An Empirical Evaluation of Capability Modelling using Design Rationale

Capability-driven development (CDD) is an emerging research field aimed at aligning information technology (IT) to business evolution. From a methodological perspective a designer using CDD is faced with the challenge of reasoning about phenomena present in the business domain, capturing user requirements and developing an IT solution that reflects these phenomena and meets user expectation. Central to this process is the methodology meta-model, which is intended to define both the key concepts on which the designer has to focus and the process to be followed. The purpose of this paper is to report on an investigation on the utility of a specific meta-model in terms of these two aspects. This investigation was carried out through a use case that involved capability modelling on the same application, by different designers. Each approach was documented using design rationale techniques. The two efforts were then analysed and observations about the capability driven design activities were defined. The output of this work has provided feedback to enhancing the capability meta-model and consequently the capability driven design activities in a number of important ways.

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