Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
In information systems and software engineering research, organizational modeling
has been of interest, often in connection with requirements engineering. Goal and
agent oriented approaches have been used in this context, and agents or actors are
often part of the modeling ontology [13][6]. However, the
i*
-Context approach is
distinctive in its treatment of agents/actors as being strategic and context-sensitive[5],
and thus readily adaptable to the service requirements adaptation based on identity
illustrated in this paper.
Context-aware system and web service are also a very important issue in recent
years. Regarding the definition of context for web services, OASIS's WS-Context
Standard defines service context as the kind of information that explains “what an
activity is and what services it will require in order to perform that work, will depend
upon the execution environment and application in which it is used[10].”Dey and
Abowd surveyed the existing work in context-aware computing, and have defined
context to be any information that can be used to characterize thesituation of an entity.
Location, identity, time and activity are the four primary context types that they have
summarized.[3]. In Baldauf, Dustdar and Rosenberg's survey, they summarized the
different design principles and context models for context-aware systems. According
to their survey, the context models used by existing context-aware systems involves
key-value models, markup scheme models, graphical models, object oriented
models, logic based models and ontology based models [2]. Comparing to the existing
context-awareweb service practices covered by these surveys, our approach
focuses more on exploring the origin of the users diverse needs and preferences
rather than summarizing the directly related context of some specific kinds of
services.
There are also a research and practiceson preference-based web service selection
and customization. By utilizing decision tree algorithm, Hong, Suh, Kim and Kim
have proposed an agent based framework for providing the personalized services
using context history [4]. While in Lamparteret. al.'s [14] and Medjahed et. al.'s [8]
research, ontology based modelling and reasoning approaches are being introduced to
configure the service and system according to user's preferences.
Finally, there is a body of literature on personal and contextual requirements
engineering. Sutcliffeet. al. proposed a framework for requirements analysis that
accounts for individual and personal goals, and the effect of time and context on
personal requirements[1]. The implications of the framework on system architecture
are considered as three implementation pathways: functional specifications,
development of customizable features and automatic adaptation by the system.Salifuet.
al. presents a problem-orientedapproach to represent and reason about
contextualvariability and assess its impact on requirements[9]. Ali et. al. proposes a
goal-orientedRE modeling and reasoning framework for systems operatingin varying
contexts[11]. Liaskoset. al. proposes a variability intensive approach to goal
decomposition supporting requirements identification for highly customizable software
[15]. Contextualgoal models are introduced to relate goals and contexts;reasoning
techniques to derive requirements reflectingthe context and users priorities at runtime;
and finally,design time reasoning techniques to derive requirementsfor a system. While
these works are all along the same line with our approach, we emphasis on the user's
social and personal identities to rationalize the diverse needs they may have when
using web services.
