Thesis (M.S.)--University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2008. / Description based on contents viewed June 2, 2008; title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references (p. 56-58).

Conceptual Modelling (CM) has received little attention in the area of Modelling and Simulation (M&S) and more specifically in Discrete Event Simulation (DES). It is widely agreed that CM is least understood despite its importance. This is however, not the case in other fields of science and engineering (especially, computer science, systems engineering and software engineering). In Computer Science (CS) alone, CM has been extensively used for requirements specification and some well-established methods are in practice. The aim of the thesis is to propose a CM framework based on the principles of software engineering and CS. The development of the framework is adapted from a well-known software engineering method called Structured Analysis and Design Technique (SADT), hence it is called SADT CM. It is argued that by adapting approaches from CS, similar benefits can be achieved in terms of formality, understanding, communication and quality. A comprehensive cross-disciplinary review of CM in CS and M&S is undertaken, which highlights the dearth of standards within M&S CM when compared to CS. Three important sub-fields of CS are considered for this purpose namely, information systems, databases and software engineering. The review identifies two potential methods that could be adopted for developing a M&S CM framework. The first method called PREView was found unsuitable for M&S CM in DES domain. Hence, the thesis concentrates on developing the framework based on SADT. The SADT CM framework is evaluated on three-in depth test cases that investigate the feasibility of the approach. The study also contributes to the literature by conducting a usability test of the CM framework in an experimental setting. A comprehensive user-guide has also been developed as part of the research for users to follow the framework.

Orientadora: Prof.ª Dr.ª Fabiana Soares Santana / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal do ABC, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência da Computação, 2014. / As empresas produtoras de software precisam de métodos eficientes para obter resultados competitivos. Uma das principais causas dos resultados negativos em projetos de software se deve às deficiências na engenharia de requisitos de software. A especificação de requisitos inadequada ou incompleta pode levar à construção de sistemas que não estão em conformidade com as necessidades dos clientes, resultando no aumento de custos, atrasos nos cronogramas e realização de atividades desnecessárias. A fim de minimizar os problemas na especificação de requisitos, as boas práticas de engenharia de software recomendam o entendimento adequado do ambiente de tecnologia da informação (TI) e das regras de negócio. O uso de processos de negócio tem sido adotado pela maioria das organizações para mapear as suas necessidades e alinhar o conhecimento entre as equipes de negócio e de TI. BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation, no original em inglês, ou Notação para Modelagem de Processos de Negócios) é a notação mais comumente adotada pelo mercado para a modelagem de processos de negócio, com diversas ferramentas disponíveis para o mapeamento e simulação de processos. Além da preocupação com os processos de negócio, as organizações têm adotado arquiteturas orientadas a serviços (SOA, Service Oriented Architectures, no original em inglês) com o intuito de facilitar a integração entre processos e tecnologia, resultando em soluções mais flexíveis para atender às constantes necessidades de mudanças e oportunidades de negócio. A união de BPMN e SOA permite o melhor entendimento dos sistemas através do mapeamento e modelagem dos processos de negócio, a partir dos quais é possível identificar os serviços que devem ser encapsulados dentro de um determinado ambiente tecnológico. O resultado é o aumento na produtividade, a melhoria na qualidade dos sistemas (QoS, Quality of Software, no original em inglês) e a redução de custos. Este trabalho propõe um método para modelagem de processos na engenharia de requisitos, incorporando formalmente o uso de processos de negócios na especificação dos requisitos de software. Um estudo de caso foi desenvolvido para experimentar o método proposto e mostrar a sua aplicação. Embora experimentos adicionais sejam recomendados, os resultados do estudo de caso foram promissores e mostram que a análise minuciosa dos processos de negócios na etapa de especificação de requisitos auxilia no entendimento e na identificação mais precisa dos requisitos do sistema, melhorando o potencial de sucesso na produção de software. / Producing software companies need effective methods to achieve competitive results. A major cause of adverse outcomes in software projects is due to deficiencies in the software requirements engineering. The specification of inadequate or incomplete requirements can lead to the construction of systems that are not in accordance with customer needs, resulting in increased costs, schedule delays, and development of unnecessary activities. In order to minimize the problems in the requirements specification, best practices in software engineering recommend a proper understanding of the information technology (IT) environment and of the business rules. The use of business processes has been adopted by many organizations to map their needs and to align the knowledge among business teams and IT. BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation) is the notation most commonly adopted by the software companies for business processes modeling. Various software tools are available for processes mapping and simulation. In addition to the concern with business processes, many organizations are adopting service-oriented architectures (SOA) in order to facilitate the integration between processes and technology, resulting in more flexible solutions to meet the ever changing IT needs and the new business opportunities. The union of BPMN and SOA allows a better understanding of the systems to be developed by mapping and modeling business processes, from which it is possible to identify the services that should be encapsulated within a particular technological environment. Results include increased productivity, improved quality of software (QoS) and cost reduction. This work proposes a method for including the processes modeling as part of the requirements engineering, formally incorporating the use of business processes in the software requirements specification. A case study was developed to experiment the proposed method and to illustrate its application. Although further experiments are recommended, the results of the case study are promising and show that a thorough analysis of the business processes as part of the requirements specification phase helps in understanding and obtaining a more accurate identification of the system requirements, improving the potential for successful software production.

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