ER 2016

The 35th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling

Nov. 14-17, 2016, Gifu, Japan

Tutorials

Tutorial #1: Measuring the impact of IT innovations on business performance: A model-based method

Nov. 14 (Mon), 11:00-12:30, International Conference Room (Int'l)

Prof. Hajo A. Reijers, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and
Prof. Henrik Leopold, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Abstract

Both researchers and practitioners have a profound interest in the introduction of new technologies into organizations. Often, the question is to what extent business processes will or have in fact improved due to such innovations, e.g. in terms of efficiency or speed. In this tutorial, we introduce and explain an innovative method to carry out such impact analyses. The method is based on a conceptual model of the business process of interest, empirical data on its actual performance over time, and simulation techniques for methodological rigour.

Short Biography

Hajo A. Reijers is a full professor in Computer Science at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, as well as a a part-time, full professor in Computer Science at Eindhoven University of Technology. Previously, he worked as a managing consultant and an R&D manager in industry. The focus of his academic research is on conceptual modeling, process innovation, workflow management, and simulation. He has taught to students on these topics at all academic levels and provides training to practitioners at the TIAS Business School. He is one of the authors of the "Fundamentals of Business Process Management" text book, which is used in almost 150 classes all over the world. He has delivered more than twenty academic and industrial keynotes. At CAiSE 2014, he provided a well-attended tutorial on Business Process Management.


Henrik Leopold is an assistant professor with the Department of Computer Science at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. His research interests include business process modeling, natural language processing techniques, process model matching, and process architectures. He has a wide international experience, having held academic positions at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in Germany, the Vienna University of Economics and Business in Austria, and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands. At each of these institutes, he developed and taught courses on the undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral level. In 2015, he taught a semester at the University of Havana, Cuba. More recently, he delivered a course on process modeling at the University of the Republic in Montevideo, Uruguay. At the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, he set up an industrial training program on process mining.


Tutorial #2: Service Level Aware Contract Management: Service Models beyond SOA

Nov. 14 (Mon), 11:00-12:30, Large Conference Room A (RA)

Prof. Antonella Longo, University of Salento, Italy, and
Prof. Shamkant B. Navathe, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA

Abstract

Digital services are driving business and public organizations towards a Digital Transformation, which demands a deep change in how organizations perform and interact with customers. Several factors hinder this path: complexity in digital service provisioning, inherent challenges of paper-based, natural-language service contracts, with corresponding ambiguity about contractual terms, and informational (and business) asymmetries across the contracting parties. While Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) are paving the way to face the main IT-related issues, a number of challenging business- and contract-related aspects need to be identified. Conceptual models play a pivotal role in widening the horizon of SOA by clarifying the interdependencies between business artifacts (e.g. contracts) and technical infrastructure, which is essential to establish a manageable relationship among clients, providers and involved third parties.

Short Biography

Antonella Longo holds a degree in Computer Engineering and a Ph.D. in Information Engineering. Currently she is an assistant professor at the Department of Engineering for Innovation, University of Salento (Lecce), Italy, where she works in Set-Lab. Her research experience has been always centred on the conceptual modelling of data in complex organizations and for the past 10 years she has been doing research in the service domain and conceptual modelling, publishing more the 30 publications in the field. Her main research activities concern the modelling of Service Level Agreements (SLA) in service contract management. She serves in several conferences and journal of service computing and information system as a reviewer. In her professional experience she has often mixed industrial and academic experience, in order to investigate actual problems with research and innovative approaches. Therefore, she has been involved in technology transfer projects in sectors such as Transportation, Service Governance, Public Services. Currently she is interested in the data modelling and management of smartcities governance, with specific focus on mobility and environmental scenarios.


Shamkant Navathe is a professor and the founder of the database research group at the College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, since 1990, he is well known for his work on database modeling, database conversion, database design, distributed database allocation, and database integration. He was the General Co-chairman of the 1996 International VLDB (Very Large Data Base) conference in Bombay, India. He was also program co-chair of ACM SIGMOD 1985 International Conference and General Co-chair of the IFIP WG 2.6 Data Semantics Workshop in 1995. He was a member of the VLDB foundation and has been on the steering committees of several conferences. He has been an associate editor of ACM Computing Surveys, and IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering. He is also on the editorial boards of Information Systems, Data and Knowledge Engineering, Journal of Data Semantics, and Distributed and Parallel Databases. He is an author of the book, Fundamentals of Database Systems, with R. Elmasri (Addison Wesley, Edition 7, 2015) - which is currently the leading database textbook worldwide, translated in more than 10 languages. He also co-authored the book "Conceptual Design: An Entity Relationship Approach" (Addison Wesley, 1992) with Carlo Batini and Stefano Ceri. Recently, he was appointed an editor of the book series: "Emerging Directions in Database Systems and Applications" by CRC press. His current and recent research interests include decision support systems for clinical medicine, human genome data management, data mining in financial and energy data, GIS and biological data integration, data and text mining, service modelling in enterprise information systems, mobile databases and synchronization, engineering data management, intelligent information retrieval, and web-based database.


Tutorial #3: iStar 2.0: A Guided Tour

Nov. 14 (Mon), 14:00-15:30 (1), 16:00-17:30 (2), International Conference Room (Int'l)

Prof. Fabiano Dalpiaz, Utrecht University, the Netherlands,
Prof. Xavier Franch, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain, and
Dr. Jennifer Horkoff, City University London, UK

Abstract

This tutorial will introduce the recently released i* core language (named iStar 2.0) to the ER community. iStar 2.0 is the result of a 2-year long effort that involved large part of the i* community. The tutorial will present the different constructs of the lan-guage and explain the main differences with respect to the previous i* versions. It will propose exercises to the attendees to be solved using some diagrammatic tool.

Short Biography

Fabiano Dalpiaz is an assistant professor in the Department of Information and Computing Sciences, Utrecht University, the Netherlands. His main research interest lies in requirements engineering, and his work spans across multiple facets of this discipline such as security, adaptation, gamification, modeling and automated reason-ing. He has published over 80 papers in international journals, conferences, and workshops; he is co-author of the "Security Requirements Engineering" book pub-lished by MIT Press in 2016. He has co-organized the iStar'14 workshop at CAiSE'14, the EMAS'14 workshop at AAMAS-2014, the RESC workshop at RE'11, the AIRE workshop at RE'16 and he will be program co-chair of the RE track of ACM SAC 2017. He has participated in numerous regional, national and international research projects, currently working on the Horizon 2020 EU project PACAS. He serves on the program committee of international conferences such as CAiSE, ER, RE:Next!, REFSQ, MODELS, AAMAS.


Xavier Franch is Associate Professor at UPC, Spain. He is the scientific manager of Software and Service Engineering research group (GESSI). He has published >150 refereed papers in journals and international conferences; related to conceptual modeling, ER and CAiSE as conferences and SoSyM, ISJ and DKE as journals. He is editorial board member of the IST and IET Software journals. He has occupied several chair positions in conferences like RE, CAiSE, ESEC/FSE, ESEM/ESEIW, ICSOC, REFSQ, RCIS and ICCBSS. He has been member of more than 100 program committees including ER, CAiSE, ICSE-NIER, RE, ESEM, EASE and SAC conferences. Xavier has taught a dozen of tutorials in conferences like ICSE, CAiSE and RCIS. He has participated in the organization of the series of workshops: iStar, MPEC, RECOTS, SOCCER, TwinPeaks and CESI, held in conferences as ICSE, CAiSE and RE. He is the scientific manager of the SUPERSEDE H2020 EU project. He is co-chair of the SCME track in ER'16.


Jennifer Horkoff is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the CAS Business School, City University, London. She is the holder of a two-year Marie Sklodowska Curie Intra-European Fellowships for career development (IEF), working under the supervision of Prof. Neil Maiden. She is also a holder of a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellowship. Jennifer received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Toronto, under the supervision of Prof. Eric Yu. She spent 2.5 years at the University of Trento, Italy, as part of the Lucretius: Foundations for Software Evolution project, working with Prof. John Mylopoulos and colleagues. She has been an author or co-author of more than 20 papers in peer-reviewed jour-nals, conferences, or workshops. Her research interests lie in enhancing the use of conceptual modeling for requirements engineering and business analysis, focusing on creativity, interactive analysis, uncertainty, scalability, and the application of RE-inspired conceptual modeling to business intelligence. Jennifer is on the program committee of several international conferences, including RE, REFSQ, and CAiSE, has been on the organizing committee of RE, REFSQ, and PoEM, and has been a (co-)organizer of several workshops, including iStar, RIGiM, and MReBA.


Tutorial #4: On Abstractions in conceptual modelling and surroundings

Nov. 15 (Tue), 14:00-15:30 (1), 16:00-17:30 (2), International Conference Room (Int'l)

Prof. Carlo Batini, University of Milano Bicocca, Italy

Abstract

The concept of abstraction is used in different disciplines within computer science and related fields such as management of information systems and engineering. The tutorial will initially focus on abstraction in conceptual modeling, exploring the different facets of the concept, and of the related issue of abstraction process. Further areas of investigation are sciences related to computer science, such as visualization, cognitive sciences, etc. Finally, the discussion on abstractions will be extended to data management in the transition to the era of Web and big data.

Short Biography

Carlo Batini is full professor of Computer Engineering at University of Milano Bicocca, Italy. His research interests include information systems, data base modeling and design, usability of information systems, data and information quality, service science, service management, and eGovernment planning methodologies. His research has been published in a range of books, conference proceedings, and journals such as, e.g., ACM Computing Surveys and ACM Transactions on Software Engineering. He has written several books for courses on data base design and data quality: in regards to the former subject we mention a book in English for Benjamin and Cumming ed., with S. Navathe and S. Ceri, on methodologies for conceptual and logical data base design, adopted in several courses and translated in Spanish, and the recent Creative Commons book on Database Modelling and Design. In regards to the latter subject, he has recently published the book with M. Scannapieco, Data and Information quality, by Springer. In 2013 he obtained the Elsevier P.P. Chen Award in conceptual modelling. Since 2015 he is an ER Fellow.


Tutorial #5: Data-driven model acquisition

Nov. 16 (Wed), 11:00-12:30, International Conference Room (Int'l)

Prof. Aditya Ghose, University of Wollongong, Australia

Abstract

There is a growing body of evidence that certain classes of models (enterprise architecture models, goal models as well as process and service models, for instance) are amenable to automated acquisition from readily available enterprise data. These techniques seek to mine useful "first-cut" models from the available data, which can be subsequently edited and refined by analysts, thereby easing the model acquisition bottleneck (there are other benefits, including the ability to improve model quality, and the use of models as dashboard artefacts. This tutorial will provide a timely exposition to these techniques whose importance is likely to grow significantly in the near future.

Short Biography

Aditya Ghose is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Wollongong, where he heads the Decision Systems Lab and co-directs the Centre for Oncology Informatics. He holds a PhD and MSc in Computing Science from the University of Alberta (he spent parts of his candidature at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Tokyo) and a Bachelor of Computer Science and Engineering from Jadavpur University. Prof. Ghose is President of the Service Science Society of Australia and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers (Australia). He was previously Vice-President of CORE (the apex body for computer science academics in Australia and New Zealand), and a Research Leader in the Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Smart Services. Prof. Ghose works in business process management, service science, agent systems and formal knowledge representation and the application of these in clinical informatics. Prof. Ghose and his research group have been active in the application of data analytics techniques in areas such as enterprise analytics, process analytics and software analytics (leading to a series of publications in conferences such as ICSE, ICSOC, BPM and Mining Software Repositories, and recognition via the ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Award at the MSR-15 conference, and the Best Paper Award at the 2014 Asia-Pacific Conference on Conceptual Modelling). He works closely with IBM Research, Xerox Research, Infosys Labs and a variety of Australian companies (including startups from his research group). He has delivered a number of conference keynotes and invited tutorials, served as General/Program Chair for several conferences (including ICSOC and EDOC) and served on conference steering committees (on occasion as chair).


Tutorial #6: Models - Foundations of Models, of Modelling Activities, and of Modelling

Nov. 16 (Wed), 14:00-15:30 (1), 16:00-17:30 (2), International Conference Room (Int'l)

Prof. Bernhard Thalheim, Christian Albrechts University, Germany

Abstract

Models are a central instrument in many scientific disciplines and engineering. They are utilised for different purposes and in different functions depending on the specific utilisation scenario. Computer science and engineering have developed their own understanding of the notion of the model, their own approaches to modelling activities, and their specific understanding of modelling. The bandwidth spans iconic models (e.g. chip models), analogous models (e.g. architecture models), symbolic models (e.g. diagrams for many different applications), and formal models depending on abstraction, focus and scope. The tutorial introduces a novel, very general notion of the model, presents techniques for modelling, and discusses the art, technology, science, and culture of modelling.

The tutorial is based on the survey on models and their systemaisation in more than 2 dozen disciplines (http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/448425).

Short Biography

Prof. Dr.rer.nat.habil. Bernhard Thalheim (Director, Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering at Christian-Albrechts University Kiel, Germany) (MSc, PhD, DSc) is full professor at Christian Albrechts University in Germany. His major research interests are database theory, logic in databases, and systems development methodologies, in particular for web information systems. He has published more than 300 refereed publications, edited more than 30 conference volumes, co-founded three international conferences, and has been programme committee chair for almost three dozen international conferences such as MFDBS, ER, FoIKS, ASM, SDKB, NLDB and ADBIS. He got several international awards, e.g. the Kolmogorov professorship at Lomonossow University Moscov and the P.P. Chen award of Elsevier. He has been an associated professor at Dresden University of Technology, a visiting professor at Kuwait University, Alpen-Adria University Klagenfurt and others, and a full professor at Rostock University and Brandenburg University of Technology at Cottbus.


Tutorial #7: Creating quality user stories to generate conceptual models

Nov. 16 (Wed), 14:00-15:30 (1), 16:00-17:30 (2), Large Conference Room A (RA)

Garm Lucassen, Utrecht University, the Netherlands, and
Prof. Sjaak Brinkkemper, Utrecht University, the Netherlands

Abstract

90% of agile practitioners employ user stories for capturing requirements. Unfortunately, however, 50% of real-world user stories contain easily preventable errors that sabotage their potential. To alleviate this problem, the presenters of this tutorial have created methods, theories and tools that support creating better user stories. During this 3-hour tutorial you will learn the basics of creating user stories and how to improve their quality using the Grimm Method and supporting tools, providing the knowledge and resources to start generating conceptual models from a set of user stories. Please send your own English user stories for entering in the tooling to g.lucassen@uu.nl

Short Biography

Garm Lucassen, MSc is a PhD student at the Centre for Organisation and Information, Utrecht University. His PhD focuses on methods and tools for supporting and improving user story practice. His work on this topic includes the creation of a quality framework, the AQUSA tool and 4 validting experiments in industry. Next to this, he is the coordinator and teacher of the Software Product Management course for professionals at Utrecht University and is member of the extended board of the International Software Product Management Association.


Prof. Sjaak Brinkkemper is full professor of Software Production at the Department of Information and Computing Sciences of Utrecht University, the Netherlands. He leads a group of about twenty-five researchers specialized in product software development and entrepreneurship. The main research themes of the group are methodology of software production, implementation and adoption, and techno-economic aspects of the software industry. Brinkkemper has published about 10 books and over 170 papers.


Tutorial #8: Multi-Dimensional Database Modelling and Querying: Methods, Experiences and Challenging Problems

Nov. 17 (Thu), 9:00-10:30, Large Conference Room A (RA)

Prof. Alfredo Cuzzocrea, University of Trieste and ICAR-CNR, Italy

Abstract

Multidimensional database systems enhance data presentation and navigation through intuitive spreadsheet like views, and increase performance through aggregated data for fast query and processing activities. Within this so-delineated research context, in this tutorial we present a comprehensive survey of multi-dimensional database modelling and querying methods. We report our successful experiences of using the framework for turning the well known TPC benchmark into an innovative multidimensional benchmarks, targeted to query and analytics processing. Finally, we present challenging problems for future research, along with a hands-on practice session.

Short Biography

Alfredo Cuzzocrea is currently Associate Professor in Computer Science Engineering at the DIA Department, University of Trieste, Italy. He is also habilitated as Full Professor in Computer Science Engineering by the the French National Scientific Habilitation of the National Council of Universities. He holds several Visiting Professor positions worldwide (Europe, USA, Asia, Australia) and roles in international scientific societies, steering committees for international conferences, and international panels. He also actively contributes the research community by covering a large collection of roles in top-quality conferences and journals. His research interests mostly focus on big data management, processing, and analytics.


Tutorial #9: Building and Using an Apprenticeship Simulator for Acquiring Modeling Skills

Nov. 17 (Thu), 11:00-12:30, Large Conference Room A (RA)

Prof. Ilia Bider, Stockholm University, Sweden, and
Prof. Martin Henkel, Stockholm University, Sweden

Abstract

Modeling skills consist of two components: (1) formal - ability to depict a model using a modeling language; (2) informal - ability to dissect the reality to be modeled. The latter is difficult to acquire in the classroom environment, apprenticeship being a suitable form for learning. The tutorial presents a reasonable approximation to apprenticeship using a multi-media presentation of a business case to be used in modeling courses. The concept has been tested in practice and appreciated by students. What is more, it can be implemented using limited resources by teachers themselves.

Short Biography

For a long time, Ilia Bider has actively combined research activities with practical work, in the end settling down in the academia as a Lecturer at a Department of Computer and Systems Sciences (DSV) of Stockholm University to reflect on his practical experience and, if possible, transfer the knowledge acquired to the younger generation. Having background in both engineering (MS from a Moscow Technical University), and science (PhD from the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology), he worked in practice in different capacities, such as programmer, bug-fixer, group and project leader, technical and business consultant, functioning as an employee for others, and as a co-founder of a Swedish consulting business called IbisSoft. He used his practical experience as inspiration for research, and his practice as a test-bed for new research ideas. Most of his published works (rising to about 70) are, in one way or another, connected to his practical work.


Martin Henkel works as associate professor at the department of computer and systems sciences, Stockholm University. Martin earned his PhD from The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in 2008 in the area of service oriented information systems. As a member of several international program committees Martin engages in the research areas enterprise modeling, service oriented computing, business value modeling and enterprise capability design. Through research projects and consulting Martin has been involved in domains such as health care, IT system for energy efficiency and information system analysis, design and development.