Minimizing the stakeholder dissatisfaction risk in requirement selection for next release planning

Context The requirements to be delivered in the next software release are selected according to the stakeholders’ perceived value, expected implementation cost, budget availability, and precedence and technical dependency constraints. Existing approaches to the requirement selection problem do not take into account the risk of stakeholders’ dissatisfaction possibly resulting from divergence in the stakeholders’ estimates of the requirement value. Objective We present a novel risk-aware, multi-objective approach to the next release problem that aims at reducing the stakeholder dissatisfaction risk in a given cost/value region of interest provided by stakeholders. Method We have devised an exact algorithm to address the risk-aware formulation of the next release problem and implemented the algorithm using two well-known SMT solvers, Yices and Z3. To allow the application of the proposed formulation to large size problems, we have also implemented an approximate algorithm based on the NSGA-II metaheuristic. Results Results show that (1) the stakeholder dissatisfaction risk can be minimised with minimum impact on cost/value, and (2) our approach is scalable when NSGA-II is used. SMT solvers scale up to problems that are not overly large in terms of the number of requirements and/or are not too sparse in terms of dependencies, but the metaheuristic can quickly find good solutions even for large size problems. Conclusion We recommend the users of our approach to apply an SMT solver and to resort to a metaheuristic algorithm only if the SMT solver does not terminate within reasonable time, due to the actual combination of number of requirements and dependency density

Editorial Vol. 7, Nº 2

Apresentação da edição de 2014.2 da iSys, com sua apresentação, seu contexto, sua organização e lista de avaliadores que apoiaram a revista com revisões de artigos submetidos entre 2013 e 2014

An MDA Domain Specific Architecture to Provide Interoperability Among Collaborative Environments

Abstract. A Domain Specific Architecture (DSA) is generic architecture for a family of application system, a problem or a task area. Middleware specific services are tailored to the requirements of particular domain. Through a development process that uses the Object Management Group Model-Driven Architecture (MDA), this paper presents the InterDOC, a domain-specific architecture that includes specific middleware services to provide interoperability in the collaborative authoring domain. The MDA’s UML profile Enterprise Distributed Object Computing (EDOC) is used to achieve a platform-independent specification that could be mapped into various specific environments, and to domain-conceptual modelling. Resumo. Uma Arquitetura para Domínio Específico é uma arquitetura genérica para uma família de aplicações, um problema ou uma determinada área. Serviços específicos de middleware satisfazem os requisitos de um determinado domínio. Através de um processo de desenvolvimento que utiliza MDA(Model-Driven Architecture) da OMG(Object Management Group), este artigo apresenta uma arquitetura para domínio específico baseada em serviços de middleware para prover a interoperabilidade no domínio da autoria colaborativa. O perfil UML EDOC(Enterprise Distributed Object Computing) é utilizado para obter uma especificação independente de plataforma que pode ser mapeada para vários ambientes específicos, e para a modelagem conceitual. 1

Early identification of potential distributed ledger technology business cases using e3value Models

Many Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) projects end prematurely without reaping benefits. Previous research has indicated a lack of sustainable business cases for many Blockchain projects. A successful project has a disruptive impact on the business ecosystem. The paper investigates how e3value modeling can contribute to identifying the potential success of DLT implementation. Using insights from a first DLT case-study, an abstract e3value model fragment is defined that indicates potential success. As a test, the e3value model fragment is subsequently applied to a second case-study that is currently being implemented as a DLT-based platform. The paper concludes by reflecting on how an e3value model can provide evidence of meeting the requirements for building a sustainable DLT business case

Realizing traceability from the business model to enterprise architecture

An enterprise architecture (EA) is a high-level representation of the enterprise, used for managing the relation between business and IT. In order to improve reasoning about the contribution of IT to the business, all elements of an EA should be traceable to the business model and vice versa. However, in practice this is not the case. Realizing this traceability would be useful because it would allow practitioners to reason about the contribution of IT to the Business Model of the organization. In addition to reasoning about cost structures and goal contributions of IT to the business, as is customary in EA, practitioners would also be able to reason about the contribution of IT to the value offerings of a business. In this exploratory paper we investigate traceability between the EA, Business Model and Business Goals of an enterprise. We use ArchiMate as the EA language and e 3- value as the business modeling language, provide and motivate a hypothesis about how to realize traceability, and illustrate this with a real-world example. Our paper ends with a traceability hypothesis that will be further tested in future case studies

Aligning DMBOK and open government with the FAIR data principles

In enterprise organizations, the value of data has been considered on strategic level for a long time. As valuable assets, data need to be managed from source to disposal, considering their whole life cycle. To guide the data managing needs of enterprise organizations, the non-profit organization DAMA promotes the development and practice of data management as key enterprise assets. In 2017, DAMA has published the second edition of the DAMA International Guide to Data Management Body of Knowledge (DAMA DMBOK®). While the DAMA DMBOK focuses on corporate data, the FAIR data principles target research data management involving researchers and publishers in Academia. Data management is also a core issue in the Government sector, which has a great relevance in the open government initiatives, supporting the civil society to follow the actions of government bodies. This article makes a systematic analysis of these three data natures – research data, corporate data and government data – and the respective sets of principles that act as a basis for their management. These principles are correlated to identify similarities and possible complementarities focusing on the improvement of research data management, represented by the FAIR initiative, proposing an initial framework to support it