Applying CIM-to-PIM model transformations for the service-oriented development of information systems

Context

Model-driven approaches deal with the provision of models, transformations between them and code generators to address software development. This approach has the advantage of defining a conceptual structure, where the models used by business managers and analysts can be mapped into more detailed models used by software developers. This alignment between high-level business specifications and the lower-level information technologies (ITs) models is crucial to the field of service-oriented development, where meaningful business services and process specifications are those relevant to real business scenarios.

Objective

This paper presents a model-driven approach which, starting from high-level computational-independent business models (CIMs) - the business view - sets out guidelines for obtaining lower-level platform-independent behavioural models (PIMs) - the information system view. A key advantage of our approach is the use of real high-level business models, not just requirements models, which, by means of model transformations, helps software developers to make the most of the business knowledge for specifying and developing business services.

Method

This proposal is framed in a method for service-oriented development of information systems whose main characteristic is the use of services as first-class objects. The method follows an MDA-based approach, proposing a set of models at different levels of abstraction and model transformations to connect them.

Results

The paper present the complete set of CIM and PIM metamodels and the specification of the mappings between them, which clear advantage is the support for the alignment between high-level business view and ITs. The proposed model-driven process is being implemented in an MDA tool. A first prototype has been used to develop a travel agency case study that illustrates the proposal.

Conclusion

This study shows how a model-driven approach helps to solve the alignment problem between the business view and the information system view that arises when adopting service-oriented approaches for software development.     

Metrics for measuring complexity and completeness for social goal models

Goal-oriented Requirements Engineering approaches have become popular in the Requirements Engineering community as they provide expressive modelling languages for requirements elicitation and analysis. However, as a common challenge, such approaches are still struggling when it comes to managing the accidental complexity of their models. Furthermore, those models might be incomplete, resulting in insufficient information for proper understanding and implementation. In this paper, we provide a set of metrics, which are formally specified and have tool support, to measure and analyse complexity and completeness of goal models, in particular social goal models (e.g. i^⁎). Concerning complexity, the aim is to identify refactoring opportunities to improve the modularity of those models, and consequently reduce their accidental complexity. With respect to completeness, the goal is to automatically detect model incompleteness. We evaluate these metrics by applying them to a set of well-known system models from industry and academia. Our results suggest refactoring opportunities in the evaluated models, and provide a timely feedback mechanism for requirements engineers on how close they are to completing their models.     

Embedding requirements within Model-Driven Architecture

Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) brings benefits to software development, among them the potential for connecting software models with the business domain. This paper focuses on the upstream or Computation-Independent Model (CIM) phase of MDA. Our contention is that, whilst there are many models and notations available within the CIM phase, those that are currently popular and supported by the Object Management Group (OMG) may not be the most useful notations for business analysts nor sufficient to fully support software requirements and specification. Therefore, with specific emphasis on the value of the Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) for business analysts, this paper provides an example of a typical CIM approach before describing an approach that incorporates specific requirements techniques. A framework extension to MDA is then introduced, which embeds requirements and specification within the CIM, thus further enhancing the utility of MDA by providing a more complete method for business analysis.     

GoBIS: An integrated framework to analyse the goal and business process perspectives in information systems

ContextOrganisational reengineering, continuous process improvement, alignment among complementary analysis perspectives, and information traceability are some current motivations to promote investment and scientific effort for integrating goal and business process perspectives. Providing support to integrate information systems analysis becomes a challenge in this complex setting.ObjectiveThe GoBIS framework integrates two goal and business process modelling approaches: i^⁎ (a goal-oriented modelling method) and Communication Analysis (a communication-oriented business process modelling method).MethodIn this paper, we describe the methodological integration of both methods with the aim of fulfilling several criteria: i) to rely on appropriate theories; ii) to provide abstract and concrete syntaxes; iii) to provide scenarios of application; iv) to develop tool support; v) to provide demonstrable benefits to potential adopters.ResultsWe provide guidelines for using the two modelling methods in a top-down analysis scenario. The guidelines are validated by means of a comparative experiment and a focus-group session with students.ConclusionsFrom a practitioner viewpoint (modeller and/or analyst), the guidelines facilitate the traceability between goal and business process models, the experimental results highlight the benefits of GoBIS in performance and usability perceptions, and demonstrate an improvement on the completeness of the latter having an impact on efficiency. From a researcher perspective, the validation has produced useful feedback for future research.     

Generating optimized configurable business process models in scenarios subject to uncertainty

ContextThe quality of business process models (i.e., software artifacts that capture the relations between the organizational units of a business) is essential for enhancing the management of business processes. However, such modeling is typically carried out manually. This is already challenging and time consuming when (1) input uncertainty exists, (2) activities are related, and (3) resource allocation has to be considered. When including optimization requirements regarding flexibility and robustness it becomes even more complicated potentially resulting into non-optimized models, errors, and lack of flexibility.ObjectiveTo facilitate the human work and to improve the resulting models in scenarios subject to uncertainty, we propose a software-supported approach for automatically creating configurable business process models from declarative specifications considering all the aforementioned requirements.MethodFirst, the scenario is modeled through a declarative language which allows the analysts to specify its variability and uncertainty. Thereafter, a set of optimized enactment plans (each one representing a potential execution alternative) are generated from such a model considering the input uncertainty. Finally, to deal with this uncertainty during run-time, a flexible configurable business process model is created from these plans.ResultsTo validate the proposed approach, we conduct a case study based on a real business which is subject to uncertainty. Results indicate that our approach improves the actual performance of the business and that the generated models support most of the uncertainty inherent to the business.ConclusionsThe proposed approach automatically selects the best part of the variability of a declarative specification. Unlike existing approaches, our approach considers input uncertainty, the optimization of multiple objective functions, as well as the resource and the control-flow perspectives. However, our approach also presents a few limitations: (1) it is focused on the control-flow and the data perspective is only partially addressed and (2) model attributes need to be estimated.     

Reasoning with contextual requirements: Detecting inconsistency and conflicts

ContextThe environment in which the system operates, its context, is variable. The autonomous ability of a software to adapt to context has to be planned since the requirements analysis stage as a strong mutual influence between requirements and context does exist. On the one hand, context is a main factor to decide whether to activate a requirement, the applicable alternatives to meet an activated requirement as well as their qualities. On the other hand, the system actions to reach requirements could cause changes in the context.ObjectivesModelling the relationship between requirements and context is a complex task and developing error-free models is hard to achieve without an automated support. The main objective of this paper is to develop a set of automated analysis mechanisms to support the requirements engineers to detect and analyze modelling errors in contextual requirements models.MethodWe study the analysis of the contextual goal model which is a requirements model that weaves together the variability of both context and requirements. Goal models are used during the early stages of software development and, thus, our analysis detects errors early in the development process. We develop two analysis mechanisms to detect two kinds of modelling errors. The first mechanism concerns the detection of inconsistent specification of contexts in a goal model. The second concerns the detection of conflicting context changes that arise as a consequence of the actions performed by the system to meet different requirements simultaneously. We support our analysis with a CASE tool and provide a systematic process that guides the construction and analysis of contextual goal models. We illustrate and evaluate our framework via a case study on a smart-home system for supporting the life of people having dementia problems.ResultsThe evaluation showed a significant ability of our analysis mechanisms to detect errors which were not notable by requirements engineers. Moreover, the evaluation showed acceptable performance of these mechanisms when processing up to medium-sized contextual goal models. The modelling constructs which we proposed as an input to enable the analysis were found easy to understand and capture.ConclusionsOur developed analysis for the detection of inconsistency and conflicts in contextual goal models is an essential step for the entire system correctness. It avoids us developing unusable and unwanted functionalities and functionalities which lead to conflicts when they operate together. Further research to improve our analysis to scale with large-sized models and to consider other kinds of errors is still needed.     

Semi-formal transformation of secure business processes into analysis class and use case models: An MDA approach

ContextModel-Driven Development (MDD) is an alternative approach for information systems development. The basic underlying concept of this approach is the definition of abstract models that can be transformed to obtain models near implementation. One fairly widespread proposal in this sphere is that of Model Driven Architecture (MDA). Business process models are abstract models which additionally contain key information about the tasks that are being carried out to achieve the company’s goals, and two notations currently exist for modelling business processes: the Unified Modelling Language (UML), through activity diagrams, and the Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN).ObjectiveOur research is particularly focused on security requirements, in such a way that security is modelled along with the other aspects that are included in a business process. To this end, in earlier works we have defined a metamodel called secure business process (SBP), which may assist in the process of developing software as a source of highly valuable requirements (including very abstract security requirements), which are transformed into models with a lower abstraction level, such as analysis class diagrams and use case diagrams through the approach presented in this paper.MethodWe have defined all the transformation rules necessary to obtain analysis class diagrams and use case diagrams from SBP, and refined them through the characteristic iterative process of the action-research method.ResultsWe have obtained a set of rules and a checklist that make it possible to automatically obtain a set of UML analysis classes and use cases, starting from SBP models. Our approach has additionally been applied in a real environment in the area of the payment of electrical energy consumption.ConclusionsThe application of our proposal shows that our semi-automatic process can be used to obtain a set of useful artifacts for software development processes.     

Using intentional fragments to bridge the gap between organizational and intentional levels

ContextBusiness process models provide a natural way to describe real-world processes to be supported by software-intensive systems. These models can be used to analyze processes in the system-as-is and describe potential improvements for the system-to-be. But, how well does a given business process model satisfy its business goals? How can different perspectives be integrated in order to describe an inter-organizational process?ObjectiveThe aim of the present paper is to link the local and the global perspectives of the inter-organizational business process defined in BPMN 2.0 (Business Process Model and Notation) to KAOS goal models (Keep All Objectives Satisfied). We maintain a separation of concerns between the intentional level captured by the goal model and the organizational level captured by the process model. The paper presents the concept of intentional fragment (a set of flow elements of the process with a common purpose) and assess its usefulness.MethodWe conducted empirical experiments where the proposed concepts – here the intentional fragments – are validated by users. Our method relies on an iterative improvement process led by users feedback.ResultsWe find that the concept of intentional fragment is useful for (1) analyzing the business process model (2) reasoning about the relations between the goal model and the business process model and (3) identifying new goals. In a previous work we focused on BPMN 2.0 collaboration models (local view). This paper extends the previous work by integrating the global view given by choreography models in the approach.ConclusionWe conclude that the notion of intentional fragment is a useful mean to relate business process models and goal models while dealing with their different nature (activity oriented vs goal oriented). Intentional fragments can also be used to analyze the process model and to infer new goals in an iterative manner.     

Transforming and tracing reused requirements models to home automation models

ContextModel-Driven Software Development (MDSD) has emerged as a very promising approach to cope with the inherent complexity of modern software-based systems. Furthermore, it is well known that the Requirements Engineering (RE) stage is critical for a project’s success. Despite the importance of RE, MDSD approaches commonly leave textual requirements specifications to one side.ObjectiveOur aim is to integrate textual requirements specifications into the MDSD approach by using the MDSD techniques themselves, including metamodelling and model transformations. The proposal is based on the assumption that a reuse-based Model-Driven Requirements Engineering (MDRE) approach will improve the requirements engineering stage, the quality of the development models generated from requirements models, and will enable the traces from requirements to other development concepts (such as analysis or design) to be maintained.MethodThe approach revolves around the Requirements Engineering Metamodel, denominated as REMM, which supports the definition of the boilerplate based textual requirements specification languages needed for the definition of model transformation from application requirements models to platform-specific application models and code.ResultsThe approach has been evaluated through its application to Home Automation (HA) systems. The HA Requirement Specification Language denominated as HAREL is used to define application requirements models which will be automatically transformed and traced to the application model conforming to the HA Domain Specific Language.ConclusionsAn anonymous online survey has been conducted to evaluate the degree of acceptance by both HA application developers and MDSD practitioners. The main conclusion is that 66.7% of the HA experts polled strongly agree that the automatic transformation of the requirements models to HA models improves the quality of the HA models. Moreover, 58.3% of the HA participants strongly agree with the usefulness of the traceability matrix which links requirements to HA functional units in order to discover which devices are related to a specific requirement. We can conclude that the experts we have consulted agree with the proposal we are presenting here, since the average mark given is 4 out of 5.     

Protocol modelling: A modelling approach that supports reusable behavioural abstractions

We describe a behavioural modelling approach based on the concept of a “Protocol Machine”, a machine whose behaviour is governed by rules that determine whether it accepts or refuses events that are presented to it. We show how these machines can be composed in the manner of mixins to model object behaviour and show how the approach provides a basis for defining reusable fine-grained behavioural abstractions. We suggest that this approach provides better encapsulation of object behaviour than traditional object modelling techniques when modelling transactional business systems. We relate the approach to work going on in model driven approaches, specifically the Model Driven Architecture initiative sponsored by the Object Management Group. Communicated by August-Wilhelm Scheer Ashley McNeile is a practitioner with over 25 years of experience in systems development and IT related management consultancy. His main areas of interest are requirements analysis techniques and model execution and in 2001 he founded Metamaxim Ltd. to pioneer new techniques in these areas. He has published and presented widely on object oriented development methodology and systems architecture. Nicholas Simons has been working with formal methods of system specification since their introduction, and has over 20 years experience in building tools for system design, code generation and reverse engineering. In addition, he lectures on systems analysis and design, Web programming and project planning. He is a co-founder and director of Metamaxim Ltd.     

Modelling mobile app requirements for semantic traceability

The paper presents a modelling method aimed to support the definition and elicitation of requirements for mobile apps through an approach that enables semantic traceability for the requirements representation. Business process-centricity is employed in order to capture requirements in a knowledge structure that retains procedural knowledge from stakeholders and can be traversed by semantic queries in order to trace domain-specific contextual information for the modelled requirements. Consequently, instead of having requirements represented as natural language items that are documented by diagrammatic models, the communication channels are switched: semantically interlinked conceptual models become the requirements representation, while free text can be used for requirements annotations/metadata. Thus, the method establishes a knowledge externalization channel between business stakeholders and app developers, also tackling the Twin Peaks bridging challenge (between requirements and early designs). The method is presented using its modelling procedure as a guiding thread, with each step illustrated by case-based samples of the modelling language and auxiliary functionality. The design work is encompassed by an existing metamodelling framework and introduces a taxonomy for modelling relations, since the metamodel is the key enabler for the goal of semantic traceability. The research was driven by the ComVantage EU research project, concerned with mobile app support for collaborative business process execution. Therefore, the project provides context for the illustrating examples; however, generalization possibilities beyond the project scope will also be discussed, with respect to both motivation and outcome.     

Querying large models efficiently

ContextThe paradigm of Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) has emerged as a new area of software engineering that uses models to improve the productivity and reusability of software in order to achieve industrial standards. As models grow in size and complexity, the need of model persistence and model querying solutions arises to efficiently store large models and obtain information from them in an efficient, usable and safe way. Morsa is a model repository that uses a No-SQL database backend; it has been recently presented [1] and achieves scalable access to models and transparent integration with tools.ObjectiveOur goal was to develop a query language for Morsa, as the existing model querying approaches cannot take advantage of the design of the our repository.MethodThe method followed in this paper comprises the following steps: (i) analyze the problem of model querying and identify a set of dimensions that can be used to characterize querying approaches; (ii) study and evaluate a representative set of model querying approaches and (iii) use the experience gained to design, develop and evaluate a dedicated model querying approach for Morsa that performs better than the studied ones (plain EMF, EMF Query, MDT OCL, IncQuery and CDO OCL). A test case has been defined to evaluate and compare the different approaches.ResultsThe contributions of this work are: first, an efficient, usable querying approach called Morsa Query Language (MorsaQL) that extends Morsa with querying capabilities, as the existing querying approaches cannot take advantage of our repository, and second, a comparative study of the current model persistence and querying approaches.ConclusionThe experience of analyzing and evaluating the different querying approaches has been very useful, as it has helped us developing our own one, which has been proven to be the best choice for Morsa. Moreover, the results of this paper can guide the MDE developers on which querying approach to use, depending on their needs.     

Formalising ordinary legal disputes: a case study

This paper presents a formal reconstruction of a Dutch civil legal case in Prakken’s formal model of adjudication dialogues. The object of formalisation is the argumentative speech acts exchanged during the dispute by the adversaries and the judge. The goal of this formalisation is twofold: to test whether AI & law models of legal dialogues in general, and Prakken’s model in particular, are suitable for modelling particular legal procedures; and to learn about the process of formalising an actual legal dispute.

Change impact analysis for requirements: A metamodeling approach

ContextFollowing the evolution of the business needs, the requirements of software systems change continuously and new requirements emerge frequently. Requirements documents are often textual artifacts with structure not explicitly given. When a change in a requirements document is introduced, the requirements engineer may have to manually analyze all the requirements for a single change. This may result in neglecting the actual impact of a change. Consequently, the cost of implementing a change may become several times higher than expected.ObjectiveIn this paper, we aim at improving change impact analysis in requirements by using formal semantics of requirements relations and requirements change types.MethodIn our previous work we present a requirements metamodel with commonly used requirements relation types and their semantics formalized in first-order logic. In this paper the classification of requirements changes based on structure of a textual requirement is provided with formal semantics. The formalization of requirements relations and changes is used for propagating proposed changes and consistency checking of proposed changes in requirements models. The tool support for change impact analysis in requirements models is an extension of our Tool for Requirements Inferencing and Consistency Checking (TRIC).ResultsThe described approach for change impact analysis helps in the elimination of some false positive impacts in change propagation, and enables consistency checking of changes.ConclusionWe illustrate our approach in an example which shows that the formal semantics of requirements relations and change classification enables change alternatives to be proposed semi-automatically, the reduction of some false positive impacts and contradicting changes in requirements to be determined.     

Model-driven specification and enforcement of RBAC break-glass policies for process-aware information systems

ContextIn many organizational environments critical tasks exist which – in exceptional cases such as an emergency – must be performed by a subject although he/she is usually not authorized to perform these tasks. Break-glass policies have been introduced as a sophisticated exception handling mechanism to resolve such situations. They enable certain subjects to break or override the standard access control policies of an information system in a controlled manner.ObjectiveIn the context of business process modeling a number of approaches exist that allow for the formal specification and modeling of process-related access control concepts. However, corresponding support for break-glass policies is still missing. In this paper, we aim at specifying a break-glass extension for process-related role-based access control (RBAC) models.MethodWe use model-driven development (MDD) techniques to provide an integrated, tool-supported approach for the definition and enforcement of break-glass policies in process-aware information systems. In particular, we provide modeling support on the computation independent model (CIM) layer as well as on the platform independent model (PIM) and platform specific model (PSM) layers.ResultsOur approach is generic in the sense that it can be used to extend process-aware information systems or process modeling languages with support for process-related RBAC and corresponding break-glass policies. Based on the formal CIM layer metamodel, we present a UML extension on the PIM layer that allows for the integrated modeling of processes and process-related break-glass policies via extended UML Activity diagrams. We evaluated our approach in a case study on real-world processes. Moreover, we implemented our approach at the PSM layer as an extension to the BusinessActivity library and runtime engine.ConclusionOur integrated modeling approach for process-related break-glass policies allows for specifying break-glass rules in process-aware information systems.     

VIVACE: A framework for the systematic evaluation of variability support in process-aware information systems

ContextThe increasing adoption of process-aware information systems (PAISs) such as workflow management systems, enterprise resource planning systems, or case management systems, together with the high variability in business processes (e.g., sales processes may vary depending on the respective products and countries), has resulted in large industrial process model repositories. To cope with this business process variability, the proper management of process variants along the entire process lifecycle becomes crucial.ObjectiveThe goal of this paper is to develop a fundamental understanding of business process variability. In particular, the paper will provide a framework for assessing and comparing process variability approaches and the support they provide for the different phases of the business process lifecycle (i.e., process analysis and design, configuration, enactment, diagnosis, and evolution).MethodWe conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) in order to discover how process variability is supported by existing approaches.ResultsThe SLR resulted in 63 primary studies which were deeply analyzed. Based on this analysis, we derived the VIVACE framework. VIVACE allows assessing the expressiveness of a process modeling language regarding the explicit specification of process variability. Furthermore, the support provided by a process-aware information system to properly deal with process model variants can be assessed with VIVACE as well.ConclusionsVIVACE provides an empirically-grounded framework for process engineers that enables them to evaluate existing process variability approaches as well as to select that variability approach meeting their requirements best. Finally, it helps process engineers in implementing PAISs supporting process variability along the entire process lifecycle.     

A visual language and environment for enterprise system modelling and automation

ObjectiveWe want to support enterprise service modelling and generation using a more end user-friendly metaphor than current approaches, which fail to scale to large organisations with key issues of “cobweb” and “labyrinth” problems and large numbers of hidden dependencies.MethodWe present and evaluate an integrated visual approach for business process modelling using a novel tree-based overlay structure that effectively mitigate complexity problems. A tree-overlay based visual notation (EML) and its integrated support environment (MaramaEML) supplement and integrate with existing solutions. Complex business architectures are represented as service trees and business processes are modelled as process overlay sequences on the service trees.ResultsMaramaEML integrates EML and BPMN to provide complementary, high-level business service modelling and supports automatic BPEL code generation from the graphical representations to realise web services implementing the specified processes. It facilitates generated service validation using an integrated LTSA checker and provides a distortion-based fisheye and zooming function to enhance complex diagram navigation. Evaluations of EML show its effectiveness.ConclusionsWe have successfully developed and evaluated a novel tree-based metaphor for business process modelling and enterprise service generation. Practice implications: a more user-friendly modelling approach and support tool for business end users.     

A systematic literature review of studies on business process modeling quality

ContextBusiness process modeling is an essential part of understanding and redesigning the activities that a typical enterprise uses to achieve its business goals. The quality of a business process model has a significant impact on the development of any enterprise and IT support for that process.ObjectiveSince the insights on what constitutes modeling quality are constantly evolving, it is unclear whether research on business process modeling quality already covers all major aspects of modeling quality. Therefore, the objective of this research is to determine the state of the art on business process modeling quality: What aspects of process modeling quality have been addressed until now and which gaps remain to be covered?MethodWe performed a systematic literature review of peer reviewed articles as published between 2000 and August 2013 on business process modeling quality. To analyze the contributions of the papers we use the Formal Concept Analysis technique.ResultsWe found 72 studies addressing quality aspects of business process models. These studies were classified into different dimensions: addressed model quality type, research goal, research method, and type of research result. Our findings suggest that there is no generally accepted framework of model quality types. Most research focuses on empirical and pragmatic quality aspects, specifically with respect to improving the understandability or readability of models. Among the various research methods, experimentation is the most popular one. The results from published research most often take the form of intangible knowledge.ConclusionWe believe there is a lack of an encompassing and generally accepted definition of business process modeling quality. This evidences the need for the development of a broader quality framework capable of dealing with the different aspects of business process modeling quality. Different dimensions of business process quality and of the process of modeling still require further research.     

Architectural evolution of FamiWare using cardinality-based feature models

ContextAmbient Intelligence systems domain is an outstanding example of modern systems that are in permanent evolution, as new devices, technologies or facilities are continuously appearing. This means it would be desirable to have a mechanism that helps with the propagation of evolution changes in deployed systems.ObjectiveWe present a software product line engineering process to manage the evolution of FamiWare, a family of middleware for ambient intelligence environments. This process drives the evolution of FamiWare middleware configurations using cardinality-based feature models, which are especially well suited to express the structural variability of ambient intelligence systems.MethodFamiWare uses cardinality-based feature models and clonable features to model the structural variability present in ambient intelligence systems, composed of a large variety of heterogeneous devices. Since the management evolution of configurations with clonable features is manually untreatable due to the high number of features, our process automates it and propagates changes made at feature level to the architectural components of the FamiWare middleware. This is a model driven development process as the evolution management, the propagation of evolution changes and the code generation are performed using some kind of model mappings and transformations. Concretely we present a variability modelling language to map the selection of features to the corresponding FamiWare middleware architectural components.ResultsOur process is able to manage the evolution of cardinality-based feature models with thousands of features, something which is not possible to tackle manually. Thanks to the use of the variability language and the automatic code generation it is possible to propagate and maintain a correspondence between the FamiWare architectural model and the code. The process is then able to calculate the architectural differences between the evolved configuration and the previous one. Checking these differences, our process helps to calculate the effort needed to perform the evolution changes in the customized products. To perform those tasks we have defined two operators, one to calculate the differences between two feature model configurations and another to create a new configuration from a previous one.ConclusionOur process automatically propagates the evolution changes of the middleware family into the existing configurations where the middleware is already deployed and also helps us to calculate the effort in performing the changes in every configuration. Finally, we validated our approach, demonstrating the functioning of the defined operators and showing that by using our tool we can generate evolved configurations for FamiWare with thousands of cloned features, for several case studies.