Trustworthiness Requirements in Information Systems Design: Lessons Learned from the Blockchain Community

In modern society, where digital security is a major preoccupation, the perception of trust is undergoing fundamental transformations. Blockchain community created a substantial body of knowledge on design and development of trustworthy information systems and digital trust. Yet, little research is focused on broader scope and other forms of trust. In this study, we review the research literature reporting on design and development of blockchain solutions and focus on trustworthiness requirements that drive these solutions. Our findings show that digital trust is not the only form of trust that the organizations seek to reenforce: trust in technology and social trust remain powerful drivers in decision making. We analyze 56 primary studies, extract and formulate a set of 21 trustworthiness requirements. While originated from blockchain literature, the formulated requirements are technology-neutral: they aim at supporting business and technology experts in translating their trust issues into specific design decisions and in rationalizing their technological choices. To bridge the gap between social and technological domains, we associate the trustworthiness requirements with three trustworthiness factors defined in the social science: ability, benevolence and integrity

Formal semantics for refinement verification of entreprise models

In this dissertation we investigate how Business/IT alignment in enterprise models can be enhanced by using a software engineering stepwise refinement paradigm. To have an IT system that supports an enterprise and meets the enterprise business needs, management seeks to align business system with IT systems. Enterprise Architecture (EA) is the discipline that addresses the design of aligned business and IT systems. SEAM is an Enterprise Architecture method, developed in the Laboratory of Systemic Modeling (LAMS) at EPFL. SEAM defines a visual language for building an enterprise model of an organization. In this work, we develop a theory and propose a technique to validate an alignment between the system specifications expressed in the SEAM language. We base our reasoning on the idea that each system (an organization, a business system, or an IT system) can be modeled using a set of hierarchical specifications, explicitly related to each other. Considering these relations as refinement relations, we transform the problem of alignment validation into the problem of refinement verification for system specifications: we consider that two system specifications are aligned if one is correctly refines the other. Model-driven engineering (MDE) defines refinement as a transformation between two visual (or program) specifications, where a specification is gradually refined into an implementation. MDE, however, does not formalize refinement verification. Software engineering (SE) formalizes refinement for program specifications. It provides a theory and techniques for refinement verification. To benefit from the formal theories and the refinement verification techniques defined in SE, we extend the SEAM language with additional concepts (e.g. preconditions, postconditions, invariants, etc). This extension enables us to increase the precision of the SEAM visual specifications. Then we define a formal semantics for the extended SEAM modeling language. This semantics is based on first-order logic and set theory; it allows us to reduce the problem of refinement verification to the validation of a first-order logic formula. In software engineering, the tools for the automated analysis of program specifications are defined. To use these tools for refinement verification, we define a translation from SEAM visual specifications to formal specification languages. We apply, using case studies, our theory and technique in several problem areas to verify: (1) if a business process design and re-design correspond to high level business process specifications; (2) if a service implementation corresponds to its specifications. These case studies have been presented to a group of domain experts who practice business/IT alignment. This inquiry has shown that our research has a potential practical value

Modeling the role variability in the MAP process model

International audienceBusiness process modeling is a valuable technique helping organizations to specify their processes, to analyze their structure and to improve their performance. Conventional process modeling techniques are proven to be inefficient while dealing with non-repetitive, knowledge-intensive processes such as Case Management processes. In this work we use the MAP notation to model a Mortgage Approval Process as defined in Banking. To increase the navigability and practical value of map models, we extend the MAP notation with the concepts of Roles, Relations between roles, and Role Configuration Rules

Semantics of Higraphs for Process Modeling and Analysis

International audienceKnowledge and experience of a case manager remains a key success factor for Case Management Processes (CMPs). When a number of influential parameters is high, a number of possible scenarios grows significantly. Automated guidance in scenario evaluation and activity planning would be of a great help. In our previous work, we defined the statecharts semantics for visualisation and simulation of CMP scenarios. In this work, we formalise the state-oriented models with higraphs: higraphs provide mathematical foundation for statecharts and eventually enable a wide panoply of algorithms for process analysis and optimisation. We show how a statecharts diagram can be transformed into higraph and analysed at run-time with graph algorithms. In particular, we take an example of the Shortest Path algorithm and show how this algorithm can be used in order to guide the case manager suggesting her the best process scenario. Compared to BPM approaches, a state-oriented process scenario does not specify concrete activities but only the objectives and constraints to be met. Thus, our approach does not prescribe but describe an activity to be executed next. The manager can define an activity that fit the description " on the fly " , based on her experience and intuition

Paleogeographic and litho-facies formation conditions of MidUpper Jurassic sediments in S-E Western Siberia (Tomsk Oblast)

This paper describes the criteria to identify Tumen (lower Bathonian) and Naunak (upper Bathonian-Callovian- Oxfordian) suites within S-E Western Siberia (Tomsk Oblast). The specific paleogeographic and litho-facies formation conditions of sediments and numerous vegetable remains and ichnofossils indicated the fact that this territory was the location of sedimentogenesis transition during Tumen and Naunak suite formation. Based on integrated survey oil-gas potential litho-facies groups were defined in Mid-Upper Jurassic sediments within S-E Western Siberia

Modeling crisis management process from goals to scenarios

International audienceProcess manager plays the central role in crisis management. In order to capture the intentions of the process manager, the process should be specified at a strategic level. In order to analyze how these intentions are fulfilled during the process execution, the process should be specified at an operational level. Whereas the variety of techniques for goal modeling and process modeling is presented in the market, possibility to design a process seamlessly, from intentions (process goals) to executable scenarios, remains a challenging task. In this paper, we introduce an approach for modeling and simulating a crisis management process from goals to scenarios. We consider an example of flood management process specified for floods on Oka River in the Moscow region in Russia. In order to specify the intentions behind the flood management process, we use MAP formalism. For representing the process at the operational level, we use Statecharts formalism. To align the strategic and operation process levels, we translate the MAP model of flood management process to statecharts. We simulate the flood management process, showing how the process goals defined on the strategic level can be achieved by various scenarios executed in the operational level

Lithologic-facies and paleogeographic features of Mid-Upper Jurassic oil-gas bearing sediments in Nurolsk depression (Western Siberia)

Bathonian-Callovian-Oxfordian sedimentation environment reconstruction in SE Nurolsk depression, Western Siberia has been described. Paleogeographic and litho-geochemical features of sediments, numerous plant remains and ichnofossils indicated the fact that this territory during the Naunaksk suite formation was the transition in-situ sedimentogenesis. Based on the integrated research data, the potential litho-facies were identified in the Mid-Upper sediments within Nurolsk depression, Western Siberia

Extending Business Process Models with Appreciation

We use homeostasis, the maintenance of steady states in an organism, to explain some of the decisions made by participants in a business process. We use Vickers’ Appreciative System to model the homeostatic states with Harel’s statecharts. We take the example of a doctoral student recruitment process formally defined between a faculty member, a graduate student candidate and a doctoral school. We analyze some gaps in the process caused by a misfit between norms of the process participants. We present a rationale for the anticipation and resolution of these misfits. We extend the traditional operational model with an appreciative model. This model represents the appreciative systems of process participants. Understanding these appreciative systems is necessary to make explicit the misfit between the model and the observed reality. The operational model represents the “technical” perspective on the business process, the one that can be automated. The appreciative model represents the “social” perspective, the one that explains the participants’ behavior as a result of their individual and collective norms. By combining these two perspectives, we can appreciate the richness of the development of socio-technical systems

The Role of Invariants in the Co-evolution of Business and Technical Service Specification of an Enterprise

We explore invariants as a linking mechanism between the business and technical service perspectives: From the business perspec- tive, invariants can be used to model (business) requirements of an en- terprise; from the technical perspective, invariants express the properties that must hold during the execution of a service. We propose an approach to enterprise service design that can be de- scribed as an iterative introduction and a modication of invariants in response to the evolution of business and/or technical service specica- tions. We formalize the service specications in Alloy and demonstrate how each design iteration can be simulated, visualized and validated with the Alloy analyzer tool. We illustrate our ndings with the example of Order Creation service