Goal-Based Domain Modeling as a Basis for Cross-Disciplinary Systems Engineering - Intentional Perspectives on Information Systems Engineering - page 82

Goal-Based Domain Modeling as a Basis
for Cross-Disciplinary Systems Engineering

Matthias Jarke, Hans W. Nissen, Thomas Rose, and Dominik Schmitz

Abstract Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are important drivers for
innovation. In particular, project-driven SMEs that closely cooperate with their
customers have specific needs in regard to information engineering of their devel-
opment process. They need a fast requirements capture since this is most often
included in the (unpaid) offer development phase. At the same time, they need to
maintain and reuse the knowledge and experiences they have gathered in previous
projects extensively as it is their core asset. The situation is complicated further if
the application field crosses disciplinary boundaries. To bridge the gaps and perspec-
tives, we focus on shared goals and dependencies captured in models at a conceptual
level. Such a model-based approach also offers a smarter connection to subsequent
development stages, including a high share of automated code generation. In the
approach presented here, the agent- and goal-oriented formalism i ∗ is therefore
extended by domain models to facilitate information organization. This extension
permits a domain model-based similarity search, and a model-based transformation
towards subsequent development stages. Our approach also addresses the evolution
of domain models reflecting the experiences from completed projects. The approach
is illustrated with a case study on software-intensive control systems in an SME of
the automotive domain.

1 Introduction

The alignment or fit between business requirements and organizational information
systems has been a continuing concern in the business information systems field
for over twenty years [36] . The representations, processes, and domain contexts of
requirements engineering have been advertised as the bridge from business needs
to IS functionality [19] . However, the emphasis shifts from greenfield develop-
ment towards complex system evolution in a complex and quickly evolving context.