Abstract Public procurement constitutes a significant portion of national PIB in all countries an... more Abstract Public procurement constitutes a significant portion of national PIB in all countries and electronic platforms for supporting public transactions are an important application of e-government. In France, new regulations since 2005 are pushing public and private actors to adopt electronic means for handling all steps of the purchase process in public organisations. Based on quantitative and qualitative surveys made between 2005 and 2008, this chapter presents the general topic of e-procurement and specifically discusses the ...
iiWAS2010 - 12th International Conference on Information Integration and Web-Based Applications and Services, 2010
Abstract With the increasing growth in popularity of Web services, discovering relevant Web servi... more Abstract With the increasing growth in popularity of Web services, discovering relevant Web services becomes a significant challenge. The introduction of intentional services has been proposed to bridge the gap between low level, technical softwareservice descriptions and high level, strategic expressions of business needs for services. Current Web Services technology based on UDDI and WSDL does not make use of this" intention" and therefore fails to address the problem of matching between capabilities of services and business ...
The amount of data in large-scale software engineering contexts continues to grow and challenges ... more The amount of data in large-scale software engineering contexts continues to grow and challenges efficiency of software engineering efforts. At the same time, information related to requirements plays a vital role in the success of software products and projects. To face the current challenges in software engineering information management, software companies need to reconsider the current models of information. In this paper, we present a modeling framework for requirements artifacts dedicated to a large-scale market-driven ...
2014 IEEE Eighth International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science (RCIS), 2014
This paper looks at a fundamental issue in Information Systems (IS) research methodology, that of... more This paper looks at a fundamental issue in Information Systems (IS) research methodology, that of the use and construction of theories. Theory usage and construction are required for developing science, however they are poorly understood and pose difficult challenges to the researcher. To explore this issue, we propose a set of criteria and apply it to a sample of papers in the field of ERP research. Our analysis highlights the preponderance of descriptive and explanatory theoretical proposals, which do not attempt to make predictions. Furthermore, as most of these studies are impossible to replicate, theory confirmation is a challenge. This work is a contribution to better understand knowledge building in IS research.
2014 IEEE Eighth International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science (RCIS), 2014
This paper looks at a fundamental issue in Information Systems (IS) research methodology, that of... more This paper looks at a fundamental issue in Information Systems (IS) research methodology, that of the use and construction of theories. Theory usage and construction are required for developing science, however they are poorly understood and pose difficult challenges to the researcher. To explore this issue, we propose a set of criteria and apply it to a sample of papers in the field of ERP research. Our analysis highlights the preponderance of descriptive and explanatory theoretical proposals, which do not attempt to make predictions. Furthermore, as most of these studies are impossible to replicate, theory confirmation is a challenge. This work is a contribution to better understand knowledge building in IS research.
Concevoir des modèles exécutables est l'une des préoccupations majeures de l'ingénierie dirigée p... more Concevoir des modèles exécutables est l'une des préoccupations majeures de l'ingénierie dirigée par les modèles (IDM). Pour atteindre cet objectif, il est nécessaire de spécifier formellement les propriétés dynamiques d'un modèle selon un méta-modèle, afin de faciliter son exécution par un outil méta-CASE (Ingénierie logicielle assistée par ordinateur). L'objectif de ce papier est de montrer que la spécification des propriétés dynamiques d'un modèle permettant de dériver son outil d'exécution doit couvrir la perspective «comportement», en plus des perspectives «données» et «traitement». C'est pour cette raison qu'une approche de méta-modélisation basé sur un modèle orienté événement offrant ainsi la vision systémique qui permet de gérer l'interaction entre l'outil d'exécution du méta-modèle et de son environnement est proposée. La pertinence et l'applicabilité de la proposition sont illustrées à travers deux exemples: le méta-modèle de workflow et le méta-modèle de la carte. (Computer Aided Software Engineering). Moreover, for some kind of models, it is so important to define a causal relationship in the meta-model specification that offers the possibility to manage the interaction between the execution tool and its environment. For this reason, we propose a meta-modeling approach based on an event model that covers the three-level description: "data", "process" and "behavior". We applied our proposition in the cases of Workflow and Map meta-models to demonstrate its relevance.
An engineering process can hardly be described rigorously because of its dynamic and decision-ori... more An engineering process can hardly be described rigorously because of its dynamic and decision-oriented nature. Applying goal-oriented modeling for representing such processes is a promising approach. However, goal-oriented process models have no clear operational semantics, and building an enactment engine for such models is a highly complex task. To avoid building such tools in an ad-hoc manner and to overcome maintainability and portability issues, we investigate in this paper the practical feasibility of meta-CASE and CAME based approaches for constructing an enactment tool for a goal-oriented model. We describe and analyze a project in which MetaEdit+, a leading meta-tool, is tested. Our aim is to evaluate the meta-tool approach and to explore its possibilities in terms of process model enactment. During this project, a requirement elicitation process is used as a preliminary test bed.
Information System engineering involves multiple languages for modeling, programming and handling... more Information System engineering involves multiple languages for modeling, programming and handling various artifacts throughout the development cycle. Beyond abstract and concrete syntax, the specification of a language raises the tricky problem of expressing its semantics. A precise and rigorous expression of language semantics is essential to building software support tools, in particular when the language possesses executable semantics and when the construction of an execution tool is envisioned. In this paper, we present an approach in which process execution semantics are expressed using an event meta-model, and a set of transformation rules are defined and applied in order to derive the object-oriented architecture of an execution tool. This approach is illustrated on the case of a goal-oriented modeling language. To highlight the conceptual and methodological contributions of this approach, we discuss in detail how it relates and compares to a significant set of related works.
ABSTRACT Defect management is a central task in software maintenance. When a defect is reported, ... more ABSTRACT Defect management is a central task in software maintenance. When a defect is reported, appropriate resources must be allocated to analyze and resolve the defect. An important issue in resource allocation is the estimation of Defect Resolution Time (DRT). Prior research has considered different approaches for DRT prediction exploiting information retrieval techniques and similarity in textual defect descriptions. In this article, we investigate the potential of text clustering for DRT prediction. We build on a study published by Raja (2013) which demonstrated that clusters of similar defect reports had statistically significant differences in DRT. Raja’s study also suggested that this difference between clusters could be used for DRT prediction. Our aims are twofold: First, to conceptually replicate Raja’s study and to assess the repeatability of its results in different settings; Second, to investigate the potential of textual clustering of issue reports for DRT prediction with focus on accuracy. Using different data sets and a different text mining tool and clustering technique, we first conduct an independent replication of the original study. Then we design a fully automated prediction method based on clustering with a simulated test scenario to check the accuracy of our method. The results of our independent replication are comparable to those of the original study and we confirm the initial findings regarding significant differences in DRT between clusters of defect reports. However, the simulated test scenario used to assess our prediction method yields poor results in terms of DRT prediction accuracy. Although our replication confirms the main finding from the original study, our attempt to use text clustering as the basis for DRT prediction did not achieve practically useful levels of accuracy.
2014 IEEE 4th International Model-Driven Requirements Engineering Workshop (MoDRE), 2014
Model Driven Engineering (MDE) holds the promise of raising the level of abstraction when designi... more Model Driven Engineering (MDE) holds the promise of raising the level of abstraction when designing systems by promoting domain specific modeling languages, model transformation techniques and code generation engines. Although requirements engineering (RE) relies on models and on modeling, RE and MDE have evolved separately and in distinct communities. The goal of our ongoing work is to analyze the state of the art regarding the convergence and evolution of MDE and
Ce court essai se penche sur une question méthodologique fondamentale, celle de l'usage et de la ... more Ce court essai se penche sur une question méthodologique fondamentale, celle de l'usage et de la construction de théories dans la recherche en systèmes d'information (SI). En se basant sur un bref état de l'art, nous discutons d'abord la définition d'une théorie et la problématique de construction de théories. Ensuite, nous élaborons une grille d'analyse pour caractériser les propositions théoriques faites dans les travaux de recherche en SI. Pour illustrer notre propos, cette grille est appliquée à un échantillon d'articles traitant de la thématique des ERP. Cette analyse met en évidence la prédominance des théories à but descriptifs et explicatives, où la prédiction n'est pas explorée. Elle nous permet aussi de discuter de questions importantes pour la construction cumulative de connaissance, celles de la testabilité et la réplicabilité d'une proposition théorique.
Context: On the one hand, getting advantages of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems largel... more Context: On the one hand, getting advantages of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems largely depends on their capacity to be configured and adapted to fit the customer and domain requirements. On the other hand, product line engineering (PLE) is a promising approach for configuring and adapting products by means of configuration and derivation processes. While the literature and industrial experiences show the benefits of PLE methods, techniques and tools, there is still a lack of interest in addressing ERP engineering issues with the product line strategy. Objective: The aim of this paper is to identify and analyze the different ways presented in the literature to improve ERP engineering issues with the methods, techniques and tools provided by PLE. Method: To achieve that objective, we reviewed the literature and analyzed available publications. Results: This literature review analyzes six research papers at the intersection between ERP and PLE. It shows that the product line strategy can indeed be applied for ERP configuration and customization. It further shows the evolving interest on this topic and discusses existing contributions.
An engineering process can hardly be described rigorously because of its dynamic and decision-ori... more An engineering process can hardly be described rigorously because of its dynamic and decision-oriented nature. Applying goal-oriented modeling for representing such processes is a promising approach. However, goal-oriented process models have no clear operational semantics, and building an enactment engine for such models is a highly complex task. To avoid building such tools in an ad-hoc manner and to overcome maintainability and portability issues, we investigate in this paper the practical feasibility of meta-CASE and CAME based approaches for constructing an enactment tool for a goal-oriented model. We describe and analyze a project in which MetaEdit+, a leading meta-tool, is tested. Our aim is to evaluate the meta-tool approach and to explore its possibilities in terms of process model enactment. During this project, a requirement elicitation process is used as a preliminary test bed.
The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. All in-text references underlined in b... more The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. All in-text references underlined in blue are linked to publications on ResearchGate, letting you access and read them immediately. , méta-modélisation, exécutabilité d'un modèle, sémantique d'un modèle de processus, exécution de processus.
Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) have emerged as a promising technology that has shown enormou... more Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) have emerged as a promising technology that has shown enormous potential in improving the quality of healthcare, and has thus found a broad range of medical applications from ubiquitous health monitoring to emergency medical response systems. The huge amount of highly sensitive data collected and generated by WBAN nodes requires an ascendable and secure storage and processing infrastructure. Given the limited resources of WBAN nodes for storage and processing, the integration of WBANs and cloud computing may provide a powerful solution. However, despite the benefits of cloud-assisted WBAN, several security issues and challenges remain. Among these, data availability is the most nagging security issue. The most serious threat to data availability is a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that directly affects the all-time availability of a patient's data. The existing solutions for standalone WBANs and sensor networks are not applicable in the cloud. The purpose of this review paper is to identify the most threatening types of DDoS attacks affecting the availability of a cloud-assisted WBAN and review the state-of-the-art detection mechanisms for the identified DDoS attacks.
Abstract Public procurement constitutes a significant portion of national PIB in all countries an... more Abstract Public procurement constitutes a significant portion of national PIB in all countries and electronic platforms for supporting public transactions are an important application of e-government. In France, new regulations since 2005 are pushing public and private actors to adopt electronic means for handling all steps of the purchase process in public organisations. Based on quantitative and qualitative surveys made between 2005 and 2008, this chapter presents the general topic of e-procurement and specifically discusses the ...
iiWAS2010 - 12th International Conference on Information Integration and Web-Based Applications and Services, 2010
Abstract With the increasing growth in popularity of Web services, discovering relevant Web servi... more Abstract With the increasing growth in popularity of Web services, discovering relevant Web services becomes a significant challenge. The introduction of intentional services has been proposed to bridge the gap between low level, technical softwareservice descriptions and high level, strategic expressions of business needs for services. Current Web Services technology based on UDDI and WSDL does not make use of this" intention" and therefore fails to address the problem of matching between capabilities of services and business ...
The amount of data in large-scale software engineering contexts continues to grow and challenges ... more The amount of data in large-scale software engineering contexts continues to grow and challenges efficiency of software engineering efforts. At the same time, information related to requirements plays a vital role in the success of software products and projects. To face the current challenges in software engineering information management, software companies need to reconsider the current models of information. In this paper, we present a modeling framework for requirements artifacts dedicated to a large-scale market-driven ...
2014 IEEE Eighth International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science (RCIS), 2014
This paper looks at a fundamental issue in Information Systems (IS) research methodology, that of... more This paper looks at a fundamental issue in Information Systems (IS) research methodology, that of the use and construction of theories. Theory usage and construction are required for developing science, however they are poorly understood and pose difficult challenges to the researcher. To explore this issue, we propose a set of criteria and apply it to a sample of papers in the field of ERP research. Our analysis highlights the preponderance of descriptive and explanatory theoretical proposals, which do not attempt to make predictions. Furthermore, as most of these studies are impossible to replicate, theory confirmation is a challenge. This work is a contribution to better understand knowledge building in IS research.
2014 IEEE Eighth International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science (RCIS), 2014
This paper looks at a fundamental issue in Information Systems (IS) research methodology, that of... more This paper looks at a fundamental issue in Information Systems (IS) research methodology, that of the use and construction of theories. Theory usage and construction are required for developing science, however they are poorly understood and pose difficult challenges to the researcher. To explore this issue, we propose a set of criteria and apply it to a sample of papers in the field of ERP research. Our analysis highlights the preponderance of descriptive and explanatory theoretical proposals, which do not attempt to make predictions. Furthermore, as most of these studies are impossible to replicate, theory confirmation is a challenge. This work is a contribution to better understand knowledge building in IS research.
Concevoir des modèles exécutables est l'une des préoccupations majeures de l'ingénierie dirigée p... more Concevoir des modèles exécutables est l'une des préoccupations majeures de l'ingénierie dirigée par les modèles (IDM). Pour atteindre cet objectif, il est nécessaire de spécifier formellement les propriétés dynamiques d'un modèle selon un méta-modèle, afin de faciliter son exécution par un outil méta-CASE (Ingénierie logicielle assistée par ordinateur). L'objectif de ce papier est de montrer que la spécification des propriétés dynamiques d'un modèle permettant de dériver son outil d'exécution doit couvrir la perspective «comportement», en plus des perspectives «données» et «traitement». C'est pour cette raison qu'une approche de méta-modélisation basé sur un modèle orienté événement offrant ainsi la vision systémique qui permet de gérer l'interaction entre l'outil d'exécution du méta-modèle et de son environnement est proposée. La pertinence et l'applicabilité de la proposition sont illustrées à travers deux exemples: le méta-modèle de workflow et le méta-modèle de la carte. (Computer Aided Software Engineering). Moreover, for some kind of models, it is so important to define a causal relationship in the meta-model specification that offers the possibility to manage the interaction between the execution tool and its environment. For this reason, we propose a meta-modeling approach based on an event model that covers the three-level description: "data", "process" and "behavior". We applied our proposition in the cases of Workflow and Map meta-models to demonstrate its relevance.
An engineering process can hardly be described rigorously because of its dynamic and decision-ori... more An engineering process can hardly be described rigorously because of its dynamic and decision-oriented nature. Applying goal-oriented modeling for representing such processes is a promising approach. However, goal-oriented process models have no clear operational semantics, and building an enactment engine for such models is a highly complex task. To avoid building such tools in an ad-hoc manner and to overcome maintainability and portability issues, we investigate in this paper the practical feasibility of meta-CASE and CAME based approaches for constructing an enactment tool for a goal-oriented model. We describe and analyze a project in which MetaEdit+, a leading meta-tool, is tested. Our aim is to evaluate the meta-tool approach and to explore its possibilities in terms of process model enactment. During this project, a requirement elicitation process is used as a preliminary test bed.
Information System engineering involves multiple languages for modeling, programming and handling... more Information System engineering involves multiple languages for modeling, programming and handling various artifacts throughout the development cycle. Beyond abstract and concrete syntax, the specification of a language raises the tricky problem of expressing its semantics. A precise and rigorous expression of language semantics is essential to building software support tools, in particular when the language possesses executable semantics and when the construction of an execution tool is envisioned. In this paper, we present an approach in which process execution semantics are expressed using an event meta-model, and a set of transformation rules are defined and applied in order to derive the object-oriented architecture of an execution tool. This approach is illustrated on the case of a goal-oriented modeling language. To highlight the conceptual and methodological contributions of this approach, we discuss in detail how it relates and compares to a significant set of related works.
ABSTRACT Defect management is a central task in software maintenance. When a defect is reported, ... more ABSTRACT Defect management is a central task in software maintenance. When a defect is reported, appropriate resources must be allocated to analyze and resolve the defect. An important issue in resource allocation is the estimation of Defect Resolution Time (DRT). Prior research has considered different approaches for DRT prediction exploiting information retrieval techniques and similarity in textual defect descriptions. In this article, we investigate the potential of text clustering for DRT prediction. We build on a study published by Raja (2013) which demonstrated that clusters of similar defect reports had statistically significant differences in DRT. Raja’s study also suggested that this difference between clusters could be used for DRT prediction. Our aims are twofold: First, to conceptually replicate Raja’s study and to assess the repeatability of its results in different settings; Second, to investigate the potential of textual clustering of issue reports for DRT prediction with focus on accuracy. Using different data sets and a different text mining tool and clustering technique, we first conduct an independent replication of the original study. Then we design a fully automated prediction method based on clustering with a simulated test scenario to check the accuracy of our method. The results of our independent replication are comparable to those of the original study and we confirm the initial findings regarding significant differences in DRT between clusters of defect reports. However, the simulated test scenario used to assess our prediction method yields poor results in terms of DRT prediction accuracy. Although our replication confirms the main finding from the original study, our attempt to use text clustering as the basis for DRT prediction did not achieve practically useful levels of accuracy.
2014 IEEE 4th International Model-Driven Requirements Engineering Workshop (MoDRE), 2014
Model Driven Engineering (MDE) holds the promise of raising the level of abstraction when designi... more Model Driven Engineering (MDE) holds the promise of raising the level of abstraction when designing systems by promoting domain specific modeling languages, model transformation techniques and code generation engines. Although requirements engineering (RE) relies on models and on modeling, RE and MDE have evolved separately and in distinct communities. The goal of our ongoing work is to analyze the state of the art regarding the convergence and evolution of MDE and
Ce court essai se penche sur une question méthodologique fondamentale, celle de l'usage et de la ... more Ce court essai se penche sur une question méthodologique fondamentale, celle de l'usage et de la construction de théories dans la recherche en systèmes d'information (SI). En se basant sur un bref état de l'art, nous discutons d'abord la définition d'une théorie et la problématique de construction de théories. Ensuite, nous élaborons une grille d'analyse pour caractériser les propositions théoriques faites dans les travaux de recherche en SI. Pour illustrer notre propos, cette grille est appliquée à un échantillon d'articles traitant de la thématique des ERP. Cette analyse met en évidence la prédominance des théories à but descriptifs et explicatives, où la prédiction n'est pas explorée. Elle nous permet aussi de discuter de questions importantes pour la construction cumulative de connaissance, celles de la testabilité et la réplicabilité d'une proposition théorique.
Context: On the one hand, getting advantages of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems largel... more Context: On the one hand, getting advantages of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems largely depends on their capacity to be configured and adapted to fit the customer and domain requirements. On the other hand, product line engineering (PLE) is a promising approach for configuring and adapting products by means of configuration and derivation processes. While the literature and industrial experiences show the benefits of PLE methods, techniques and tools, there is still a lack of interest in addressing ERP engineering issues with the product line strategy. Objective: The aim of this paper is to identify and analyze the different ways presented in the literature to improve ERP engineering issues with the methods, techniques and tools provided by PLE. Method: To achieve that objective, we reviewed the literature and analyzed available publications. Results: This literature review analyzes six research papers at the intersection between ERP and PLE. It shows that the product line strategy can indeed be applied for ERP configuration and customization. It further shows the evolving interest on this topic and discusses existing contributions.
An engineering process can hardly be described rigorously because of its dynamic and decision-ori... more An engineering process can hardly be described rigorously because of its dynamic and decision-oriented nature. Applying goal-oriented modeling for representing such processes is a promising approach. However, goal-oriented process models have no clear operational semantics, and building an enactment engine for such models is a highly complex task. To avoid building such tools in an ad-hoc manner and to overcome maintainability and portability issues, we investigate in this paper the practical feasibility of meta-CASE and CAME based approaches for constructing an enactment tool for a goal-oriented model. We describe and analyze a project in which MetaEdit+, a leading meta-tool, is tested. Our aim is to evaluate the meta-tool approach and to explore its possibilities in terms of process model enactment. During this project, a requirement elicitation process is used as a preliminary test bed.
The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. All in-text references underlined in b... more The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. All in-text references underlined in blue are linked to publications on ResearchGate, letting you access and read them immediately. , méta-modélisation, exécutabilité d'un modèle, sémantique d'un modèle de processus, exécution de processus.
Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) have emerged as a promising technology that has shown enormou... more Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) have emerged as a promising technology that has shown enormous potential in improving the quality of healthcare, and has thus found a broad range of medical applications from ubiquitous health monitoring to emergency medical response systems. The huge amount of highly sensitive data collected and generated by WBAN nodes requires an ascendable and secure storage and processing infrastructure. Given the limited resources of WBAN nodes for storage and processing, the integration of WBANs and cloud computing may provide a powerful solution. However, despite the benefits of cloud-assisted WBAN, several security issues and challenges remain. Among these, data availability is the most nagging security issue. The most serious threat to data availability is a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack that directly affects the all-time availability of a patient's data. The existing solutions for standalone WBANs and sensor networks are not applicable in the cloud. The purpose of this review paper is to identify the most threatening types of DDoS attacks affecting the availability of a cloud-assisted WBAN and review the state-of-the-art detection mechanisms for the identified DDoS attacks.
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Papers by Saïd Assar