UNDERSTANDING THE ADOPTION OF USE CASE NARRATIVES IN THE UNIFIED MODELING LANGUAGE

This research examines the adoption of Use Case Narratives within the Unified Modeling Language (UML).Using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) as a framework, practitioners with UML experience were asked questions to measure their Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness of Use Case Narratives and their Intentions to Adopt them. We extend Perceived Usefulness in the context of UML adoption to address the question “usefulness for what purpose(s)?” Generally, we find that TAM explains Use Case Narrative acceptance. More importantly, we find that Perceived Usefulness is explained by usefulness for specific software development tasks. This research provides three main contributions, beginning with an improved understanding of the role of Use Case Narratives in UML projects. Second, the study extends TAM by explaining how a technology is used rather than simply whether it is used. Third, this study provides a framework for future studies into other UML diagrams

Actor perception in business use case modeling

Mainstream literature recognizes the validity and effectiveness of use cases as a technique for gathering and capturing system requirements. Use cases represent the driver of various modern development methods, mainly of object-oriented extraction, such as the Unified Process. Although the adoption of use cases proliferated in the context of software systems development, they are not as extensively employed in business modeling . The concept of business use case is not a novelty, but only recently did it begin to re-circulate in the literature and in case tools. This paper examines the issues involved in adopting business use cases for capturing the functionality of an organization and proposes guidelines for their identification, packaging, and mapping to system use cases. The proposed guidelines are based on the principle of actor perception described in the paper. The application of this principle is exemplified with a worked example aimed at demonstrating the utility of the proposed guidelines and at clarifying the application of the principle of actor perception. The worked example is based on a series of workshops run at a major UK financial institution

Language and Ideology: A role for scientific metaphor

A number of prominent popular science writers have recently argued for the active appropriation of scientific language in the formulation of modern ideologies and ethical systems. A critical examination of scientific narratives in light of contemporary theories of metaphor and relevance suggests that scientific language indeed harbors the same emotive potential that is traditionally ascribed to religious language, and can exhibit potent transformative effects in shaping human thought. Also highlighted through this approach are the challenges of constructing scientific metaphors that are generally meaningful, accurate, and ethically responsible

Philosophy of Blockchain Technology - Ontologies

About the necessity and usefulness of developing a philosophy specific to the blockchain technology, emphasizing on the ontological aspects. After an Introduction that highlights the main philosophical directions for this emerging technology, in Blockchain Technology I explain the way the blockchain works, discussing ontological development directions of this technology in Designing and Modeling. The next section is dedicated to the main application of blockchain technology, Bitcoin, with the social implications of this cryptocurrency. There follows a section of Philosophy in which I identify the blockchain technology with the concept of heterotopia developed by Michel Foucault and I interpret it in the light of the notational technology developed by Nelson Goodman as a notational system. In the Ontology section, I present two developmental paths that I consider important: Narrative Ontology, based on the idea of order and structure of history transmitted through Paul Ricoeur's narrative history, and the Enterprise Ontology system based on concepts and models of an enterprise, specific to the semantic web, and which I consider to be the most well developed and which will probably become the formal ontological system, at least in terms of the economic and legal aspects of blockchain technology. In Conclusions I am talking about the future directions of developing the blockchain technology philosophy in general as an explanatory and robust theory from a phenomenologically consistent point of view, which allows testability and ontologies in particular, arguing for the need of a global adoption of an ontological system for develop cross-cutting solutions and to make this technology profitable. CONTENTS: Abstract Introducere Tehnologia blockchain - Proiectare - Modele Bitcoin Filosofia Ontologii - Ontologii narative - Ontologii de intreprindere Concluzii Note Bibliografie DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.24510.3360

In Pursuit of Systems Theories for Describing and Analyzing Systems in Organizations

This research essay illustrates how the IS discipline might pursue systems theories with the goal of understanding IS in new ways, generating innovative and useful systems theories, and achieving more impact in the world. It discusses recent articles that compare different perspectives and expectations related to theories and theorizing in the IS discipline. It uses the term domain-specific systems theory (DSST) to accentuate the difference between general systems theory (GST) and specific systems theories. It provides examples illustrating how DSSTs can illuminate important concerns that variance and process perspectives do not address directly. It shows how work system theory (WST) and several of its extensions are DSSTs that provide useful lenses for understanding, analyzing, and theorizing about systems in organizations. It concludes by summarizing ways in which the IS discipline might welcome systems theories more wholeheartedly

Better Use Case Diagrams by Using Work System Snapshots

Research to date shows significant variability in the success of applying the common technique of use case diagramming for identifying information system scope in terms of use cases performed by actors interacting with an information system or performed automatically by the information system. The current research tests a) the benefits of using a work system snapshot, a basic analytical tool from the work system method, before producing use case diagrams, and b) the additional benefits of enhancing use case diagramming constructs to distinguish between automated activities, activities supported by the information system, and relevant manual activities. Teams of student subjects in an experiment produced substantially better use case diagrams - containing far more use cases and qualitatively better use cases than did the teams in control group - when provided with a work system snapshot that summarized a test scenario in terms of work system concept