A Conceptual Model for Compliance Checking Support of Enterprise Architecture Decisions

in Proceedings of the 17th IEEE Conference on Business Informatics, Lisbon Portugal, July 13-16, 2015, Volume 1 (2015)

Towards An Analysis Driven Approach for Adapting Enterprise Architecture Languages

in 6th international EMISA workshop, Luxembourg-ville, 25 to 26 september 2014 (2014)

Enterprise Architecture (EA) modeling languages are increasingly used for various enterprise wide analyses. In most cases one needs to adapt EA languages to an appropriate level of detail. However such an ... [more ▼]

Enterprise Architecture (EA) modeling languages are increasingly used for various enterprise wide analyses. In most cases one needs to adapt EA languages to an appropriate level of detail. However such an adaptation is not straightforward. Language engineers currently deal with analysis driven language adaptation in an ad-hoc manner, adapting languages from scratch. This introduces various problems, such as a tendency to add uninteresting and/or unnecessary details to languages, while important enterprise details are not documented. Moreover, adding detail increases the complexity of languages, which in turn inhibits a language's communication capabilities. Yet experience from practice shows that architects often are communicators, next to analysts. As a result, one needs to find a balance between a model's communication and analysis capabilities. In this position paper we argue for an approach for assisting language engineers in adapting, in a controlled manner, EA languages for model-driven enterprise analyses. Furthermore, we present the key ingredients of such an approach, and use these as a starting point for a research outlook. [less ▲]

Models within Models: Taming Model Complexity Using the Sub-model Lattice

in 14th International Conference on Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering (FASE 2011) (2011)

Model-driven software development aims at easing the process of software development by using models as primary artifacts. Although less complex than the real systems they are based on, models tend to be ... [more ▼]

Model-driven software development aims at easing the process of software development by using models as primary artifacts. Although less complex than the real systems they are based on, models tend to be complex nevertheless, thus making the task of comprehending them non-trivial in many cases. In this paper we propose a technique for model comprehension based on decomposing models into sub-models that conform to the same metamodel as the original model. The main contributions of this paper are: a mathematical description of the structure of these sub-models as a lattice, a linear-time algorithm for constructing this decomposition and finally an application of our decomposition technique to model comprehension. [less ▲]

CoReL: Policy-Based and Model-Driven Regulatory Compliance Management

in Proceedings of the 15th IEEE International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference (2011)

Regulatory compliance management is now widely recognized as one of the main challenges still to be efficiently dealt with in information systems. In the discipline of business process management in ... [more ▼]

Regulatory compliance management is now widely recognized as one of the main challenges still to be efficiently dealt with in information systems. In the discipline of business process management in particular, compliance is considered as an important driver of the efficiency, reliability and market value of companies. It consists of ensuring that enterprise systems behave according to some guidance provided in the form of regulations. This paper gives a definition of the research problem of regulatory compliance. We show why we expect a formal policy-based and model-driven approach to provide significant advantages in allowing enterprises to flexibly manage decision-making related to regulatory compliance. For this purpose, we contribute CoReL, a domain-specific modeling language for representing compliance requirements that has a graphical concrete syntax. Informal semantics of CoReL are introduced and its use is illustrated on an example. CoReL allows to leverage business process compliance modeling and checking, enhancing it with regard to, among other dimensions, user-friendliness, genericity, and traceability. [less ▲]

Using VCL as an Aspect-Oriented Approach to Requirements Modelling

in Transactions on Aspect-Oriented Software Development (2010), 7

Software systems are becoming larger and more complex. By tackling the modularisation of crosscutting concerns, aspect-orientation draws attention to modularity as a means to address the problems of ... [more ▼]

Software systems are becoming larger and more complex. By tackling the modularisation of crosscutting concerns, aspect-orientation draws attention to modularity as a means to address the problems of scalability, complexity and evolution in software systems development. Aspect-oriented modelling (AOM) applies aspect-orientation to the construction of models. Most existing AOM approaches are designed without a formal semantics, and use multi-view partial descriptions of behaviour. This paper presents an AOM approach based on the Visual Contract Language (VCL): a visual language for abstract and precise modelling, designed with a formal semantics, and comprising a novel approach to visual behavioural modelling based on design by contract where behavioural descriptions are total. By applying VCL to a large case study of a car-crash crisis management system, the paper demonstrates how modularity of VCL's constructs, at different levels of granularity, help to tackle complexity. In particular, it shows how VCL's package construct and its associated composition mechanisms are key in supporting separation of concerns, coarse-grained problem decomposition and aspect-orientation. The case study's modelling solution has a clear and well-defined modular structure; the backbone of this structure is a collection of packages encapsulating local solutions to concerns. [less ▲]

Domain Hierarchies: a Basic Theoretical Framework for Integrating Software Domains

in 3rd IEEE International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Software Engineering (2009)

A Lightweight Approach for Defining the Formal Semantics of a Modeling Language

in ACM/IEEE 11th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems (MODELS 2008) (2008)

To define the formal semantics of a modeling language, one normally starts from the abstract syntax and then defines the static semantics and dynamic semantics. Having a formal semantics is important for ... [more ▼]

To define the formal semantics of a modeling language, one normally starts from the abstract syntax and then defines the static semantics and dynamic semantics. Having a formal semantics is important for reasoning about the language but also for building tools for the language. In this paper we propose a novel approach for this task based on the Alloy language. With the help of a concrete example language, we contrast this approach with traditional methods based on formal languages, type checking, meta-modeling and operational semantics. Although both Alloy and traditional techniques yield a formal semantics of the language, the Alloy-based approach has two key advantages: a uniform notation, and immediate automatic analyzability using the Alloy analyzer. Together with the simplicity of Alloy, our approach offers the prospect of making formal definitions easier, hopefully paving the way for a wider adoption of formal techniques in the definition of modeling languages. [less ▲]