CREWS Reports 1996

• Coordinating Distributed Organizational Knowledge (CREWS-96-03)

M. Jarke, M. Jeusfeld, P. Peters, K. Pohl

appeared in
Data and Knowledge Engineering, Vol.23(3), September, 1997

Abstract
As organizations move from hierarchical towards market-like structures, their distributed units also take a larger role in the design and evolution of organizational information systems. This requires strategies which support the cooperative creation, evaluation and evolution of global information flow structures among autonomous organizational units through local knowledge acquisition and maintenance. Three such strategies are presented: cooperative conceptual modeling, multi-simulation, and explicit process support. These strategies are formally embedded in a meta modeling framework and implemented with a repository-based architecture. They are intended for the analysis of business processes in networked organizations, and as a basis for designing and evolving their federated information systems.

• Requirements Engineering: An Overview (CREWS-96-02) (PDF)

Klaus Pohl

appeared in
Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology, A. Kent, J. Williams (editors), Volume 36, Supplement 21, Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York, 1997

Abstract
Traditionally, requirements engineering (RE) has been seen as the first phase of the software life cycle in which a specification is produced from informal ideas. This paper provides an overview on requirements engineering.

We first reflect on some definitions of RE, characterize typical RE products and discuss the four main RE-tasks. We then define RE as a process of "establishing vision in context" which can be characterized by three orthogonal dimensions, namely the agreement, representation, and specification dimension. These dimensions reflect that RE is faced with social, technical, and cognitive problems. Finally, the consequences of these definitions on the RE process, its products, and requirements traceability are outlined.

 

• A Proposal for a Scenario Classification Framework (CREWS-96-01.ps)  (PDF)

C. Rolland, C. Ben Achour, C. Cauvet, J. Ralyté, A. Sutcliffe, N.A.M. Maiden, M. Jarke, P. Haumer, K.Pohl, E. Dubois, P. Heymans

appeared in
Requirements Engineering Journal, Vol. 3, No. 1, Springer Verlag, pp.23-47, 1998

Abstract
Use of examples, scenes, narrative descriptions of contexts, mock-ups and prototypes have attracted considerable attention in Requirements Engineering, Human Computer Interaction and Information Systems communities. Loosely all these ideas can be called scenario based approaches, although exact definitions are not easy beyond saying these approaches emphasise some description of the real world. Experience seems to tell us that people react to 'real things' and that this helps clarifying requirements. Indeed the widespread acceptance of prototyping in system development points to the effectiveness of scenario based approaches. However, we have little understanding about how scenarios should be constructed, little hard evidence about their effectiveness and even less idea about why they work.
The paper is an attempt to explore some of the issues underlying scenario based approaches in Requirements Engineering (RE) and to propose a framework for their classification. Motivations for developing the framework are threefold : (a) to help understanding and clarifying existing scenario based approaches, (b) to situate the industrial practice of scenarios and (c) to relate typical RE situations to classes of scenarios.