An ontological framework and a methodical skeleton for method engineering : a contextual approach

Leppänen, Mauri An Ontological Framework and a Methodical Skeleton for Method Engineering – A Contextual Approach Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2005, 702 p. (Jyväskylä Studies in Computing ISSN 1456-5390; 52) ISBN 951-39-2186-7 Finnish summary Diss. Method engineering (ME) is commonly carried out in an intuitive and improvising fashion. This is largely due to the lack of explicit methodical support. The literature does suggest an array of ME strategies, ME approaches, ME techniques, and ME procedures, but the assistance they provide is not satisfying. It can be argued that the ME field has not advanced far from its “pre-methodical” stage. An ISD method is an abstract and multifaceted notion, and there exist quite diverging views on its nature, structure, content, and significance. For this reason, to construct a feasible methodical support to method engineering, it is necessary to anchor it upon a theoretically sound and uniform conceptual foundation. The objective of this thesis is to construct an ontological framework for conceiving, understanding, structuring, and representing the phenomena related to an ISD method and its engineering, and to construct a methodical skeleton to support the ME process. The thesis crafts two design artifacts, OntoFrame and MEMES. OntoFrame is an ontological framework, comprising a number of component ontologies with a multi-dimensional structure. These components range from highly generic ontologies to ME-specific ones. Resulting from the application of a contextual approach in ontology engineering, the ontologies highlight, in a multi-faceted manner, contextual features of reality. The framework was derived from multiple theories and existing ME artifacts with deductive and inductive principles, and it is represented in UML-based meta models. MEMES is a normative prescription for ME, structuring and guiding the accomplishment of ME work. It consists of three ME workflows: ISD method requirements engineering, ISD method analysis, and ISD method evaluation. For each of the ME workflows, ME approaches, principles, and steps are suggested in MEMES. Both of the artifacts are evaluated extensively in a number of comparative analyses of existing artifacts. MEMES is also evaluated with empirical methods. The results of the thesis can be utilized in future research to analyze and compare existing artifacts and to construct new ones for the use of ISD and ME. MEMES can be applied in practice to support the engineering of generic and domain-specific ISD methods. The research follows the design theory paradigm and applies conceptual and empirical research methods.