Comparison of method chunks and method fragments for situational method engineering

Two main candidates for the atomic element to be used in Situational Method Engineering (SME) have been proposed: the “method fragment ” and the “method chunk”. These are examined here in terms of their conceptual integrity and in terms of how they may be used in method construction. Also, parallels are drawn between the two approaches. Secondly, the idea of differentiating an interface from a body has been proposed for method chunks (but not for method fragments). This idea is examined and mappings are constructed between the interface and body concepts of method chunks and the concepts used to describe method fragments. The new ISO/IEC 24744 standard metamodel is used as a conceptual framework to perform these mappings

A deductive view on process-data diagrams

Process-Data Diagrams (PDDs) are a popular technique to represent method fragments and their recombination to new adapted method specifications. It turns out that PDDs are at odds with a strict separation of MOF/MDA abstraction levels as advocated by MOF/MDA. We abandon the restriction and specify PDDs by a metametamodel that supports both process and product parts of PDDs. The instantiation of the process side of PDDs can then the used as the type level for a simple traceability framework. The deductive formalization of PDDs allows to augment them by a plethora of analysis tools. The recombination of method fragments is propagated downwards to the recombination of the process start and end points. The hierarchical structure of the product side of PDDs can be used to detect unstructured updates from the process side

Continuous auditing & continuous monitoring: Continuous value?

Advancements in information technology, new laws and regulations and rapidly changing business conditions have led to a need for more timely and ongoing assurance with effectively working controls. Continuous Auditing (CA) and Continuous Monitoring (CM) technologies have made this possible by obtaining real-time audit evidence and enabling organizations to review whether controls and systems function as intended on an ongoing basis. Although organizations understand the benefits of CA/CM, the current state of adoption is relatively low not the least because organizations find it difficult to quantify the value. This research used a design research approach to develop a framework that addresses the added value of redesigned internal controls within IT-supported business processes of organizations. The value of the CA/CM is broken down into three distinguished domains, Efficiency, Assurance and Quality. The Waterfall method is proposed as visualization method in order to indicate a possible cost saving and value increase of a redesigned control clearly. The framework has been tested and evaluated within a case organization. It can be concluded that the framework is applicable for providing more insights in the value of CA/CM

Describing coordination services with REA

Coordination services are services, possibly implemented as web services, that support the coordination of (real-world) services that a consumer would like to take. To support users of a future Internet of Services, the effect of the coordination services must be described in such a way that users are not only able to discover services but also to detect and prevent possible conflicts in their composition. In this paper, REA is applied as a solution approach to this requirement. The REA business ontology has proven to be a good foundation for the description of services, but we argue that its conceptualization of commitments can be improved

Composition of a New Process to Meet Agile Needs Using Method Engineering

The need of developing a new software engineering process (SEP) that could allow the quick prototyping of some robotic applications and meet the requests coming from some companies for a development process that was shorter than PASSI, gave us the opportunity of applying our studies on the assembling of a new SEP by reusing parts (called method fragments) from other processes. In this paper we discuss our approach that, starting from the method engineering paradigm, adapts and extends it considering specific agent-oriented issues like the multi-agent system metamodel. The final result of our experiment (Agile PASSI) is presented together with the requirements that motivated its structure