Peter Regner

An iterative process for adaptive meta- and instance modeling

In this paper we propose a practice for organizing modeling activity. We see substantial, successful modeling efforts in enterprises, e.g., in our logistics, manufacturing, banking and insurance projects, even without model-driven engineering metaphor. The focus of our discussion is the working domain expert. The working domain expert desires tool support, service support, and adaptivity of the modeling approach. We discuss these topics in the proven framework of the IT Infrastructure Library.

Towards a Process Model for Efficient Advertised Bidding in the Field of Software Projects

The award procedure has a great deal of influence on the software process. Therefore the choice of a qualified type of award procedure is of particular importance for the success of a software development project in the public sector, as well as electronic government projects. The condition for the use of the open procedure or the restricted procedure is a complete and detailed requirements specification, to enable the comparison of the tenders. From a software development point of view, the application of one of these types means using the waterfall model. The disadvantages of the waterfall model are well known. The approach presented in this paper uses the negotiated procedure to support the advantages of an iterative, risk mitigating software process.

Concept and pragmatics of an intuitive visualization-oriented metamodeling tool

In this article we present a metamodeling tool that is strictly oriented towards the needs of the working domain expert. The working domain expert looks for intuitive metamodeling features. In particular, these features include rich capabilities for specifying the visual appearance of models. Our research has identified an important design rationale for metamodeling tools that we call visual reification, which is the notion that metamodels are visualized the same way as their instances. Our tool supports both standard and innovative metamodeling features oriented towards the principle of visual reification. In this paper we present an unbiased discussion of the pragmatics of metamodeling tools against the background of this design rationale.

Intuitive Visualization-Oriented Metamodeling

In this article we present a metamodeling tool that is strictly oriented towards the needs of the working domain expert. The working domain expert longs for intuitive metamodeling features. In particular this concerns rich capabilities for specifying the visual appearance of models. In these efforts we have identified an important design rationale for metamodeling tools that we call visual reification --- the notion that metamodels are visualized the same way as their instances. In our tool we support both, standard metamodeling features and new metamodeling features that are oriented towards the visual reification principle. We will start an unbiased discussion of the pragmatics of metamodeling tools against the background of this design rationale.

Extreme advertised bidding

The award procedure in the field of advertised bidding has a great deal of influence on the software process. Therefore the choice of a qualified type of award procedure is of particular importance for the success of a software development project in the public sector. The open procedure and the restricted procedure, two types of award procedures, require a complete and detailed requirements specification, to enable the comparison of the tenders. From a software development point of view, the application of one of these types means using the waterfall model with its well known problems. One type of award procedure, the negotiated procedure, permits the application of an agile approach and is therefore the basis for all kinds of risk mitigating software processes.

Supporting public software acquisition workflows - implications for data models

Many software acquisition projects are doomed to fail due to a lack of integration of acquisition and development processes on the one hand and, because of shortcomings of classic software development processes on the other hand. In our studies we focus on public sector where legal restrictions make software acquisition more challenging than in private sector. As a consequence we developed an approach for interlocking development processes and acquisition processes using the negotiated procedure (see [P. Regner et al. (2003)]). Current award platforms only support publication of documents produced in acquisition process. In contrast to the state of the art we are developing a Web based public tender support system called PTSS that uses our approach guiding all stakeholders playing different roles supporting iterative procedures proposed by software development processes like extreme programming or the rational unified process. This role based approach has basic impact on data models and other design targets we discuss in this paper.

On Context- and Sequence-Aware Document Enrichment and Retrieval towards Personalized Recommendations

The amount of unstructured data has grown exponentially during the past two decades and continues to grow at even faster rates. As a consequence, the efficient management of this kind of data came to play an important role in almost all organizations.

Semantic Data Integration and Relationship Identification Using the Hierarchical Structure of a Domain-Specific Taxonomy

In this paper we present an architecture for integrating IT-Service-Management-data and a method for relationship identification using a domain-specific taxonomy. This knowledge can be used for semantic data integration by automatically accessing different data sources and identifying dependencies between various IT-Service-items. This can be done by using existing categories and documents to build up a taxonomy, extracting keywords and mapping these keywords to existing data assets. To show the functionality, we created a simple taxonomy and tried to identify the relationships between various assets.

Software acquisition based on business models

In this paper, we present an approach based on hierarchically structured business models as artifacts of business process modeling that are used in a stepwise acquisition process for large software systems to reduce complexity and to increase efficiency and effectiveness. These models are abstract enough so that the scope for ideas of the suppliers is not unnecessarily narrowed. But, they can be detailed and deeply technical if this is necessary. An adequate degree of abstraction allows the public authority to benefit from the ideas of the supplier in a collective learning process. The business models are furthermore a lingua franca for all parties concerned in the acquisition process and a valuable source of information for the time after.