REDEPEND-REACT: An Architecture Analysis Tool
Gemma Grau's Home Page J-PRiM Tool

Introduction
i* Modelling
Generating Architectures
Evaluating Architectures
Managing Catalogues
References

REDEPEND-REACT at the i* wiki

Last Update:
September 2006
by Gemma Grau








 

i* Modelling

REDEPEND functionalities:

REDEPEND-REACT allows to define i* SD and SR models by dragging-and-dropping i* shapes from the SD and SR Visio stencils provided by REDEPEND into the drawing page. The REDEPEND facilities are:

Actors
  • Set attributes
  • Change the actor kind (between undefined actor, new system actor, adjacent system actor and stakeholder actor)
  • Display the actor as checked
Dependencies
  • Change the dependency kind (between resource, softgoal, goal and task)
  • Align a selected dependency or group of dependencies across to its endpoints
  • Change the dependency direction
  • Display the dependency as checked
SR elements
  • Resource: Set attributes, display as checked, check connections
  • Task: Set attributes, display as checked, set hyperlink
  • Goal: Set attributes, display as checked, AHP
  • Softgoal: Set attributes, display as checked, AHP
  • Undefined: Set attributes, display as checked, decide kind (between resource, softgoal, goal and task)
SR modelling
  • Verify connections (checks for unrecognized connections and for invalid connections)
  • Logs for unexpected errors and for unrecognized and invalid connections)

REDEPEND-REACT Modelling facilities:

  • Organize Dependency Shapes. SD dependency elements are aligned in the way that the dependum is just in the middle distance between the depender and the dependee. The connection points of the dependency with the two actors are allocated in the connection point of the actor that is more appropriate according to the direction of the link. The following screenshots shows the before and after the application of the Organize Dependency Shapes functionality into an SR model.



  • Convert an SR into an SD. A new page is created at the end of the VISIO pages list. The page contains the extended REDEPEND-REACT menu. The model of the new page is the SD model corresponding to the SR model of the page where the function has been called. If the original page is already an SD model, this function behaves as duplicate page. The name of the pages containing duplicated models of the form ‘SD-#’, where # is the page number.

  • Duplicate Current Page.A new page is created and added at the end of the list of the VISIO document pages. The page contains the same model of the page from which the function has been call. The page menu is the REDEPEND-REACT menu. The name of the pages containing duplicated models of the form ‘DUP-#’, where # is the page number.

REDEPEND-REACT PRiM modelling facilities:

REDEPEND-REACT also allows to define an actor SR model by following the PRiM method.
PRiM partially builds the SR model in order to support a prescriptive SD model construction. Previously to the construction of the model, the problem domain is analysed and decomposed into activities. Activities are described in terms of its actions, preconditions and postconditions. The partial SR model is build from tasks that means-end linked to the main goal of the actor and are called activity-task. Activity-task are task-decomposed into other tasks, representing the actions that are carried into the activity and called action-task. Activities can also be decomposed into goals representing the postconditions of the activity.
This is done by applying the following sequence of actions over the REDEPEND-REACT actors (which has been created in the actors catalogue).
  • Display the basic SR model of the actor. We call basic SR model the actor boundary and main goal. To display the basic SR model we have to:
    • Drop the actor into the current page
    • Click with the right mouse button on the current page and, when the page menu is displayed, choose the option Show basic SR.
    • The main goal of the actor and the boundary are then displayed.



  • Display an activity-task of the actor.
    • Select the main goal of the actor
    • Click with the right mouse button on the current page and, when the page menu is displayed, choose the option Add Activity Task.
    • A task, means-end linked to the main goal of the actor, appears.
    • The task can be renamed according to the activity it represents



  • Display an action-task of an activity-task of the actor.
    • Select the activity-task of the actor
    • Click with the right mouse button on the current page and, when the page menu is displayed, choose the option Add Action Task.
    • A task, linked to the activity-task with a task-decomposition link, appears.
    • The task can be renamed according to the action of the activity it represents



  • Display a postcondition goal of an activity-task of the actor.
    • Select the activity-task of the actor
    • Click with the right mouse button on the current page and, when the page menu is displayed, choose the option Add Postcondition Goal.
    • A goal, linked to the activity-task with a task-decomposition link, appears.
    • The goal can be renamed according to the postcondition of the activity it represents. The goal can also be moved to a more appropriate position.