Managing Dependency Relations in Inter-Organizational Models

In various fields like software development, information systems development, and e-business development, model-based approaches allow specifying different models of which each emphasizes one specific aspect or part of the software system. In this thesis we consider particularly model-based approaches for defining inter-organizational cooperations. These cooperations are usually complex in terms of coordination, agreements, and value creation for involved partners. At design time one should ensure that the different models are consistent with each other, i.e., that they describe the same system. At runtime we additionally have to deal with the fact that behavior of the software system might be different from that agreed upon. Such deviant behavior can, for example, be caused by partners in the cooperation that do not behave according to the agreement. Therefore, the challenges are to ensure consistency at design time as well as to monitor the system at runtime in order to detect inconsistencies with the models it relies on. When managing complex cooperations, it is also vital to maintain the models describing them to keep an overview on the successfulness of the cooperation. Changing one model to regain consistency with the running system might result in new inconsistencies between the different models. As a consequence, this maintenance phase of the models is time consuming and grows in complexity with increasing number of models describing the system. This thesis proposes a method that supports ensuring and maintaining consistency between running system and underlying models for inter-organizational cooperations. We provide a structured and model-independent approach to check and maintain consistency. Thereby, we focus on identifying and maintaining these inter-model relations. We validate our method by conducting two case studies in two different fields of research. The first scenario deals with business and coordination models, while the second one addresses Web service compositions. Furthermore, we provide a prototypical implementation as proof-of-concept evaluation of both scenarios. We conclude with an empirical validation of the Web service composition scenario by an extensive and interactive survey conducted among 34 participants. This survey confirms the suitability of our proposed management solution provided for real life use.