Info-Mathics - The Mathematical Modeling of Information Systems

This chapter reviews Information Systems (IS) modeling techniques, including relational algebra, structured design, architectural design, and Unified Modeling Language. A new technique “info-mathics” (i.e.,mathematical description of the hierarchical systems architecture) is defined to secure the system reliability and quality. The classification of IS categories and its attributes such as components, structure, relationships, system level, system product, system deepness, system width, system list, system end, and other are presented. Examples of the mathematical notations are provided and their meaning for the practical implications of info-mathics in system analysis and design are indicated.

Transforming UML Class Diagrams into Relational Data Models

The Entity-Relationship (ER) method is the most popular method for relational database design. On the other hand, the Unified Modeling Language (UML) is widely used in object- oriented analysis and design. Despite the increasing use of object-oriented techniques for software design and development, there is a large installed base of relational databases. Additionally, object-oriented databases are still not in widespread use. Thus, software designers and developers often turn to the relational databases to make their application objects persistent. Considering the fundamental differences between the two methods, the transformation from UML to a relational data model could be a non-trivial task. The purpose of this chapter is to describe a process that can be used to map a UML class diagram into an ER diagram, and to discuss the potential of using the UML notation to draw ER diagrams. An example of an actual systems design is used throughout to illustrate the mapping process, the associated problems encountered, and how they could be resolved.

Negotiating Early Reuse of Components - A Model-Based Analysis

Unless existing components are considered during formulation of a system specification, the amount of component reuse that is possible may be limited. In order to increase the amount of reuse, it may be necessary to alter the functionality or performance of the system from that originally envisioned. Tension between stakeholders thus exists. Reuse of components also significantly changes the specification activity because it must now deal with component specifications as input models, which is not necessarily the case when reuse is not the goal. These issues are investigated using a modeling framework based on semiotic theory. The nature of modeling abstractions that could support the negotiation between stakeholders is also explored. Two scenarios are examined: one based on the idea of functional abstractions that can be composed and the other one using structural abstractions of the kind available in the UML as the basis of component composition. Even though at this stage, there are no good examples of functional abstractions that can be composed, it is concluded that functional abstractions are the best prospect for supporting collaboration and negotiation.

Evaluating UML Using a Generic Quality Framework

Many researchers have evaluated different parts of UML™ and have come up with suggestions for improvements to different parts of the language. This chapter looks at UML (version 1.4) as a whole, and contains an overview evaluation of UML and how it is described in the OMG™ standard. The evaluation is done using a general framework for understanding quality of models and modeling languages in the information systems field. The evaluation is based on both practical experiences and more theoretical evaluations of UML. Based on the evaluation, we conclude that although being an improvement over it is predecessors, UML still has many limitations and deficiencies, both related to the expressiveness and comprehensibility of the language. Although work is well underway for the next version of UML (version 2.0), not all of the important problems seem to be addressed in the upcoming new version of the language.

Towards a UML Profile for Building on Top of Running Software

Currently, fewer and fewer applications are developed from scratch. Therefore, with any development process, it is very important to determine during the analysis and design phases whether there are any applications that must be safeguarded and how this could be accomplished. Legacy applications, as well as Enterprise Resource Planning integration are typical examples of developments that deal with safeguarding. Indeed, safeguarding may be necessary for a specific piece of work involving the integration of new developments with different parts of running applications. To support such a difficult but fundamental task, we recommend a set of extensions through a UML profile. In this proposal, we highlight three aspects of safeguarding which have to be taken into account: the business expertise, the interfaces, and the code itself. We then present how this profile can be used along the different phases of analysis and design; applicable guidelines are provided to support software designers in their daily work.

An Extension to a UML Activity Graph from Workflow

This chapter proposes an extension to the activity graph of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) to support the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) standard. The definition of a business process has been standardized by the WfMC with the purpose of satisfying the need of interaction and connectivity between process definition tools and different workflow systems. Here, the WfMC meta-model is explained. The UML activity diagrams, used for the business process modeling, support less detail than the WfMC standard. In this chapter, an extension of the UML’s activity graph meta-model is proposed, and its formalization using the workflow meta-model is defined. The purpose of this chapter is to obtain an extension of UML to support the workflow process definition without changing the standard with the same expressive power as the WfMC. It increments the expressive power of the activity diagrams so that the business processes modeled with the UML notation can be executed by a workflow engine.

On the Application of UML to Designing On-line Business Model

The applicability of UML is not restricted to software development, but can be extended to other process modeling tasks. This chapter introduces a framework for designing an inter-firm, on-line business model using UML. The framework comprises such principal elements as value, business players, and relationship among players, with each specified in terms of representative attributes and related notations. The business model is then visualized by value diagram and structure diagram. An illustrative case is employed to show how the proposed framework is applied. By nature, the current research is exploratory; therefore, for the purpose of illustration, it deals with a rather simple business form. As a result, extension and elaboration of the framework may be required to accommodate the complexity and diversity of a real world business.

The CORAS Methodology

This chapter introduces the CORAS methodology in which Unified Modeling Language (UML) and Unified Process (UP) are combined to support a model-based risk assessment on security-critical systems. The hypothesis is that modeling techniques like UML contribute to increased understanding for the different stakeholders involved during a risk assessment. In the CORAS methodology, a traditional risk management process is integrated with UP, which is a well-accepted system development process. CORAS tries to show how UML can contribute to better understanding, documentation, and communicating during the different phases of the risk management process. CORAS addresses both systems under development and systems already in use.

Forward Engineering and UML

This chapter describes a reuse-based rigorous process to transform UML static models to object-oriented code. The bases of this approach are the GSBLoo algebraic language to cope with concepts of UML static models and the SpReIm model for defining structured collections of reusable components. We have defined a mapping between UML static models and GSBLoo. The emphasis in this chapter is given to the last steps in the road from UML to code. Eiffel™ is the language of choice in which we chose to demonstrate the feasibility of our approach. We analyze how to transform GSBLoo specifications into code. In particular, we show how to translate different kinds of UML associations to Eiffel. Also, we describe how to construct assertions from GSBLoo specifications. All of the proposed transformations can be automated; they allow traceability and can be integrated into the iterative and incremental software development processes supported by the existing UML CASE tools.

Introducing Non-functional Requirements in UML

This chapter introduces an approach concerned with the non-functional features of software systems. The specific objectives of the research focus on the possibility of developing mechanisms to capture non-functional information in the development of software systems in a similar manner to its counterpart, the functional information. Particularly, the research described in this chapter focuses on the possible extension of the Unified Modeling Language (UML) (Booch et al., 1998). In order to get an initial specification of some non-functional requirements, the Software Quality Standard ISO/IEC 9126 (International Standard, 1991) is used. The language NoFun (Botella et al., 2001) is the basis used to achieve some organization about the non-functional concepts used in this approach.