1. Information Modeling: The process and the required competencies of its participants Paul Frederiks Theo van der Weide

2. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 2 Position within Archimate The ArchiMate project is a research initiative that provides concepts and techniques to support an architect in the visualization, communication and analysis of integrated architectures. In this paper focus on: communication and analysis.

3. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 3 Requirements Engineering Discovering the purpose for which software is meant Identification stakeholders and their needs Documentation stages: –Analysis, –Communication, –Negotiation –Decision making –Subsequent implementation Closing gap informal - formal

4. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 4 Information modeling Identify involved information objects Resulting model used as base for communication and understanding Relying on common base for understanding For example: (semi-)natural language

5. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 5 Motivation Domain expert System analyst

6. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 6 The information modeling process Formal semantic function Informal semantic function Dialogue document

7. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 7 The goal Find a minimal (information) grammar capable to generate/accept the sentences of the informal specification Minimal in the sense that each formal concept is motivated form the informal specification.

8. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 8 Correct model Conceptual model as generative device Correctness: –Completeness principle: with respect to Universe of Discourse –Falsification principle: with respect to informal specification

9. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 9 Responsibilities Domain expert: Completeness System analyst: Falsification

10. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 10 Effectiveness How well accomplish participants their share –How well can domain expert provide a domain description validate paraphrased description –How well can system analyst map sentences onto modeling concepts evaluate a validation Number of cycles?

11. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 11 A theory for Information Modeling Our goal: try to find a theory for information modeling Main theorem for Information Modeling The probability of a model being incorrect, as a function of the dialogue length, tends to zero for a combination of qualified domain expert and system analyst.

12. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 12 Refined

13. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 13 Refinement elicitation phase Collecting significant objects –D1: DE can provide complete set of information objects –A1: SA can handle implicit knowledge Verbalization –D2: DE can provide any number of describing sample sentences –A1: SA can handle implicit knowledge

14. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 14 Refinement elicitation phase Reformulation: –D3: DE can split into elementary sentences –D4: DE can reformulate in unifying format –D5: DE can order sentences according dynamics in application domain –A2: SA can validate sentences for consistency

15. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 15 Refinement modeling phase Grammatical analysis and abstraction: –A3: SA can perform grammatical analysis –A4: SA can abstract sentence structure, and match these structures onto modeling concepts

16. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 16 Refinement validation phase Production: –A5: SA can match abstract sentence structure with concepts –A6: SA can generate new sample sentences Feed back: –D6: DE can validate description –D7: DE can judge significance of sample sentence –A2: SA can validate sentences for consistency

17. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 17 Verification phase Verification: –A7: SA can think on an abstract level

18. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 18 Summary

19. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 19 Conclusion Having these competencies at a sufficient level: –DE will eventually be complete –SA will guide DE in being complete Thus: information modeling will lead eventually to a correct model

20. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 20 Base skills Domain expert D1: completeness D2: describing D3: splitting D4: normalization D5: ordering D6: validation D7: significance System analyst A1: implicit knowledge A2: consistency A3: grammatical analysis A4: modeling A5: concretizing A6: generation A7: fundamental

21. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 21 Controlling natural language (1) Completeness: –D1: providing complete set of information objects –D2: providing any number of significant sample sentences –A1: handling implicit knowledge –A6: generating sample sentences Verbosity: –D3: splitting sentences –D4: reformulating in unifying format –D5: ordering sample sentences –D7: judging significance –A3: recognizing similarity –A4: abstracting sentence structures

22. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 22 Controlling natural language (2) Ambiguity: –D2: providing any number of significant sample sentences –D6: validating description application domain –A2: validating sample sentences for consistency –A6: generating sample sentences Consistency: –D2: providing any number of significant sample sentences –D6: validating description application domain –D7: judging significance –A2: validating sample sentences for consistency –A6: generating sample sentences

23. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 23 Controlling natural language (3) Mixed level of abstraction: –D6: validating description application domain –A3: recognizing similarity –A4: abstracting sentence structures –A5: matching natural language with modeling concepts

24. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 24 Future research Introduction of open modeling concepts Extension of the dialog model

25. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 25 Open modeling concepts Natural language may be seen as a basis Other media might be more effective:  a language with informal symbols and rules Solution: allow open modeling concepts. “Empowering a weak formalism by negotiation”, in preparation

26. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 26 Extending the dialog In practice many stakeholders –particular view –goals The chatbox model –Dialog involves several participants –Sentence oriented –Subdialogs are possible

27. Paul Frederiks, Theo van der Weide 27 Thank you, Questions?