This directory contains the following papers, all in compressed postscript format. You may need to use binary mode while transferring the files. -rw-r--r-- 1 eric 141708 Jun 12 11:30 COOCS95.ps.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 eric 57418 Apr 21 11:35 CoopIS95.ps.gz -rw-r--r-- 1 eric 95163 Oct 6 21:05 WITS94.ps.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 eric 158583 May 4 1994 ER94.ps.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 eric 132595 Jun 8 11:56 ICSE94-slides.ps.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 eric 61435 Jun 8 11:17 ICSE94-SEAI-SP-slides.ps.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 eric 110529 Mar 11 1994 ICSE94.ps.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 eric 154970 Jun 8 13:19 DKBS-TR-94-3.ps.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 eric 166396 Dec 9 1993 DKBS-TR-93-2-6.ps.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 eric 106915 Nov 9 1993 HICSS94.ps.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 eric 105567 Nov 30 17:39 COOCS93.ps.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 eric 98747 Nov 9 1993 WITS93.ps.Z -rw-r--r-- 1 eric 87739 Dec 9 1993 RE93.ps.Z To report any problems with the ftp server, please e-mail to "archivist@cs.toronto.edu". To report any problems with the documents in this directory, please e-mail to "eric@cs.toronto.edu". ========================== QUICK GUIDE ========================== Dear Friend, Thanks for looking into my ftp directory. All the papers here are more or less connected with the i* framework, but some are directed at different audiences than others. If you are just browsing, I suggest you start with WITS94, a very short overview of the framework. The COOCS93 paper focuses on the Strategic Dependency model (called the Actor Dependency model at that time). The HICSS94 paper gives more detail about the reasoning (now called the Strategic Rationale model). The ER94 paper contains some axioms for the models. The ICSE94 paper is an application of the i* framework to software processes. Your questions and comments would be most welcome, Eric. eric@cs.toronto.edu ============================ABSTRACTS================================ WITS94.ps.Z ============================================== Towards Modelling Strategic Actor Relationships for Information Systems Development -- With Examples from Business Process Reengineering Eric Yu and John Mylopoulos Proceedings of the 4th Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, December 17-18, 1994. pp. 21-28. (no abstract) ER94.ps.Z ============================================== From E-R to ``A-R'' -- Modelling Strategic Actor Relationships for Business Process Reengineering Eric S. K. Yu and John Mylopoulos in: Entity-Relationship Approach (ER'94) -- Business Modelling and Re-Engineering (Proceedings of 13th Int. Conf. on the Entity-Relationship Approach, Manchester, U.K., December 1994), P. Loucopoulos (Ed.), Lecture Notes in Computer Science no. 881, Springer-Verlag. pp. 548-565. Abstract As information systems are increasingly being called upon to play vital roles in organizations, conceptual modelling techniques need to be extended to relate information structures and processes to business and organizational objectives. We propose a framework which focuses on the modelling of strategic {\em actor relationships} (``A-R'') for a richer conceptual model of business processes in their organizational settings. Organizations are viewed as being made up of social actors who are {\em intentional} -- have motivations, wants, and beliefs -- and {\em strategic} -- they evaluate their relationships to each other in terms of opportunities and vulnerabilities. The framework supports formal modelling of the network of dependency relationships among actors, and the systematic exploration and assessment of alternative process designs in reengineering. The semantics of the modelling concepts are axiomatically characterized. By embedding the framework in the Telos language, the framework also can potentially serve as an early-requirements phase tool in a comprehensive information system development environment. Keywords: process modelling, enterprise modelling, enterprise engineering and re-engineering. ICSE94.ps.Z ============================================== Understanding ``Why'' in Software Process Modelling, Analysis, and Design (Research Paper) Eric S. K. Yu and John Mylopoulos Proceedings of 16th International Conference on Software Engineering, May 16-21, 1994, Sorrento, Italy, pp. 159-168. In trying to understand and redesign software processes, it is often necessary to have an understanding of the ``whys'' that underlie the ``whats'' -- the motivations, intents, and rationales behind the activities and input-output flows. This paper presents a model which captures the {\em intentional structure} of a software process and its embedding organization, in terms of dependency relationships among actors. Actors depend on each other for goals to be achieved, tasks to be performed, and resources to be furnished. The model is embedded in the conceptual modelling language Telos. We outline some analytical tools to be developed for the model, and illustrate how the model can help in the systematic design of software processes. The examples used are adaptations of the ISPW-6/7 benchmark example. Keywords: software process modelling, requirements engineering, organization modelling, actor dependency. ICSE94-slides.ps.Z ============================================== slides used in ICSE94 presentation ICSE94-SEAI-SP-slides.ps.Z ============================================== slides used in ICSE94 Workshop on Intersection between Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence, Software Process session. HICSS94.ps.Z ============================================= Using Goals, Rules, and Methods To Support Reasoning In Business Process Reengineering Eric S. K. Yu and John Mylopoulos Proceedings of the 27th Annual Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences, Hawaii, January 1994, Vol. 4, pp. 234-243. One step towards a more systematic approach to the design of business processes is to develop models that provide appropriate representations of the knowledge that is needed for understanding and for reasoning about business processes. We argue that, in order to have a good understanding of a business process, we need to capture the {\em reasons} behind the activities of the process. By formulating this knowledge in terms of {\em goals, rules,} and {\em methods}, we can support systematic analysis and design of business processes. We present a modelling framework consisting of two main components -- an {\em Actor Dependency} model that describes a process organization in terms of intentional dependency relationships among actors, and an {\em Issue Argumentation} model that captures the reasoning that underlie process redesign. Formal representation of these models opens up opportunities for various types of computer support as extensions to, and eventually integrated with, tools and environments for other stages of information system development. The presentation in this paper is informal, using examples from the business process reengineering literature. A revised version of this paper will appear in the Int. J. of Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance, and Management, special issue on Artificial Intelligence in Business Process Reengineering, vol. 5, no. 1, Jan. 1996. WITS93.ps.Z ============================================= An Organization Modelling Framework for Information Systems Requirements Engineering Eric S. K. Yu Proceedings of the Third Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems (WITS'93), Orlando, Florida, U.S.A., December 4--5, 1993, pp. 172-179. (no abstract available) COOCS93.ps.Z ========================================== An Actor Dependency Model of Organizational Work -- With Application to Business Process Reengineering Eric S. K. Yu and John Mylopoulos Proc. Conference on Organizational Computing Systems, Nov. 1-4, 1993, Milpitas, Calif., USA, Simon Kaplan, ed., ACM Press, pp. 258-268. In developing information systems for use in an organization, one often needs to understand the reasons that underlie established work patterns and practices. Because organizational actors depend on each other for goals to be achieved, tasks to be performed, and resources to be furnished, reasons for work patterns can be revealed by examining the dependencies among actors. We present a model which characterizes a work organization in terms of the network of dependencies among organizational actors. Actor dependencies are taken to be intentional -- they expand or restrict an actor's ability to pursue goals. The network of actor dependencies constitutes the intentional structure of the organization. We use examples from business process reengineering to motivate and illustrate the model. DKBS-TR-94-3.ps.Z ============================================== Understanding ``Why'' in Software Process Modelling, Analysis, and Design An abridged version of this paper appears in: Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Software Engineering, May 16-21, 1994, Sorrento, Italy, pp. 159-168. Eric S. K. Yu and John Mylopoulos Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A4 Abstract In trying to understand and redesign software processes, it is often necessary to have an understanding of the ``whys'' that underlie the ``whats'' -- the motivations, intents, and rationales behind the activities and input-output flows. This paper presents a model which captures the {\em intentional structure} of a software process and its embedding organization, in terms of dependency relationships among actors. Actors depend on each other for goals to be achieved, tasks to be performed, and resources to be furnished. They seek commitment on their dependencies, and try to mitigate vulnerabilities arising from critical dependencies. The model is embedded in the conceptual modelling language Telos. We outline some analytical tools to be developed for the model, and illustrate how the model can help in the systematic design of software processes. The model complements current software process modelling techniques by characterizing the broader context within which software processes are enacted. The perspective adopted in this paper is based on our work in requirements engineering. Throughout, The examples used are adaptations of the ISPW-6/7 benchmark example. Keywords: software process modelling, requirements engineering, organization modelling, actor dependency. DKBS-TR-93-2-6.ps.Z ============================================== An Organization Modelling Framework for Multi-Perspective Information System Design Eric S. K. Yu in: ``Requirements Engineering 1993: Selected Papers'' University of Toronto, Department of Computer Science Technical Report DKBS-TR-93-2, John Mylopoulos, Lawrence Chung, Eric Yu, Brian Nixon, July 1993, pp. 66-86. The design of information systems have traditionally been carried out primarily from a technical perspective. Recently, there has been increasing recognition that building truly effective systems requires taking into account a much broader set of perspectives, representing the viewpoints of various stakeholders, addressing their economic, political, institutional and other concerns. In order to support organizational analysis as an integral part of the overall information system development process, there is need for a practical and systematic framework to utilize insights from these broader perspectives to guide design. This paper outlines a conceptual modelling framework which attempts to provide a systematic way for organizing and using knowledge from multiple organizational analysis perspectives. The framework is made up of three types of models. The first represents an organizational configuration as a network of interdependencies among actors. The second models the make-up of social actors in terms of roles, positions, and concrete agents. The third uses a network of arguments to express the concerns that actors have about the current and potential organizational configurations from various perspectives. The framework is illustrated with empirical examples taken from the literature. RE93.ps.Z ============================================== Modelling Organizations for Information Systems Requirements Engineering Eric S. K. Yu Proc. First IEEE International Symposium on Requirements Engineering, Jan. 4-6, 1993, San Diego, Calif., USA., pp. 34-41. In attempting to understand information system environments during requirements engineering, it is often helpful to have an understanding of the ``whys'' as well as the ``whats'' about the environment. A natural way to answer {\em why} questions is by tracing them to {\em goals}. In an {\em organizational} environment, however, the ``whys'' do not originate from a single set of given goals. Organizational {\em agents} {\em depend} on each other for {\em goals} to be achieved, {\em tasks} to be performed, and {\em resources} to be furnished. A {\em requirements model} that captures knowledge about an organizational environment can be enriched by including the {\em network} of {\em dependency relationships} among agents. In this paper, we propose a set of {\em intentional} operators for modelling dependencies among agents, and present a preliminary axiomatic characterization. COOCS95.ps.Z ============================================== Models for Supporting the Redesign of Organizational Work Eric S. K. Yu Proceedings, Conf. on Organizational Computing Systems (COOCS'95) August 13-16, 1995, Milpitas, California, USA. pp. 225-236 Abstract Many types of models have been proposed for supporting organizational work. In this paper, we consider models that are used for supporting the {\em redesign} of organizational work. These models are used to help discover opportunities for improvements in organizations, introducing information technologies where appropriate. To support the redesign of organizational work, models are needed for describing work configurations, and for identifying issues, exploring alternatives, and evaluating them. Several approaches are presented and compared. The \istar\ framework -- consisting of the Strategic Dependency and Strategic Rationale models -- is discussed in some detail, as it is expressly designed for modelling and redesigning organizational work. We argue that models which view organizational participants as intentional actors with motivations and intents, and abilities and commitments, are needed to provide richer representations of organizational work to support its effective redesign. The redesign of a bank loan operation is used as illustration. CoopIS95.ps.Z ============================================== From Organization Models to System Requirements -- A ``Cooperating Agents'' Approach Eric Yu , Philippe Du Bois , Eric Dubois, and John Mylopoulos Proc. 3rd International Conference on Cooperative Information Systems -- CoopIS-95, Vienna (Austria), May 9-12, 1995. pp. 194-204. Increasingly, information systems development occurs in the context of existing systems and established organizational processes. Viewing organizational and system components as {\em cooperating agents} offers a way of understanding their inter-relationships and how these relationships would or should be altered as new systems are introduced. In this paper, we show how two agent-oriented frameworks can be used in combination during requirements engineering for cooperative information systems. The \albert\ language is used to specify requirements, in terms of states and actions, and information and perception. The \istar\ framework is used to understand and redesign organizational processes, in terms of strategic relationships and rationales. A small banking example is used to illustrate how the requirements process may iterate between the two levels of modelling and analysis towards a requirements specification.