A Health-care Application of Goal-driven Software Design

In this paper we focus on goal engineering by addressing issues such as goal elicitation, specification, structuring and operationalisation. Specification of business goals is regarded as a means to raise the level of abstraction (and automation) at which business logic is incorporated in model driven software design in the context of service oriented architectures. More specifically, the proposed goal modelling approach consists of an abstract syntax (metamodel) and a concrete syntax (graphical notation) for the specification of business goals. We also proposed a framework for the goal-driven design of service-oriented software applications. In particular, we illustrate our approach by means of a case study carried out in the healthcare sector and we explain the role business goals (operationalised in the form of business rules) can play in software design. This research also outlines a number of areas that have significant research potential

Engineering situational methods for professional service organizations. An action design research approach.

Professional service organizations are organizations predominantly employed with professionals; employees with specific and dedicated expertise in an area. IT support of the primary operations in this type of organizations is suboptimal. Methodological support of development and implementation of information systems in professional service organizations is not producing expected results, as for instance can be observed by alacking business-IT alignment. \ud This research brings together ideas from situational method engineering and action design research to address this issue. From the field of situational method engineering, the concept of method chunk is introduced as a made-to-measure IS development methodology element.In this research method chunks (atomic methodology elements) are developed that address hiatus in the ISD methodology in two distinct organizational cases. Action design research combines insight from design science and action research to not only design a technology component, but also embed the designed artifact in the conditions of use. \ud The situational method engineering -action design research based approach produces five key contributions: (1) an analysis of information systems development in the professional service organizations domain; (2) custom tailored method chunks that address specific needs in an ISD process, (3) an method to develop method chunks in the professional service-organisations domain (4) an adaptation of situation method engineering based on the action design research approach; and (5) an real-life application of the action design reserach approach

An ontology for modeling flexibility in smart grid energy management

The use of renewable energy sources is increasing due to national and international regulations. Such energy sources are less predictable than most of the classical energy production systems, like coal and nuclear power plants. This causes a challenge for balancing the electricity system. A possibility to meet this challenge is to use the flexibility in electricity demand for balancing with unpredictable electricity supply. In this paper we briefly present an approach to incorporate flexibility into demand response and present the generic MIRABEL information model for expressing flexibility in consumption or distributed generation. In addition, we focus on an ontology for flexibility in smart grids thatwas designed on the basis of the MIRABEL information model. This ontology is represented inOWL and defines the objects involved in flexibility and their relationships. Thereby, this ontology gives a semantically better view on the flexibility concept and its meaning in relation to the building on the one hand and the smart grid on the other hand. Moreover, this ontology forms the basis for a vocabulary that can be published via the web and used to connect IT systems from various stakeholders in the energy domain that handle supply and demand of energy. © 2012 Taylor & Francis Group