a lack of
approaches that provide a suitable solution to support the interoperability in MDD processes.
Moreover, the proposals that define an interoperability framework for MDD processes are still
in a theoretical space and are not aligned with current standards, interoperability approaches,
and technologies.
Thus, the main objective of this doctoral thesis is to develop an approach to achieve the
interoperability in MDD processes. This interoperability approach is based on current
metamodeling standards, modeling language customization mechanisms, and model-to-model
transformation technologies. To achieve this objective, novel approaches have been defined to
improve the integration of modeling languages, to obtain a suitable interchange of modeling
information, and to perform automatic interoperability verification.Giachetti Herrera, GA. (2011). Supporting Automatic Interoperability in Model-Driven Development Processes [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/11108Palanci