Modeling functional requirements using tacit knowledge: a design science research methodology informed approach

The research in this paper adds to the discussion linked to the challenge of capturing and modeling tacit knowledge throughout software development projects. The issue emerged when modeling functional requirements during a project for a client. However, using the design science research methodology at a particular point in the project helped to create an artifact, a functional requirements modeling technique, that resolved the issue with tacit knowledge. Accordingly, this paper includes research based upon the stages of the design science research methodology to design and test the artifact in an observable situation, empirically grounding the research undertaken. An integral component of the design science research methodology, the knowledge base, assimilated structuration and semiotic theories so that other researchers can test the validity of the artifact created. First, structuration theory helped to identify how tacit knowledge is communicated and can be understood when modeling functional requirements for new software. Second, structuration theory prescribed the application of semiotics which facilitated the development of the artifact. Additionally, following the stages of the design science research methodology and associated tasks allows the research to be reproduced in other software development contexts. As a positive outcome, using the functional requirements modeling technique created, specifically for obtaining tacit knowledge on the software development project, indicates that using such knowledge increases the likelihood of deploying software successfully

Enriching enterprise resource planning systems for strategic advantage: a semiotic motivated approach

Enterprise Resource Planning is often endorsed as a means to facilitate strategic advantage for businesses. The scarcity of resources is the method by which some businesses maintain their position. However, the ubiquitous trend towards the adoption of Enterprise Resourcing Planning systems coupled with market saturation makes the promise of advantage less compelling. Reported in this paper is a proposed solution based upon semiotic theory that takes a typical Enterprise Resource Planning deployment scenario and shapes it according to the needs of people in post-implementation contexts to leverage strategic advantage in different ways

A multi-responsive communication architecture for web service description and discovery

The discovery of suitable web services is a demanding challenge for organisations that plan to benefit from this technology. Markedly even more so when strategic objectives, organisational structures, business processes and technology are situated in a climate of constant change; such dynamic conditions have an impact upon the normative behavioural patterns of people working in organisations. Based upon the principles of the Pragmatic Web, this paper reveals a mechanism that captures behavioural patterns as affordances and norms that when merged form a multi-responsive communication architecture. Enhancing the traditional two-role conversational model found within the Language Action Perspective, the multi-responsive communication architecture placates web service discovery in settings where diverse and unpredictable organisational contexts coupled with the need to consider the actions of all participants that influence the selection of web services are accounted for

A pragmatic based web service description and discovery mechanism within service orientated contexts

Contemporary techniques for web service description and discovery are insufficient when considering diverse and variable organisational contexts. Strategic objectives, organisational structures, business processes and technology when placed into a climate of constant change impact the normative behavioural patterns of people working in all kinds of organisations. Such dynamic conditions profoundly affect the discovery of appropriate web services. To overcome this challenge, a stratagem based upon semiotic theory is used to define a mechanism that enriches existing web service description approaches with techniques that enable the varied and erratic character of web service consumer organisational contexts to be captured and added as pragmatic information to web service description. Calibrated against an established sign classification scheme, the signs exchanged between web service providers and consumers reveal areas that pragmatic information complements existing web service description methods. United with established semiotic techniques for understanding organisational behaviour - affordances and norms, semiotic theory is used to form shared semiosis in joint action between web service providers and consumers. Encapsulating the signs exchanged in communication and supplementing them with pragmatic information made it possible to specify and apply a norm- based software agent to describe and discover web services on behalf of web service consumers. Assisted by speech act theory in a communication architecture specialised for web service description, the norm based software agent follows a dedicated negotiation protocol to add and make use of pragmatic information related to web services. To demonstrate the effectiveness of adding pragmatic information to web services, a case study shows that such descriptions when augmented with pragmatic information enhances the matching of web services to organisations with diverse and unpredictable contexts. The case study validates the approach taken to defining and building a mechanism for web service description and discovery and the relevance of semiotic theory to challenge the issues associated with web service utilisation.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

A semiotic approach to web service description

The discovery of suitable web services is a demanding challenge for organisations that plan to benefit from this technology. Strategic objectives, organisational structures, business processes and technology placed in a climate of constant change impact the normative behavioural patterns of people working in all kinds of organisations. Such dynamic conditions can have a profound influence over the discovery of appropriate web services. Advocated in this paper is a semiotic approach to web service description that configures a solution to take into account the dynamic conditions affecting web service discovery. The semiotic approach merges the articulation of dynamic conditions with web service description whilst facilitating the engagement of service providers and consumers in joint actions. Framed by affordance, joint actions capture the changeable normative behavioural patterns of people so that web service utilisation can be harmonised with organisational contexts

Pragmatic Web - Incorporating semiotics into web services

The evolution of the web exhibits a trend towards the needs of consumers as opposed to providers by offering contextualised information. The same trend is moving towards the notion of the Pragmatic Web by building on the Syntactic and Semantic versions. The ideas of the Pragmatic Web affords an array of opportunities should a business organisation wish to implement a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) based upon web services. The Pragmatic Web will in the future provide the means to identify and consume contextually relevant web services. However, the challenges to achieve this aim require competencies that move beyond the current boundaries of web technology. Semiotics (the science of signs) is a long-established theory that can make a significant contribution to formulating an approach to discovering and consuming web services in the format of the Pragmatic Web

A preliminary definition of a pragmatic and semiotic based web-service discovery mechanism using norm-based computational agent behaviour within a SOA context

The discovery of relevant web services in a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) framework is crucial in a business context. Business organisations, crucially, need to make an accurate judgement regarding the suitability of web services prior to consumption. Pragmatics (in terms of illocutionary acts) and semiotics (the understanding of signs) and its own branch of pragmatics, connect at an important junction in relation to textual entities, providing a means to undertake a contextual discovery of web services. Furthermore, norms based upon shared beliefs and specifics relating to a business organisation, affect what a human agent may achieve during the web service discovery process. A preliminary web service discovery mechanism, using the theory behind semiotics, pragmatics, speech acts and deontic logic, is defined in this paper to aid human agents during the web service discovery process. The mechanism is designed to capture human intentions, communicated as speech acts, and delegate them to norm-based computational agents

Defining a pragmatic based web-service discovery mechanism

The discovery of contextually relevant web services is crucial to business organisations. Pragmatics (in terms of communication acts) and semiotics (the understanding of signs), intersect at an important point in relation to textual entities. The intersection of pragmatics and semiotics provides the fabric essential to model the interaction between humans and norm-based agents by moving beyond the traditional two-role communication loop model found in the Language/Action Perspective to a proposed multi-responsive model to discover appropriate web services in Service Oriented Architecture contexts

Extending a multi-responsive communication architecture for web service description

Reported in this paper is the view that contemporary web service description enabled by techniques such as WSDL and Semantic Web technologies are not sufficient when matching web services with a set of continuously evolving user requirements driven by organisational objectives. A project that tried to incorporate web services into a software deployment is used as the vehicle to highlight such limitations. Consequently, we report on a method devised to supplement web services with 'pragmatic information' and propose that adding pragmatic information to web services is a research challenge that needs addressing. In addition to the move proposed in this paper, we claim that the concept of 'pragmatic' is an often misguided term when aligned to web service use in organisational contexts of different kinds