A CASE STUDY OF COMBINING i* FRAMEWORK AND THE Z NOTATION

Aneesh Krishna, Sergiy Vilkomir, Aditya Ghose

2004

Abstract

Agent-oriented conceptual modeling (AoCM) frameworks are gaining wider popularity in software engineering. In this paper, we are using AoCM framework i* and the Z notation together for requirements engineering (RE). Most formal techniques like Z are suitable for and designed to work in the later phases of RE and early design stages of system development. We argue that early requirements analysis is a very crucial phase of software development. Understanding the organisational environment, reasoning and rationale underlying requirements along with the goals and social dependencies of its stakeholders are important to model and build effective computing systems. The i* framework is one such language which addresses early stage RE issues cited above extremely well. It supports the modeling of social dependencies between agents with respect to tasks and goals both functional and non-functional. We have developed a methodology involving the combined use of i* and the Z notation for agent-oriented RE. In our approach we suggest to perform one-to-one mapping between i* framework and Z. At the first instance general i* model has been mapped into Z schemas, and then i* diagrams of the Emergency Flood Rescue Management Case Study are mapped into Z. Some steps explaining further information refinement with examples are also provided. Using Z specification schemas, we are in a position to express properties that are not restricted to the current state of the system, but also to its past and future history. The case study described in this paper is taken from one of the most important responsibilities of the emergency services agency, managing flood rescue and evacuation operations. By using this case study, we have tested the effectiveness of our methodology to a real-life application.

References

  1. Bert, D., Bowen, J. P., King, S., and M. Walden, e. (2003). Formal Speci cation and Development in Z and B, Third International Conference of B and Z Users (ZB2003), Turku, Finland, June 4-6, 2003, Proceedings. LNCS 2651. Springer.
  2. Bowen, J. P. (1996). Formal Speci cation and Documentation Using Z: A Case Study Approach. International Thomson Computer Press.
  3. Chung, L., Nixon, B. A., Yu, E., and Mylopoulos, J. (2000). Non-Functional Requirements in Software Engineering. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
  4. Fuxman, A., Pistore, M., Mylopoulos, J., and Traverso, P. (2001). Model checking early requirements speci cations in tropos. In Proceedings of Fifth IEEE International Symposium on Requirements Engineering, 27- 31 August 2001, pages 174-181, Toronto, Canada.
  5. Heitmeyer, C., Jeffords, R., and Labow, B. (1996). Automated consistency checking of requirements speci - cations. ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology, pages 231-261.
  6. Mahony, B. and Dong, J. S. (2000). Timed communicating object z. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 26(2):150-177.
  7. Spivey, J. M. (1992). The Z Notation: A Reference Manual. Prentice Hall International Series in Computer Science, 2nd edition.
  8. Unni, A., Krishna, A., Ghose, A. K., and Hyland, P. (2003). Practical early phase requirements engineering via agent-oriented conceptual modelling. In To appear in Proceedings of ACIS-2003: The 2003 Australasian Conference on Information Systems, 26-28 November 2003, Perth, Australia.
  9. Vilkomir, S., Ghose, A. K., and Krishna, A. (2004). Combining agent-oriented conceptual modeling with formal methods. In Submitted to Australian Software Engineering Conference (ASWEC-2004), 13-16 April 2004, Melbourne, Australia.
  10. Wang, X. and Lesprance, Y. (2001). Agent-oriented requirements engineering using congolog and i*. In Proceedings of 3rd International Bi-Conference Workshop Agent-Oriented Information Systems (AOIS-2001), pages 59-78, Berlin, Germany.
  11. Yu, E. (1994). Towards modelling strategic actor relationships for information systems development - with examples from business process reengineering. In Proceedings of 4th Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems, 17-18 December 1994, pages 21- 28, Vancouver, B.C., Canada.
  12. Yu, E. (1995). Modelling strategic relationships for process reengineering. Technical report, PhD Thesis. Dept. of Computer Science, University of Toronto.
  13. Yu, E. (1997). Towards modelling and reasoning support for early-phase requirements engineering. In Proceedings of 3rd IEEE International Symposium on Requirements Engineering, 6-8 January 1997, pages 226-235, Washington D.C., USA.
  14. Yu, E. (2001). Agent orientation as a modelling paradigm. Wirtschaftsinformatik, 43(2):123-132.
  15. Yu, E. and Mylopoulos, J. (1994). Understanding why in software process modelling, analysis, and design. In Proceedings of 16th International Conference on Software Engineering, 16-21 May 1994, pages 159-168, Sorrento, Italy.
Download


Paper Citation


in Harvard Style

Krishna A., Vilkomir S. and Ghose A. (2004). A CASE STUDY OF COMBINING i* FRAMEWORK AND THE Z NOTATION . In Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 3: ICEIS, ISBN 972-8865-00-7, pages 192-200. DOI: 10.5220/0002645301920200


in Bibtex Style

@conference{iceis04,
author={Aneesh Krishna and Sergiy Vilkomir and Aditya Ghose},
title={A CASE STUDY OF COMBINING i* FRAMEWORK AND THE Z NOTATION},
booktitle={Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 3: ICEIS,},
year={2004},
pages={192-200},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0002645301920200},
isbn={972-8865-00-7},
}


in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 3: ICEIS,
TI - A CASE STUDY OF COMBINING i* FRAMEWORK AND THE Z NOTATION
SN - 972-8865-00-7
AU - Krishna A.
AU - Vilkomir S.
AU - Ghose A.
PY - 2004
SP - 192
EP - 200
DO - 10.5220/0002645301920200