Ali Hamie. University of Brighton, Brighton Researcher, UK Researcher

Constraint patterns are very useful for specifying OCL constraints on UML class models. They potentially shorten the development time and reduce the errors for constraint development by providing predefined templates that can be instantiated in particular contexts. Constraint patterns can be identified by analyzing existing constraints for recurring expressions and abstracting from them. This paper extends the collection of published constraint patterns by identifying further patterns as well as making some improvements for existing patterns and their description. These are derived from an example model described in UML and augmented with OCL constraints.

José F. Vélez. Depto. Ciencias de la Computación, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Móstoles

Ear biometric recognition has received increasing attention in r ecent years. However, not so much work has been done on the ear verification problem. Automatic ear detection (or segmentation) from facial profile images becomes an essential preprocessing stage with h igh impact on the subsequent recognition/verification tasks. This paper presents a new ear detection method based on the use of circular Hough transform and some anthropometric proportions to detect the ea r region accurately. After detection, the extracted contours of the segmented ear region are used to verify the identity of an individual by adjusting a fuzzy snake model on it. The proposed ear detection and verification methods were successfully tested with images from three different databases presentin g different variatio ns to evaluate the robustness of this approach.

Abdulaziz I. AlMajed. School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR 7TJ

IT project failure rates remain high despite the enormous amounts of money that have been invested in IT. Many researchers have studied this critical subject in order to identify IT project success factors, however, it is a challenge to get universal agreement on which factors are the key. This paper presents an exploratory study of the main factors that affect IT project success in Saudi Arabian public organizations from chief inf ormation officers’ (CIOs) perceptive. A qualitative approach using semi -structured interview method was used to collect and analyze the data. Interviews were conducted with CIOs to gather their opinions about the IT project success factors. The findings of the study proposed seventeen factors that may have effect on IT project success. Conflict of interest, knowledge management, rewards and recognition, top management stability and project management office (PMO) have been collected from the interviewees. Top management support and commitment, strategic planning, project management, process management, project team competency, IT infrastructure, change management, risk management, communication management, training and education, supplier management, stakeholder management have been collected from the literature and confirmed by the interviewees.

Armanda Rodrigues. CITI/FCT, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Quinta da Torre

Web Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are systems composed by software, hardware, spatial data and computing operations, whic h aim to collect, model, store, share, retrieve, manipulate and display geographically referenced data. The development of online geospatial applications is currently on the rise, but this type of application often involves dealing with concerns (i.e., pro perties) which are inherently volatile, implying a considerable effort for system evolution. Nevertheless, geospatial concerns (e.g., temporarily blocked streets), although changeable, are reusable. However, lack of modularization in software artifacts (in cluding system’s models) can compromise reusability. In this context, the use of requirements analysis patterns, enriched with aspect -oriented modeling techniques, can support reusability and improve modularity. In this paper, we introduce requirements ana lysis patterns for geospatial concerns, to facilitate modularity in GIS Web applications. These patterns are generated from the domain analysis of Web GIS applications and described using a template which is supported by a comprehensive tool, enabling the completion of specific geospatial patterns.

Lisbon Researcher

Unified Modeling Language class diagrams are widely used for modeling, playing a key role in the analysis and design of information systems, especially in development contexts that use modeling oriented methodologies. Therefore, it is relevant to ensure the creation and maintenance of correct class diagrams. With the use of class diagrams it is possible to specify classes, relations and restrictions, however, such diagrams are subject to modeling errors made by their authors and may degenerate into incorrect diagrams. A common cause of incorrect diagrams refers to the definition of contradictory and inconsistent constraints, leading to finite satisfiability problems. Several approaches to the verification of finite satisfiability are currently available, supported by different tools. Through this work, we proceed with the identification and comparison of the existing approaches for the verification of finite satisfiability in class diagrams, determining the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed tools.

Toshiro Minami. Kyushu Institute of Information Sciences.6–3- Saifu, Dazaifu Researcher, Fukuoka 818-

The first aim of this paper is to make a modeling framework of the interest area of a library patron by utilizing library’s loan records. In other words, to profile a person with his/her interest field. Interest area profiling is not only interest ing of itself but also useful for li brary when it chooses the books to be purchased, for professors when they give lectures, and for other people. The eventual goal of the study presented in this paper is to develop various data analysis methods that provi de with useful tips in assisting people, including library patrons, as they learn. The second aim is to develop some useful analysis tools for such pedagogical purpose, especially for analyzing the library data and lecture data. In this paper we propose a concept of virtual faculty of a member of university, which is defined based on the interest area profile of a patron (student) and a faculty. We also give a comparative study between patron students and faculties. Even though the approach and analysis met hods presented in this paper are rather in the primitive stage s of the research toward this direction, they have a high potential and are expected to be developed to be matured and be practical in the near future.

Masaki Samejima, Graduate School of Information Science, Technology Researcher, Osaka University, 2- Researcher

In order to avoid project managers’ failing to perform appropriate risk control actions in a planning phase of the project, we propose an awarene ss system to display the appropriate risk control actions to the project managers. Because the project manager needs practical risk control actions, the awareness system extracts sentences of risk control actions from past project report s that are accumula ted in the information system development company. The proposed system identifies the sentences that are related to the target risk in the project reports and extracts sentences of the risk control action from the project reports with the related sentences . In order to identify the related sentences to the target risk, the proposed system makes clusters of sentences with constraints to include sentences of risk control actions, and relates the target risk to the cluster that has the similar sentence to the sentence of the target risk. The experimental result shows that the proposed system can extract the sentences of risk contro l actions at F- measure of 65.7%.

Benny M.E. De Waal, University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, P.O. Box, 3508 AA Utrecht, The Netherland

This paper describes the Structure -Agency Model of User Participation Practice, which incorporates objective and subjective elements of user participation and is inspired by Orlikowski’s Structurational Model of Technology. The research question concerns h ow the objective -subjective dichotomy can be overcome in user participation research. To test the model, nine in-depth open interviews were conducted with the project manager, key -users and developers. All respondents were employed by a large Dutch administrative organisation that had customised and implemented a new and integrative BPM system. The results show that the u se of the Structure -Agency Model of User Participation Practice makes it possible to give an objective representation of the practice of u ser participation, and also how this representation was experienced and adjusted by the different stakeholders. The paper concludes with recommendations for a more comprehensive research approach; new research perspectives and genres to overcome the objective-subjective dichotomy.

Kęstutis Valinčius, Vytautas Štuikys, Robertas Damaševičius. Kaunas University of

The paper addresses the e -commerce system (interpr eted here as information system - IS) understandability problem from the maintenance and evolution perspective. We propose a methodology that includes: (1) identification of the 3 representative systems (through clustering of a set of previous ly developed IS on the basis of user-oriented and temporal criteria ); (2) extraction of feature models from representative systems for evaluation using similarity (measured by absolute difference val ue - ADV) and complexity metrics leading to the definition of the reference IS - RIS; (3) construction of the business logic feature model, represented as meta -graph, to reason about quality of the systems and to understand evolution trends; (4) feature mo del refactoring / modularization of the RIS ; (5) Code-level modularization of the RIS. The methodology is supported by experiments to evaluate the analysed problems. The basic result s are: (1) feature models of the representative systems; (2) metrics to ev aluate complexity and similarit y of the represented systems; (3) the re -engineered RIS to support better maintainability and design procedures.

Jorge Oliveira e Sá, Centro Algoritmi, University of Minho, Campus de Azurém, Guimarães Researcher

In this paper, a multi -driven approach to data modeling in data warehousing will be presented, which integrates three existing approaches normally used separately: goal -driven, user-driven and data -driven; and two approaches usually not used in data warehousing field: process-driven and technology-driven. Goal-driven approach produces subjects and KPI ’s (Key Performance Indicators) of main business fields. User-driven approach produces analytical requirements represented by measures and dimensions of each subject. Process -driven approach propose improvements in business processes (by using and creating subject oriented enterprise data model) to satisfy the KPI ’s, measures and dimensions identified in the previous approaches. Technology-driven approach is an enabler or an obstacle to be considered in a data warehouse model. Data -driven approach is a combination of the results of previous approaches and results in a data warehouse model. By using a multi-driven approach with five stages, a layered data warehouse model more a ligned with business and individual needs can be obtained . This will be illustrated by using examples of a case study.

Pedro Isaías

Editorial preface for Volume 8, Issue 1 of the IADIS International Journal on Computer Science and Information Systems (IJCSIS). This issue brings together peer-reviewed original research contributions covering the wide spectrum of Information Systems, Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering, and Digital Transformation.