Towards Common Ground in SME: An Ontology of Method Descriptors

Part 3: Method Engineering FoundationsInternational audienceThe Method Engineering (ME) community is a prolific research domain where competing Situational Method Engineering (SME) approaches have been defined and used for composing, adapting or/and configuring a method into modular constructs according to their own modularization vision. This diversity shows the richness of the ME domain but implies some drawback like unnecessary confusion for non ME expert, lack of standard & interoperability, lack of implementation tool. However, researchers are agreed that a common ground in SME is a hot matter of discussion. Assuming that the differences between SME approaches are purposeful, we propose to reach a semantic common ground on what types of core concepts constitute a method descriptor. To achieve it, an ontology-based approach is applied in SME to design an ontology of method descriptors as a domain ontology. The semantics of the six most popular SME approaches modular constructs are defined according to this ontology in order to show its usage and its relevance. Finally, usage scenarios have been sketched to show that the ontology can be the start up phase for reducing the ME drawbacks mentioned above

From Method Fragments to Method Services

In Method Engineering (ME) science, the key issue is the consideration of information system development methods as fragments. Numerous ME approaches have produced several definitions of method parts. Different in nature, these fragments have nevertheless some common disadvantages: lack of implementation tools, insufficient standardization effort, and so on. On the whole, the observed drawbacks are related to the shortage of usage orientation. We have proceeded to an in-depth analysis of existing method fragments within a comparison framework in order to identify their drawbacks. We suggest overcoming them by an improvement of the ?method service? concept. In this paper, the method service is defined through the service paradigm applied to a specific method fragment ? chunk. A discussion on the possibility to develop a unique representation of method fragment completes our contribution

Service discovery and prediction on Pervasive Information System

International audienceRecent evolution of technology and its usages, such as BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and IoT (Internet of Things), transformed the way we interact with Information Systems (IS), leading to a new generation of IS, called the Pervasive Information Systems (PIS). These systems have to face heterogeneous pervasive environments and hide the complexity of such environment end-user. In order to reach transparency and proactivity necessary for successful PIS, new discovery and prediction mechanisms are necessary. In this paper, we present a new user-centric approach for PIS and propose new service discovery and prediction based on both user's context and intentions. Intentions allow focusing on goals user wants to satisfy when requesting a service. Those intentions rise in a given context, which influence the service implementation. We propose a service discovery mechanism that observes user's context and intention in order to offer him/her the most appropriate service satisfying her/his intention on the current context. We also propose a prediction mechanism that tries to anticipate user's intentions considering the user's history and the observed context. We evaluate both mechanisms and discuss advanced features future PIS will have to deal with

A context-aware intentional service prediction mechanism in PIS

International audiencePervasive Information System (PIS) represents a new generation of Information Systems (IS) available anytime, anywhere in a pervasive environment. In this paper, we propose to enhance PIS transparency and efficiency through a context-aware intentional service prediction approach. This approach allows anticipating user's future needs, offering and recommending him the most suitable service in a transparent and discrete way. We detail in this paper our service prediction mechanism and present encouraging experimental results demonstrating our proposition

Bringing context to intentional services

International audienceIn service-orientation, the notion of service is used in different views. On the one hand, several approaches have been proposing services that are able to adapt themselves according to the context in which they are used. On the other hand, some researches have been proposing to consider user's goals when proposing business services. We believe that these two views are complementary. A goal is only meaningful when considering the context in which it emerges, and conversely, context description is only meaningful when associated with a user goal. In order to take profit of both views, we propose to extend the OWL-S service description by including on it both the specification of context associated with the service and the goal that characterize it

The influence of context on intentional service

International audienceSeveral service-oriented approaches promote the intention concept as a way to describe and document services based on user's requirements. However, these approaches have two main limitations: (1) they don't take into account the fact that a user evolves in a context that can influence his intentions, and (2) at the software service level, the corresponding intentional description of these software services is missing. Such a description should be a high level one, which is not directly connected to the software services. The objective of the paper is to propose a semantic service description that considers both intention corresponding to the service and context in which it is supposed to emerge. In addition, the variability embedded in the intentional description can be also affected by the user context. Such influence is also considered in our proposition

Enriched Semantic Service Description for Service Discovery: Bringing Context to Intentional Services

International audienceIn service-orientation, the notion of service is studied from different point of views. On the one hand, several approaches have been proposing services that are able to adapt themselves according to the context in which they are used. On the other hand, some researches have been proposing to consider user intentions when proposing business services. We believe that these two views are complementary. An intention is only meaningful when considering the context in which it emerges. Conversely, context description is only meaningful when associated with a user intention. In order to take profit of both views, we propose to extend the Ontology Web Language for services description (OWL-S). We include on it both the specification of context associated with the service and the intention that characterize it. This extended description is experimented in a semantic registry that we built for service discovery purposes. Such registry considers a matching algorithm, which exploits the extended description. Then, we present experimental results of this matching algorithm that demonstrates the advantages one may have on using the proposed descriptor. Thus, we propose a new vision of service orientation taking into account the notion of intention and context. This new vision is based on the extended semantic descriptor, which is necessary in order to enhance transparency of the system by proposing to the user the most appropriate service

Considering Quality of a Service in an Intentional Approach

International audienceThe success of service-based applications is based on service technologies such as Web services. Nevertheless, the benefits of the Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) remain mainly at the software level, since business people are often unable to fully exploit its benefits due to their unfamiliarity with such software level technology. The intentional Service-Oriented Architecture (iSOA) suggests a move from the function-driven SOA to intention-driven SOA in order to provide service description understandable by business practitioners. However, such transposition from business to implementation level should also consider Quality of Service (QoS) aspects. In this paper, we propose modeling the Quality of intentional Service (QoiS) by introducing the quality goals and their qualitative and quantitative evaluation. We also propose populating the intentional service registry of the iSOA architecture with the QoiS description

Systèmes d'Information Pervasifs et Espaces de Services : Définition d'un cadre conceptuel

National audienceCet article introduit la notion d'Espace de Services, constituant un cadre conceptuel pour la spécification des Systèmes d'Information Pervasifs (SIP). Ces systèmes doivent aligner le dynamisme et l'hétérogénéité propres aux environnements pervasifs avec les contraintes métiers et de sécurité qui caractérisent les Systèmes d'Information (SI). La notion d'espace de services est ainsi un outil conceptuel permettant de mieux gérer l'hétérogénéité des environnements pervasifs dans le cadre d'un SI

Analyse des mécanismes de découverte de services avec prise en charge du contexte et de l'intention

National audienceAvec la démocratisation des dispositifs et des réseaux mobiles, les systèmes d'information deviennent pervasifs. Les utilisateurs de ces systèmes doivent désormais évoluer dans de véritables espaces de services, dans lesquels plusieurs services sont offerts. Afin d'améliorer la transparence des systèmes d'information pervasifs, nous proposons une nouvelle approche pour ces systèmes, à la fois sensible au contexte et intentionnelle. Dans cette approche, les services offerts par ces systèmes sont proposés afin de satisfaire à une intention, laquelle correspond à l'expression d'un but utilisateur, dans un contexte donné. Pour valider cette approche, nous développons actuellement une plate-forme de découverte de services basée sur une extension de OWL-S qui intègre ces notions. Grâce à des résultats expérimentaux, nous analysons l'impact de l'usage de ces notions de contexte et d'intention dans la sélection de services et démontrons l'intérêt de notre approche dans la découverte des services