Measuring architectural adaptability in i* models

Developing adaptable systems is still a big challenge in software engineering. Different reference architectures and systematic approaches have been proposed to address this challenge. Several of these approaches are based on goal models, given their suitability to express and reason on alternative behaviors. In this paper we intend to provide a basis for comparing architectures described in goal-based models in regard to their adaptability. This way, different approaches to improve adaptability may be compared based on the resulting architectures. To do so we mapped two adaptability metrics onto i* models and developed guidelines to define the adaptability of individual elements, based on the extra information provided by i* models. We applied these metrics in a healthcare system to illustrate the comparison of architectures.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Using empirical studies to mitigate symbol overload in iStar extensions

UID/CEC/04516/2019Modelling languages are frequently extended to include new constructs to be used together with the original syntax. New constructs may be proposed by adding textual information, such as UML stereotypes, or by creating new graphical representations. Thus, these new symbols need to be expressive and proposed in a careful way to increase the extension’s adoption. A method to create symbols for the original constructs of a modelling language was proposed and has been used to create the symbols when a new modelling language is designed. We argue this method can be used to recommend new symbols for the extension’s constructs. However, it is necessary to make some adjustments since the new symbols will be used with the existing constructs of the modelling language original syntax. In this paper, we analyse the usage of this adapted method to propose symbols to mitigate the occurrence of overloaded symbols in the existing iStar extensions. We analysed the existing iStar extensions in an SLR and identified the occurrence of symbol overload among the existing constructs. We identified a set of fifteen overloaded symbols in existing iStar extensions. We used these concepts with symbol overload in a multi-stage experiment that involved users in the visual notation design process. The study involved 262 participants, and its results revealed that most of the new graphical representations were better than those proposed by the extensions, with regard to semantic transparency. Thus, the new representations can be used to mitigate this kind of conflict in iStar extensions. Our results suggest that next extension efforts should consider user-generated notation design techniques in order to increase the semantic transparency.authorsversionpublishe

Mapping Activity Theory Diagrams into i* Organizational Models

Modern requirement engineering approaches divide the elicitation process in two different stages: one focused on analyzing the context where the system-to-be will be used and another centered on designing software solutions appropriated to the context modeled. An adequate framework for assisting context analysis is offered by the Activity Theory, a philosophic and interdisciplinary structure to study different forms of human practice that adopts the activity as the basic unit of analysis. However, there are still no methods for integrating context analysis based on Activity Theory and traditional requirement specifications techniques. In a previous work, the authors presented a requirement engineering process that integrates ethnographic analysis based on Activity Theory with requirement specification techniques based on organizational modelling. In this work we present an evolution of the process proposed by including a set of mapping guidelines to systematically transform Activity Theory diagrams into i* based organizational models. Moreover, we apply the guidelines in the development of a virtual project based learning environment.Facultad de Informátic

Towards anticipating requirements changes through studies of the future

© 2011 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes,creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Whilst it is considered a good practice to focus Requirements Engineering on current stakeholder needs, the high costs implied by requirements changes and the emergence of the Autonomic Computing paradigm raised the need for dealing with issues that are not currently requirements but that may come to be in the future. This work shows how foresight techniques can be used for requirements elicitation, and discusses the impacts of studying the future to that requirements engineering activity. In particular, it addresses the use of the Futures Wheel method to enrich goal models.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Mapping Activity Theory Diagrams into i* Organizational Models

Modern requirement engineering approaches divide the elicitation process in two different stages: one focused on analyzing the context where the system-to-be will be used and another centered on designing software solutions appropriated to the context modeled. An adequate framework for assisting context analysis is offered by the Activity Theory, a philosophic and interdisciplinary structure to study different forms of human practice that adopts the activity as the basic unit of analysis. However, there are still no methods for integrating context analysis based on Activity Theory and traditional requirement specifications techniques. In a previous work, the authors presented a requirement engineering process that integrates ethnographic analysis based on Activity Theory with requirement specification techniques based on organizational modelling. In this work we present an evolution of the process proposed by including a set of mapping guidelines to systematically transform Activity Theory diagrams into i* based organizational models. Moreover, we apply the guidelines in the development of a virtual project based learning environment.Facultad de Informátic

Metamodeling the enhanced entity-relationship model

[EN] A metamodel provides an abstract syntax to distinguish between valid and invalid models. That is, a metamodel is as useful for a modeling language as a grammar is for a programming language. In this context, although the Enhanced Entity-Relationship (EER) Model is the de facto standard modeling language for database conceptual design, to the best of our knowledge, there are only two proposals of EER metamodels, which do not provide a full support to Chen s notation. Furthermore, neither a discussion about the engineering used for specifying these metamodels is presented nor a comparative analysis among them is made. With the aim at overcoming these drawbacks, we show a detailed and practical view of how to formalize the EER Model by means of a metamodel that (i) covers all elements of the Chen s notation, (ii) defines well-formedness rules needed for creating syntactically correct EER schemas, and (iii) can be used as a starting point to create Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools for EER modeling, interchange metadata among these tools, perform automatic SQL/DDL code generation, and/or extend (or reuse part of) the EER Model. In order to show the feasibility, expressiveness, and usefulness of our metamodel (named EERMM), we have developed a CASE tool (named EERCASE), which has been tested with a practical example that covers all EER constructors, confirming that our metamodel is feasible, useful, more expressive than related ones and correctly defined. Moreover, we analyze our work against the related ones and present our final remarks.Fidalgo, RN.; Alves, E.; España Cubillo, S.; Castro, J.; Pastor López, O. (2013). Metamodeling the enhanced entity-relationship model. Journal of Information and Data Management. 4(3):406-420. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/47949S4064204

Effectiveness of an educational game-based intervention for enhancing nutritional knowledge of elementary school students

Obesity can generate short and long term effects on health. Nutritionalknowledge is important to increase the potential of acquiring healthy eating habits and prevent obesity. In this study, it was investigated an educational game-basedintervention with the Nutrikids digital game to improve nutritional knowledge. Onehundred and sixty-four Brazilians fifth graders were divided into the following fourgroups: one that played the Nutrikids game; the lecture-game group, which received traditional classes and played Nutrikids; the lecture group, which received traditional classes only; and the control group, with no intervention. The results suggest that nutritional knowledge in students can be improved more effectively through game-based learning than traditional classes

25 years of Requirements Engineering in Brazil: a systematic mapping

Abstract. The celebration of 25th anniversary of the Brazilian Symposium of Software Engineering (SBES) as well as the forthcoming Requirements Engineering Conference to be held in Brazil for the first time, has led us to have a closer look at the local Requirements Engineering (RE) Community. A systematic mapping was performed in order to find out the main Brazilian research groups, authors as well as their topics of interest and publications with greatest impact. This information may be useful for those that do not know well the local requirements engineering community, such as local newcomers or foreign researchers. It may also help to identify potential groups for collaboration. Similarly, it may provide valuable information to assist local agencies when granting research funds