An enterprise architecture framework for multi-attribute information systems analysis

Enterprise architecture is a model-based IT and business management discipline. Enterprise architecture analysis concerns using enterprise architecture models for analysis of selected properties to provide decision support. This paper presents a framework based on the ArchiMate metamodel for the assessment of four properties, viz., application usage, system availability, service response time and data accuracy. The framework integrates four existing metamodels into one and implements these in a tool for enterprise architecture analysis. The paper presents the overall metamodel and four viewpoints, one for each property. The underlying theory and formalization of the four viewpoints is presented. In addition to the tool implementation, a running example as well as guidelines for usage makes the viewpoints easily applicable.     

A technological acceptance of e-learning tools used in practical and laboratory teaching,according to the European higher education area 1

The application of scientific tools to analyse the use of Internet-based e-learning tools in academic settings is in general an ignored area. E-learning tools are actually an emergent topic as a result of the new ideas introduced by the European Higher Education Area. Lifelong learning, or the promotion of student initiative, is the new paradigm of a learner-centred education. In this context, e-learning tools can represent an effective way of supporting this new trend in education. Assuming the premise that successful use of these web-based tools depends primarily on a user's behaviour, the objective of this research is to examine the technology acceptance model (TAM) of web-based e-learning tools used in practical and laboratory teaching. The research hypotheses derived from this model have empirically been validated using the responses to a survey on e-learning usage among 220 users. These responses have been examined through partial least square. The obtained results strongly support the extended TAM in predicting a student's intention to use e-learning and define a set of external variables with a significant influence in the original TAM variables. Surprisingly, perceived ease of use did not posit a significant impact on student attitude or intention towards e-learning tool usage. Therefore, early evaluation of e-learning material is considered essential to providing a framework for further improvements of the tool.     

Architecture analysis of enterprise systems modifiability: a metamodel for software change cost estimation

Enterprise architecture models can be used in order to increase the general understanding of enterprise systems and specifically to perform various kinds of analysis. The present paper proposes a metamodel for enterprise systems modifiability analysis, i.e. assessing the cost of making changes to enterprise-wide systems. The enterprise architecture metamodel is formalized using probabilistic relational models, which enables the combination of regular entity-relationship modeling aspects with means to perform enterprise architecture analysis. The content of the presented metamodel is validated based on survey and workshop data and its estimation capability is tested with data from 21 software change projects. To illustrate the applicability of the metamodel an instantiated architectural model based on a software change project conducted at a large Nordic transportation company is detailed.     

An Extensible Meta-Model for Program Analysis

Software maintenance tools for program analysis and refactoring rely on a metamodel capturing the relevant properties of programs. However, what is considered relevant may change when the tools are extended with new analyses, refactorings, and new programming languages. This paper proposes a language independent metamodel and an architecture to construct instances thereof, which is extensible for new analyses, refactorings, and new front-ends of programming languages. Due to the loose coupling between analysis, refactoring, and front-end components, new components can be added independently and reuse existing ones. Two maintenance tools implementing the metamodel and the architecture, VIZZANALYZER and X-DEVELOP, serve as proof of concept.     

An Extensible Metamodel for Program Analysis (abstract only)

Software maintenance tools for program analysis and refactoring rely on a metamodel capturing the relevant properties of programs. However, what is considered relevant may change when the tools are extended with new analyses, refactorings, and new programming languages. This paper proposes a language independent metamodel and an architecture to construct instances thereof, which is extensible for new analyses, refactorings, and new front-ends of programming languages. Due to the loose coupling between analysis, refactoring, and front-end components, new components can be added independently and reuse existing ones. Two maintenance tools implementing the metamodel and the architecture, VlZZANALYZER and X-DEVELOP, serve as proof of concept.     

The mediation of external variables in the technology acceptance model

TAM specifies a pathway of technology acceptance, from external variables to beliefs, attitudes, and system usage. We tested one of its assumptions that the ‘perceived ease-of-use’ and ‘perceived usefulness’ constructs fully mediate the influence of external variables on usage behaviors. Using a survey of 125 employees of a U.S. Government agency we found, contrary to the normally accepted assumption, that external variables could have direct effects on usage behavior over and above their indirect effects. We also found that TAM is significantly and consistently better at predicting frequency than volume of usage.     

Medicine expert system dynamic Bayesian Network and ontology based

The paper proposes an application framework to be used for medicine assisted diagnosis based on ontology and Bayesian Network (DBNO). There are two goals: (1) to separate the domain knowledge from the probabilistic information and (2) to create an intuitive user interface. The framework architecture has three layers: knowledge, uncertainty model and user interface. The contributions of the domain experts are decoupled, the ontology builder will create the domain concepts and relationships focusing on the domain knowledge only. The uncertainty model is Bayesian Network and the probabilities of the variables states are stored in a profile repository. The diagnostician will use the user interface feeded with the domain ontology and one uncertainty profile. The application was tested on a sample medicine model for the diagnose of heart disease.     

A longitudinal study of development and maintenance in Norway: Report from the 2003 investigation

The amount of work on application systems being taken up by maintenance activities (work done on an IT-system after being put in production) has been one of the arguments of those speaking about a ‘software crisis’. We have earlier investigated the applicability of this notion, and propose to rather look at the percentage of work being done on application portfolio upkeep (work made to keep up the functional coverage of the application system portfolio of the organization. This also includes the development of replacement systems), to assess the efficiency of the application systems support in an organisation. This paper presents the main results of a survey investigation performed in 2003 in 54 Norwegian organisations within this area. The amount of application portfolio upkeep is significantly higher than in a similar investigation conducted in 1993. The level of maintenance is smaller (although not significantly) than in another similar investigation conducted in 1998. There was a significant increase in both maintenance and application portfolio upkeep from 1993 to 1998, which could partly be attributed to be the extra maintenance and replacement-oriented work necessary to deal with the ‘year 2000 problem.’ As for the 2003 investigation, the slow IT-market in general seems to have influenced the results negatively seen from the point of view of application systems support efficiency in organization.     

基于构件开发的BOSC的研究与应用

从基于构件的软件开发中所关注的应用领域和体系结构这两大软件特征出发,构造一种基于构件开发的软件产品结构成分表(BOSC),提出面向特征BOSC的生成算法,为基于构件的软件开发提供软件构件复用管理方法。在整个软件生命周期中,BOSC完整地反映了软件产品组成成分的情况,支持软件产品维护和升级。实践表明BOSC能够有效提高开发效率和管理水平。     

基于元模型的QoS管理模型

将元模型的思想应用于Qos管理，分析了定义Qos元模型所需的基本元素，研究了基于XML的元模型实现和应用方法，从而建立起开放的、可扩展的Qos表示体系。利用Qos表示体系，抽象出Qos空间、Qos水平及Qos状态的概念，在此基础上，结合模糊逻辑格运算，探讨了Oos适配管理的实现方式和具体算法。     

Behavioral intention,use behavior and the acceptance of electronic learning systems: Differences between higher education and lifelong learning

Widespread implementation of e-learning systems – learning management systems, virtual learning environments – across higher education institutions has aroused great interest on the study of e-learning acceptance. Acceptance studies focus on the predictors of system adoption and use, with behavioral intention to use the system as a proxy for actual use. This study proposes a TAM3-based model – with the inclusion of two additional variables: personal innovativeness in the domain of information technology and perceived interaction – to study the factors influencing the acceptance of e-learning systems. Attention is also brought towards the role of behavioral intention, especially in its relation with use behavior. In order to do so, two different settings were considered: higher education and lifelong learning; data was gathered from a survey administrated to Spanish graduate and lifelong learning students, and partial least squares analysis was used to test the research model. Results supported TAM relations, except for the intention-behavior linkage, and unveiled a dual nature of perceived usefulness – with one component related to efficiency and performance, and another component related to flexibility. The adequacy of applying TAM3-based models in educational contexts and suitability of actual system usage measures are also discussed.     

Internet Based Reconfigurable Architecture for CAPP Development and Customization

To realize the abilities of reconfiguration, flexibility and integration with other enterprise applications, Intemet/Intranet based CAPP architecture is presented in this paper, The architecture should be implemented for certain special domain to form the domain process planning framework and the domain framework could be developed to practical enterprise CAPP application. With regard to the characteristic of product family process planning in certain specialty domain, the CAPP applications are customized based on the framework derived from the architecture. The architecture has the colranon functions and services process planning. The architecture generalizes traditional functions and services into components, such as the guidance of process indexing and process variation, resource management and so on. These functions are supplied in the form of web services. In .the mean time, the data interfaces needed for integration are defined and implemented with XML technology, The customization of CAPP framework to eleetromotor product family based on the architecture, and CAPP application system for specifically electromotor enterprise based on the framework is illustrated,     

Architecture analysis of enterprise systems modifiability - Models, analysis, and validation

Enterprise architecture (EA) models can be used in order to increase the general understanding of enterprise systems and to perform various kinds of analysis. This paper presents instantiated architectural models based on a metamodel for enterprise systems modifiability analysis, i.e. for assessing the cost of making changes to enterprise-wide systems. The instantiated architectural models detailed are based on 21 software change projects conducted at four large Nordic companies. Probabilistic relational models (PRMs) are used for formalizing the EA analysis approach. PRMs enable the combination of regular entity-relationship modeling aspects with means to perform enterprise architecture analysis under uncertainty. The modifiability metamodel employed in the analysis is validated with survey and workshop data (in total 110 experts were surveyed) and with the data collected in the 21 software change projects. Validation indicates that the modifiability metamodel contains the appropriate set of elements. It also indicates that the metamodel produces estimates within a 75% accuracy in 87% of the time and has a mean accuracy of 88% (when considering projects of 2000 man-hours or more).     

数据仓库中实时元数据管理的研究

提出一种实时分布元数据管理的软件体系结构。结构基于公共仓库元模型（CWM）规范,以CWM元模型规定元数据集成、交换内容,XML元数据交换（XMI）提供实时元数据交换和共享机制,仅需一个接口驱动程序,即可实现对应分布元数据的动态读取。原型实验已验证了体系结构对元数据互操作和实时分布存取的可行性和有效性。     

A multi-agent knowledge model for SMEs mechatronic supply chains

The main concern of this research work is to analyse and model supply chains (SCs) in the particular context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the field of mechatronic. The study is based on the analysis of the organisational features, the actors?? behaviour, and performance considerations. The development of the model relies on an iterative framework that progressively integrates different aspects into the model. This framework is the ArchMDE process, which is based on MDE (Model Driven Engineering). A major feature of this work lies in its contribution to two different areas of research. The first contribution of the work is to propose a generic metamodel for SCs. Based on a literature review, an incremental framework is proposed for the modelling of SCs in terms of concepts, structure and relationships. The application of the framework to the studied context is described and its result is a domain-metamodel for SCs. The second contribution of this work lies in the formalisation of the dynamic behaviour of the concepts in the metamodel. This formalisation is based on the multi-agent approach. An agentification of the metamodel is thus drawn, thanks to the natural links between multiagent theory and SC reality. This step leads to an agentified-domain-metamodel which also includes the monitoring of the SC and synchronisation protocols. By adding relationships and dynamic behavior aspects, we obtain a metamodel of the domain that can be implemented, with its static and dynamic aspects. To validate this model, an industrial case study is detailed and has been instantiated and encoded in JAVA.     

Model-driven disaster management

Disaster management (DM) is a challenging domain to model because of the variety of dynamic characteristics attached to the domain. Metamodeling is a model-driven approach that describes how semantic domain models can be built into an artifact called a Metamodel. By collecting all the domain concepts and partitioning the domain problems into sub-domain-problems, a metamodel can produce a domain-specific language. This paper presents a Disaster Management Metamodel that can serve as a representational layer of DM expertise. This metamodel leads to better knowledge sharing and facilitates combining and matching different DM activities to best manage the disaster on hand.     

A decision support systems approach to adjust maintenance float system availability levels

In this paper, a decision support system (DSS) is designed to predict the system availability levels for equipment maintenance float problems. The DSS is developed by using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to prioritize the improvements made in the maintenance management practice through the adoption of total quality management (TQM). The resulting regression metamodel can be used to predict and explain system availability. Sensitivity analysis can be easily generated through the DSS. The application of this DSS helps to effectively control the cost of maintenance floats as a result of TQM implementation, generates quick solutions, and provides the decision maker with the flexibility of carrying out sensitivity analysis and planning for the future by looking at the long-term impacts of TQM on the maintenance float system.     

基于SNMP的统一网管框架的设计与实现

随着通信业务量需求的成倍增长,网络规模的日益膨胀,网元设备的种类和数量不断增加,各个网元都有自己的管理系统,这给网络的管理维护带来了很多困难。为了提高网络管理的效率,很有必要对各网元进行集中管理,实现在一个统一的平台上管理各种设备。文中将设计模式的思想融入网络管理框架设计中,实现了一个基于SNMP的统一网管平台,该网管平台提供一个高分布性、高扩展性的架构来保证应用的开发者可以用不同的方法来布置他们的网元管理系统。根据实际应用可以证明,该框架具有良好的灵活性和扩展性。     

水利领域软件体系结构研究

水利软件体系结构是水利计算机应用软件系统中构件及构件间交互关系的描述。论文以领域构件技术为背景,在分析水利应用系统的基础上,围绕信息资源共享与软件复用,提出了由总体框架、主框架、框架、构件和规则集合构成的水利领域软件体系结构,并对这些成份的主要特征及其相互关系进行了论述,给出了一个框架级体系结构的具体构造及描述的例子。