Information system modeling and management (session overview)

Abstract

As information systems and their applications become more complex, automated tools and techniques for modeling and managing such information system environments become more critically needed. This session deals with tools and techniques for modeling and management of information systems.Horndasch and Studer propose a formal model for office systems analysis and modeling in their paper “THM-Net: An Approach to Office Systems Modeling”. They use the concept from Temporal-Hierarchic Data Model (THM) for semantic data modeling together with Petri Nets for modeling the parallel, asynchronous aspects of office systems. The paper introduces the Temporal-Hierarchic Data Model and defines THM-Net with examples from IFIP Working Conference Organization Problem. Various THM-Net and THM data scheme concepts are illustrated by modeling part of the IFIP problem.In the paper “XCP: An Experimental Tool for Managing Cooperative Activity,” Sluizer and Cashman present an experimental coordinator tool, XCP, which allows organizations to develop, maintain and implement plans of cooperative activity, called protocols. Its goals are to reduce the costs of communication, coordination and decision by executing formal plans of cooperative activity in partnership with its users, and to aid new staff to learn a procedure. The paper describes the tool and its architecture. An annotated example is shown, and the status of the XCP project is given.In the paper by Kao, “An Automated Scheduling System for Project Management,” he presents a scheduling tool, the Flight Operations Planning Schedule System (FOPSS), used by the scheduling team of the Johnson Space Center of NASA to support the Space Shuttle flight operations. The paper describes the FOPSS software, design goals and considerations, some special features and possible enhancement of FOPSS.