Some Lessons Learned from using i Modelling in Practice

1
Some Lessons Learned fromusing i Modelling in
Practice

• Oscar Pastor,
• Alicia Martínez, Hugo Estrada
• OO-Method Group

2
Outline

• Using i in a Software Production Enterprise
• The advantages
• The detected problems
• A proposed solution
• Conclusions

• Introduction

3
Introduction
The OO-Method approach
A Model Driven Case Tool for Automatic Generation
of Information Systems
Late Requirements
Problem Space Level
Obtain
Conceptual Model
Object Model
Navigational Model
Dynamic Model
Presentation Model
Functional Model
Uses
Automated Translation
Repository
Formal Specification
Application Tier (COM, CORBA)
Persistence Tier (SQL Server, ORACLE)
Solution Space Level
Interface Tier (Visual Environments,
Web, XML)
Empiricism (ESE)
Care Technologies, S.A.
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Introduction
Goal of this work
Analyze the use of i in for representing early
requirements in the context of the Model-Driven
Code Generation Context of OO-Method.
Early Requirements with i
Late Requirements
Obtain
Conceptual Model
Object Model
Navigational Model
Dynamic Model
Functional Model
Presentation Model
Uses
Model Driven Approach
5
Outline

• Introduction
• The advantages
• The detected problems
• A proposed solution
• Conclusions

• Using i in a Software Production Enterprise

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Using i in a Software Production Enterprise
In the analysis of the i Framework we use some
projects of the CARE Technology Enterprise, S.A.
as case studies. http//www.care-t.com/

• Case studies analyzed
• Workshops Management (Workshop on Requirements
  Engineering WER 02)
• Golf Tournaments Management (Oliva Nova Golf
  Club)
• Car Rental Management (Rent a Car Denia, S.A.).

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Using i in a Software Production Enterprise
The strategy to face the case studies
3 CARE Technologies analysts
3 CARE Technologies scholarship holders
2 PhD students
Experts in OO-Method Modeling. Without knowledge
in i Modeling
With knowledge in Requirements Modeling. Without
knowledge in i Modeling
With previous knowledge in i Modeling
Three different groups
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Outline

• Introduction
• Using i in a Software Production Enterprise
• The detected problems
• A proposed solution
• Conclusions

• The advantages

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The advantages

• The i Modeling was very useful for analyzing the
  performance of the Enterprise. The i analysis
  allowed us to determine

• The i Modeling was a very powerful tool for
  representing the possibilities for reassigning
  the work in the Enterprise.

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Outline

• Introduction
• Using i in a Software Production Enterprise
• The advantages
• A proposed solution
• Conclusions

• The detected problems

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The detected problems
Based in the analysis done with the CARE
Technologies Case Studies, we have determined
some of the issues associated with the use of the
i Framework in a Model Driven Context.

• Repeatability
• Scalability
• Encapsulation
• Understandability
• Traceability

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The detected problems (Repeatability)
Repeatability the capability of the modeling
technique to repeat an output when given the same
input.
In the current state of the i Framework, could
be complicated to decide the modeling primitives
to be used for representing a specific semantic.
This problem make difficult to assure an
appropriated rate of repeatability in the
modeling results
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The detected problems (Repeatability)
EXAMPLE Golf Tournament Management (GTO) Case
Study
Pay the registration of the Tournament
CARE Technologies scholarship holders
2 PhD students
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The detected problems (Repeatability)
The repeatability is a important value in a
Model-Driven Approach
Analysis phase
Automated Translation
Design phase
Steps in the scenario of a use case
Class en the sequence diagram
Use case
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The detected problems (Scalability)
Scalability The capability of the modeling
technique to function well as it scales up or
down to meet the analysis needs.
In the current state of icould be difficult to
analyze large Enterprises, because in this case,
there are too many modeling elements in a same
model.
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The detected problems (Scalability)
Example Car Rental Management Case Study
This is only a fragment of the process for
renting a car. This model can grow up quickly,
doing very complicate their analysis.
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The detected problems (Scalability- Encapsulation)
Encapsulation The capability of the modeling
technique for providing mechanism to use abstract
concepts that represent a set of more concrete
concepts.
Actor
Actor
.






















Actor
.






Actor








In the current state of i, we don't have
mechanisms for encapsulating modeling primitives.
In this way, could be very complicate to
determine the fragments of the model that
represent each process of the Enterprise
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The detected problems (Scalability- Encapsulation)
Example Workshop Management Case Study
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As a consequence of the lack of mechanisms for
doing encapsulation, in the same model we have
information of very different abstraction levels.
It fact make difficult the analysis of the model.
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The detected problems (Scalability-
Understandability)
Understandability The capability of the Model
for being comprehensible for users, no only for
its designers.
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The detected problems
Traceability The capability for following the
trace of a modeling element in the different
phases of development.
The i provides a lot of modeling flexibility for
adding elements in each phase of modeling,
however this flexibility could be negative in a
Model-Driven approach, where the elements of a
model must have a a precise source in a previous
model.
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Outline

• Introduction
• Using i in a Software Production Enterprise
• The advantages
• The detected problems
• Conclusions

• The Proposed Solution

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The proposed solution
Proposed Solution Give a partial solution for
the detected problems defining extensions for the
i Framework. To do this, we propose encapsulate
a set of i modeling elements in more abstract
concepts, allowing us to create the i models in
a compositional way.
In our proposal, we have defined the Business
Service as the key concept for encapsulating the
semantic of the enterprise processes.
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The proposed solution a service-oriented
approach for i
Business Services A Business services is a
functionality (business process) that an
enterprise expose to customers.

• Characteristics
• Visibility there is an interface to expose
  certain fragment of the process to potential
  customers.
• Request The Enterprise provides the
  functionality to the customers for requesting the
  service.
• Consumers The consumer of the service could be
  organizational actors of Enterprises.

Customer
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The proposed solution a service-oriented
approach for i
In this approach, it is possible to represent a
Business Model in a Three Tier Architecture
The i Three Tier Architecture
Data Tier
Interface Tier
Business Logic Tier
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The proposed solution a service-oriented
approach for i
The steps for create a Business Service Model
Enterprise
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The proposed solution a service-oriented
approach for i
The steps for create a Business Service Model
Process with transactional properties
Business Services Dependency
Process without transactional properties
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Outline

• Introduction
• Using i in a Software Production Enterprise
• The advantages
• The detected problems
• A proposed solution

• Conclusions

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Conclusions

• We have explored the use of the i Framework in
  the context of a Model-Driven Code Generation
  Method. To do this, several cases studies have
  been carried out in the enterprise CARE
  Technologies, a SpinOff project to put into
  practice the OO-Method approach.
• The results of the cases studies indicate that
  the i modeling is very useful for business
  performance analysis. The improvements done using
  i guarantee the construction of a information
  system that helps to reorganize the
  organizational work.
• We have determined that certain issues in the i
  framework need to be improved. (Summarizing, the
  lack of mechanisms for creating a model in a
  compositional way.

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Conclusions

• In order to give a partial solution for some of
  the detected problems, we have defined extensions
  to the modeling primitives of i.
• The strategy of the proposal consists on using
  compositional mechanisms to create and represent
  an Enterprise. To do this, the concept of
  Business Services has been defined as an
  extension to the traditional business models.
• The definition of Business Services allows us to
  define an i Model in a Three-tier Architecture,
  using the Business Services dependency for
  representing the interface, the Business Process
  for representing the Business Logic and the
  Business Objects for representing the Data Model
  of the Enterprise.
• With the proposed Method, it is possible to
  describe an Enterprise as a composition of
  models, where each model represents a more
  detailed view of the Enterprise.