1,721,028 research outputs found
Engineering Normative Requirements
No full textRequirements engineering is the critical phase of the software engineering process, where complex, heterogeneous human needs, together with environmental constraints have to be captured and translated into system requirements. In this paper we recall the concept of normative environment, discuss the problems and challenges related to the requirements analysis in this kind of environments and present an approach for dealing with such problems. Finally, we apply the approach to a simple case study to verify its suitability and to highlight open points to be addressed in the future
Taom4e and the Tropos Reasoners. Issue on the integration process.
No full textThis technical report describes an ongoing work at ITC-IRST (Distributed Intelligence research line, at SRA Division) on the development of a software infrastructure able to support the exchange of models related to the Tropos methodology between the different tool (the ones already produced and the ones that will be) focusing on this topic. This work is motivated by the fact that every tool focuses on specific activity/part of the methodology using ad hoc solution and works like an island; so it is not easy nor feasible to share knowledge and result with the other developed tools. Clearly this doesn`t allow the user to obtain the same result and the same level of interaction that could be provided by a single suite of integrated products that work happily communicating between themselves. The objective of this work is to analyze different integration scenarios and to proceed with the implementation of a software infrastructure that could limit this kind of problems
Balanced Goalcards: combining Balanced Scorecards and Goal Analysis
No full textToday’s Information Systems are complex systems that have to deal with a variety of different and potentially conflicting needs. Capturing their strategic requirements is a critical activity, as it must answer at the same time to software and corporate goals. In this paper, we introduce the economic foundations of strategic requirements. We propose a novel conceptual framework for requirements modeling and validation, based on economic and business strategy theory. The soundness of the framework is also evaluated, by presenting the result of its application to a real case study
A Context-specific Definition of Risk for Enterprise-level Decision Making
No full textEnterprise-level decision making implies risk. In software companies, the choice of adopting an open source software component to be embedded into a commercial product may expose a whole business to risks arising due to this component. While general-purpose definitions of risk abound in the literature, in our work we seek an ontological definition of risk that allows us to understand how risks can relate the characteristics of a software component to the adopter's business goals.
In this paper we outline the challenges faced in building this ontological definition, and sketch some issues that are still open
Arguing regulatory compliance of software requirements
No full textA software system complies with a regulation if its operation is consistent with the regulation under all circumstances. The importance of regulatory compliance for software systems has been growing, as regulations are increasingly impacting both the functional and non-functional requirements of legacy and new systems. HIPAA and SOX are recent examples of laws with broad impact on software systems, as attested by the billions of dollars spent in the US alone on compliance. In this paper we propose a framework for establishing regulatory compliance for a given set of software requirements. The framework assumes as inputs models of the requirements (expressed in i*) and the regulations (expressed in Nomos). In addition, we adopt and integrate with i* and Nomos a modeling technique for capturing arguments and establishing their acceptability. Given these, the framework proposes a systematic process for revising the requirements, and arguing through a discussion among stakeholders that the revisions make the requirements compliant. A pilot industrial case study involving fragments of the Italian regulation on privacy for Electronic Health Records provides preliminary evidence of the framework’s adequacy and indicates directions for further improvements
Enhancing Law Modeling and Analysis: using BPR-Based and Goal-Oriented Frameworks
No full textLegal documents contain regulations and principles at different levels of abstraction. They constitute rich sources of information for public administrations (PA) redesign and even- tually for the software delivery that must comply with normative regulations that are specified in laws and procedures. In order to facilitate the alignment between these elements, systematic methods and tools automating regulations modeling and analysis must be developed. In this paper, we propose the integration of process modeling (named VLPM) and goal-oriented (named No`mos) tool-supported methodologies to systematically model and analyze laws and procedures in public administration. We show that such integrated view would provide a framework that allows tracing and reasoning either top-down, from the principles to the implementation or, vice versa, bottom-up, from a change in the procedure to the principles. Finally, we also believe that this would provide a facility for interchanging models among different tools and for sharing models among different actors.Previously we proposed two complementary frameworks — the No`mos and VLPM frameworks— to systematically model and analyze laws. No`mos is a goal-oriented approach to effec- tively capture high-level principles in terms of goal realization for the requirements guided by the satisfiability of normative proposition(s) obtained from rules embedded in the law. VLPM, whereas is a tool-supported BPR methodology to extract laws represented in XML and build models using a subset of UML diagrams.
In this paper, we provide detailed overview of the two frameworks and their integration whose aim is to improve the current modeling and analysis of laws by providing a uniform environment that can be used both at modeling time and for laws assessment. The integration of process and goal-oriented ontologies with the VLPM framework would also make easier the modeling and analysis of laws and procedures and provide a facility for interchanging models among the tools. We believe that, this provides a framework that allows tracing and reasoning either top-down, from the principles to the implementation or, vice versa, bottom-up, from a change in the procedure to the principles. It is exactly this connection that adds value to the solution we propose and makes our approach more significant than the simple juxtaposition of the two techniques. Finally, we use an example to examine the combined offer
Designing law-compliant software requirements
No full textThe European Train Control System (ETCS) is a control system for the interoperability of the railways across Europe.
In this paper, we report on the activities of the EuRailCheck project, promoted by the European Railway Agency, for the development of a methodology and tools for the formalization and validation of the ETCS specifications. Within the project, we achieved three main results. First, we developed a methodology for the formalization and validation of the ETCS specifications. The methodology is based on a three-phases approach that goes from the informal analysis of the requirements, to their formalization and validation. Second, we developed a set of support tools, covering the various phases of the methodology. Third, we formalized a realistic subset of the specification in an industrial setting. The results of the project were positively evaluated by domain experts from different manufacturing and railway companies
Towards a Framework for Law-Compliant Software Requirements
No full textDuring the requirements elicitation phase, analysts have
often to take into consideration laws and regulations enacted
by different levels of government. The purpose of
this paper is twofold. First, a systematic process is outlined
which, given a problem and a collection of legal prescriptions,
generates a set of requirements that address the problem
while complying with the prescriptions. Second, the
conceptual framework is outlined, which characterises the
process by providing both legal concepts proposed in theoretical
studies in the legal domain and concepts from goaloriented
requirements engineering. The issues and challenges
of the proposed framework are also evaluated, with
regard to expected results
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