The use of intentional concepts, the notion of "goal" in particular, has been prominent in recent approaches to requirement engineering (RE). Goal-oriented frameworks and methods for requirements engineering (GORE) have been keynote topics at requirements engineering conferences, and at major software engineering conferences. What are the conceptual modelling foundations in these approaches?
Traditionally information system engineering has made the assumption that an information system captures some excerpt of world history and hence has concentrated on modeling information about the Universe of Discourse. This is done through conceptual modeling that aims at abstracting the specification of the required information system, i.e., the conceptual schema, from an analysis of the relevant aspects of the Universe of Discourse about which the user community needs information. This specification concentrates on what the system should do, that is, on its functionality, serving as a prescription for system construction.
Whereas conceptual modelling allowed system developers to understand the semantic of information and led to a large number of semantically powerful conceptual models, experience demonstrates that it often fails in supporting the delivery of systems that were accepted by the community of users. Indeed, a number of studies have shown that many systems fail due to an inadequate understanding of the requirements they seek to address. Furthermore, the amount of effort needed to fix these systems has been found to be very high.
To correct this situation, it is necessary to view information systems as fulfilling some purpose in an organisation. Understanding purpose, goals, and intentions is a necessary condition for the design of successful systems. Conceptual modelling therefore needs to go beyond functionality requirements that specify the ‘what,' to encompass the deeper contextual understanding of the ‘whys.' The why questions are answered in terms of organisational objectives and the desires and motivations of stakeholders and participants. Modelling the ‘whys' helps in requirements elicitation, validation, and specification in a more focused manner. Goal-oriented approaches in requirements engineering has emerged to meet this expectation.
The Workshop aims to provide a forum for discussing the interplay between requirements engineering and conceptual modeling, and in particular, to investigate how goal- and intention-driven approaches help in conceptualising purposeful systems. What are the fundamental objectives and premises of requirements engineering and conceptual modelling respectively, and how can they complement each other? What are the demands on conceptual modelling from the standpoint of requirements engineering? What conceptual modelling techniques can be further taken advantage of in requirements engineering? What are the upcoming modelling challenges and issues in GORE? What are the unresolved open questions? What lessons are there to be learnt from industrial experiences? What empirical data are there to support the cost-benefit analysis when adopting GORE methods? Are there applications domains or types of project settings for which goals and intentional approaches are particularly suitable or not suitable? What degree of formalization and automation or interactivity are feasible and appropriate for what types of participants during requirements engineering? e.g., business domain stakeholders, requirements modelers, ontology engineers, etc.
