L. Ferreira Pires

Protocol design and implementation using formal methods

This paper reports on a number of formal methods that support correct protocol design and implementation. These methods are placed in the framework of a design methodology for distributed systems that was studied and developed within the ESPRIT II Lotosphere project (2304). The paper focuses on design methods for synthesizing protocols by successive application of correctness-preserving LOTOS transformations. This transformational approach is described in some detail and is illustrated with a protocol design example. The paper concludes with some suggestions for relating design methods to milestones in the protocol design and implementation processes.

On engineering support for business process modelling and redesign

Currently, there is an enormous (research) interest in business process redesign (BPR). Several management-oriented approaches have been proposed showing how to make BPR work. However, detailed descriptions of empirical experience are few. Consistent engineering methodologies to aid and guide a BPR-practitioner are currently emerging. Often, these methodologies are claimed to be developed for business process modelling, but stem directly from information system design cultures. We consider an engineering methodology for BPR to consist of modelling concepts, their representation, computerized tools and methods, and pragmatic skills and guidelines for off-line modelling, communicating, analyzing, (re)designing business processes. The modelling concepts form the architectural basis of such an engineering methodology. Therefore, the choice, understanding and precise definition of these concepts determine the productivity and effectiveness of modelling tasks within a BPR project. The current paper contributes to engineering support for BPR. We work out general issues that play a role in the development of engineering support for BPR. Furthermore, we introduce an architectural framework for business process modelling and redesign. This framework consists of a coherent set of modelling concepts and techniques on how to use them. The framework enables the modelling of both the structural and dynamic characteristics of business processes. We illustrate its applicability by modelling a case from service industry. Moreover, the architectural framework supports abstraction and refinement techniques. The use of these techniques for a BPR trajectory are discussed.

Services Platforms for Context-Aware Applications

Context-aware services platforms aim at supporting the handling of contextual information in order to provide better user-tailored services. This paper addresses our current efforts towards a configurable and extensible services platform for context-aware applications. It discusses the use of a language and ontologies to cope with configurability and extensibility aspects.

On the Use of Lotos to Support the Design of A Connection Oriented Internetting Protocol

The design of systems with the help of Formal Description Techniques has moved from the theory books to the reality. In this paper I present an Internetting Protocol for Connection Oriented Traffic which has been designed and specified in LOTOS. First the functional requirements of the protocol were selected, following two approaches: the service support analysis, and the scenarios analysis. The actual selection of features is determined by the relevant functionality identified in both approaches. Further, the functional requirements are specified, and the specification is then applied as a starting point for the development methodology that ends up in an implementation. In order to comply to these objectives, the specification has to be designed according to certain principles, which are discussed in this paper. Therefore, the relevance of this paper is to provide a set of ideas to guide the development of what we call a System Architecture, in other words, the first formal specification of the system functional requirements. The importance of language tools in the verification of specifications is also addressed.

Model-driven approach to the implementation of context-aware applications using rule engines

This paper aims at demonstrating that the Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) approach to transformation is suitable to cope with the abstraction gap between the specification of application rules for context-aware applications and the implementation of these rules using rule engines. This paper reports on the transformation of Event-Condition-Action (ECA) rules onto rules that can be executed by the Jess rules engine. We have applied the MDA approach to define this transformation, by specifying it in terms of mappings between elements of the ECA Domain-specific Language (ECA-DL), which is the language we developed to represent ECA rules, and the Jess metamodel. The transformation was fully specified, implemented using the Atlas Transformation Language (ATL) and tested with a simple example.