Goal-oriented Methodology Research Articles

Innovation and sustainability in technology parks: the transformation of Itec Park UFN through the PDCA cycle

This study examines the transformative role of the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle as a strategic framework for managing science and technology parks, using Itec Park UFN as a case study. By implementing PDCA-based tools, this research seeks to streamline the operational processes of technology parks through structured planning, execution, monitoring, and continuous improvement. The approach aligns closely with the Sustainable Development Goals, notably SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure. Employing an action research methodology that integrates literature review, tool development, and pilot implementation, the study emphasizes strategic management, innovation promotion, and knowledge transfer as core aspects. Findings reveal that the PDCA cycle enhances the park’s capacity to adapt to market shifts, supporting resilience and fostering a culture of sustainable innovation. The structured use of PDCA not only improves operational efficiency but also promotes stronger partnerships between academia, industry, and government. This systematic management approach establishes a replicable model that can be adapted by other science and technology parks, providing practical insights into the creation of innovation ecosystems that catalyze regional economic development and empower startup growth. Ultimately, the research contributes to the field by demonstrating how structured, goal-oriented methodologies can drive sustainable technological and economic advancement.

A new approach for analyzing the reliability of logical loop based on goal-oriented methodology (GO)

A new approach for analyzing the reliability of logical loop based on goal-oriented methodology (GO)

Tidal turbine array modelling using goal-oriented mesh adaptation

To examine the accuracy and sensitivity of tidal array performance assessment by numerical techniques applying goal-oriented mesh adaptation. The goal-oriented framework is designed to give rise to adaptive meshes upon which a given diagnostic quantity of interest (QoI) can be accurately captured, whilst maintaining a low overall computational cost. We seek to improve the accuracy of the discontinuous Galerkin method applied to a depth-averaged shallow water model of a tidal energy farm, where turbines are represented using a drag parametrisation and the energy output is specified as the QoI. Two goal-oriented adaptation strategies are considered, which give rise to meshes with isotropic and anisotropic elements. We present both fixed mesh and goal-oriented adaptive mesh simulations for an established test case involving an idealised tidal turbine array positioned in a channel. With both the fixed meshes and the goal-oriented methodologies, we reproduce results from the literature which demonstrate how a staggered array configuration extracts more energy than an aligned array. We also make detailed qualitative and quantitative comparisons between the fixed mesh and adaptive outputs. The proposed goal-oriented mesh adaptation strategies are validated for the purposes of tidal energy resource assessment. Using only a tenth of the number of degrees of freedom as a high-resolution fixed mesh benchmark and lower overall runtime, they are shown to enable energy output differences smaller than 2% for a tidal array test case with aligned rows of turbines and less than 10% for a staggered array configuration.

Assessment method of distribution network health level based on multivariate information

In order to enhance self-monitoring and self-diagnosis capabilities in smart distribution networks, this paper proposes a method for assessing the health level of the network based on multivariate information. First, we construct an evaluation indicator system for the health of the smart distribution network by integrating the smart distribution network information system. Next, we utilize the improved back propagation (BP) neural network and multivariate indicator information to calculate the health indexes of both the grid layer and equipment. We then solve the health index of the equipment layer based on network topology and goal-oriented methodology. Furthermore, by utilizing the health information of both the equipment and grid layer, we apply fuzzy evaluation and Dempster-Shafer (D-S) evidence theory to obtain the health level of the distribution network. We provide a comprehensive evaluation of the overall health status of the smart distribution network. Finally, the proposed method is validated using data from a regional distribution network. The results demonstrate its effectiveness in improving the smart distribution networks’ overall health and stability by enabling more effective self-monitoring and self-diagnosis.

Research on redundancy design of a certain aircraft hydraulic system based on goal-oriented methodology

Research on redundancy design of a certain aircraft hydraulic system based on goal-oriented methodology

Failure analysis of repairable systems with k-out-of-m configuration considering with common cause failure and maintenance correlation based on goal oriented method

System reliability directly affects the application of Prognostic and Health Management (PHM) technology. This paper proposed a new Goal Oriented (GO) methodology for failure probability analysis of repairable systems with the Common Cause Failure (CCF) and maintenance correlation (MC). It should be noted that the considered repariable systems in this study are k-out-of-m configuration. Firstly, an improved GO algorithm solving the CCF is elaborated. Second, a failure analysis framework for repairable systems taken into account of CCF and MC is developed based on Markov theory. Finally, the new GO methodology is applied in analysising the dynamic unavailability of Hydraulic Oil Supply System (HOSS) of heavy vehicles. Comparisons with two traditional methods indicated that the proposed methodology provides higher efficiency. Furthermore, this work can widen the application of GO methodology.

Gamified Blood Donors System Based on Intelligent Agents

The population of the country of Kenya is drastically increasing thus causing the number of possible blood donors to rise. Despite this, the blood collected and stored in most blood banks is not enough to cater for the huge demand. The demand has been due to increase of number of accidents experienced in the country and the advancement in medical procedures which calls for organ transplant and blood transfusion. Even though systems have been developed which can connect the donors and recipients and location tracking, most people are dying because they don`t get this vital commodity in good time. The process of donating blood has not been enticing. There is nothing that prompts a person to donate blood. This call for developing a gamified blood donor management system based on intelligent agents so as to increase the number of donors and keep the system performance at optimal level. The project adopts Goal-Oriented Methodology in the system development process. Two agents are developed: donors’ agent and the blood admin agent. The intelligent agents help in profiles personalization thus improving the system performance. Gamification technique is implemented in the system so as to increase the traffic of blood donors interacting with the system and participating in the donation exercise. This increase the number of blood donors hence enough blood is collected to cater for the huge demand.

Research on the Reliability Allocation Method of Smart Meters Based on DEA and DBN

Reliability allocation can reasonably determine the reliability index of each unit in the system to ensure product quality in design, manufacturing, testing and acceptance. In the design process of the smart meter, the preliminary reliability allocation results may be unreasonable, so in the middle and later stages of the design stage, the reliability needs to be reallocated. The traditional allocation method has some limitations, such as strong subjectivity, large amount of calculation and too much reliance on expert judgment. In order to solve these problems, this paper presents a multi-method fusion method of reliability allocation. First, this paper uses the goal-oriented methodology (GO methodology) to integrate dynamic Bayesian networks (DBNs) to predict the reliability of smart meters. Second, a data envelopment analysis (DEA) reliability allocation model is established, the posterior probability obtained by DBN reasoning together with the failure rate and structural complexity of each unit are used as the output indicators of this model. Finally, the reliability allocation weight is calculated by using the efficiency value obtained from the DEA reliability allocation model. The validity and accuracy of this method is verified by an accelerated life test. This provides a new idea for reliability reallocation of smart meters.

Research of Determining Low-Reliability Elements of Multiple-Flows Compressed Air Braking System Based on Goal-Oriented (GO) Methodology

The multi-flows pneumatic braking system is one of the modern braking systems equipped with truck vehicles which is a very complex system consisting of many elements connected in series or parallel. The reliability of the braking system has a significant influence on safety and the ability to manoeuvre. The study of identifying low-reliability elements in the brake system is of great significance to improve the efficiency of maintenance and repair. This article shows the research results that determine low-reliability elements of the multi-flows pneumatic brake system based on GO methodology, and allow to examine each element's reliability and the complex system. The reliability assessment model is built based on GO theory and statistics data collected at the used units about the frequency of damage, ability, and time to repair and restore the assemblies in the brake system. By using this model, the reliability of the assemblies and the whole system can be determined at any point in time relative to the actual operating time of the brake system. The article's research results can be applied for surveying other components’ reliability and complex systems such as steering or suspension systems.

Reliability Analysis of C4ISR Systems Based on Goal-Oriented Methodology

Hard-and-software integrated systems such as command and control systems (C4ISR systems) are typical systems that are comprised of both software and hardware, the failures of such devices result from complicated common cause failures and common (or shared) signals that make classical reliability analysis methods will be not applicable. To this end, this paper applies the Goal-Oriented (GO) methodology to detailed analyze the reliability of a C4ISR system. The reliability as well as the failure probability of the C4ISR system, are reached based on the GO model constructed. At the component level, the reliability of units of the C4ISR system is computed. Importance analysis of failures of such a system is completed by the qualitative analysis capability of the GO model, by which critical failures of hardware failures like communication module failures and motherboard module failures as well as software failures like network module application software failures and decompression module software failures are ascertained. This method of this paper contributes to the reliability analysis of all hard-and-software integrated systems.

Integrating conformance and performance for the evaluation of urban planning implementation from a goal-oriented perspective

Urban planning implementation evaluation (UPIE) is an important tool for the supervision and inspection of the outcomes, processes and effectiveness of planning implementation. Conformance-based evaluation refers to the exploration of the degree of coincidence between actual situations and planning contents. Decision-centred performance evaluation focuses on exploring the role and purpose of plans in the implementation process. Although consensus has been reached on conformance and decision-centred performance evaluation, goal-oriented performance evaluation needs further development. Therefore, the integrated theoretical framework of UPIE, which emphasizes social effectiveness, has been constructed with goal-oriented performance in mind. It is suggested that performance-based evaluation that focuses on social effectiveness reveals the gap between actual situations and planning goals and can be established by the degree of realization of planning goals. Meanwhile, it has put forward a service-capabilities-based evaluation methodology which relies on the spatial matching between service supply and user group demands. Taking the Urban Master Plan of Xi’an (2008–2020) as an example, the results of UPIE show that this blueprint needs further revisions and adjustments. Through a goal-oriented methodology, the integrated theoretical framework can attract more attention to social effectiveness.

Issues of translator training in tertiary translation courses: a Moroccan university case study

ABSTRACT Translator training has recently received a plethora of research owing to the increasing significance of translation in a globalised world. While professional training in independent institutions is commonly viewed as the key to effecting favourable responses to the demands of the national and international financial business, university courses of translation remain a valuable arsenal in the service of certified education if subjected to effective goal-oriented methodology. Translation of written texts has been a part of international communication for centuries, but courses in how to do it are more recent. This article draws on a case study from the context of a Moroccan university where translation courses (English-Arabic) are taught in semesters three and four. It reports the teachers’ perspectives on the translation course from English into Arabic (semester 4, 2018), along with the results of the students’ translations based on 477 examination answers. The researcher’s class observation and conducting of a short online students’ survey inform most of the reports on students’ and teachers’ approach to translation. The analysis and discussion of the results reveal the shortcomings for the existing training and practice of translation at the tertiary level; they also suggest new ways of customising the course for more efficient learner-fronted preparation of translators who can operate in functional situations, a prerequisite for today’s access to the job market.

Reliability analysis method for redundancy systems based on GO methodology and the universal generation function

In this study, Goal-Oriented (GO) methodology, as an important technique for reliability analysis, is used in multi-state redundancy systems. However, traditional GO operation is usually not sufficiently effective for such multi-state redundancy systems because of the complex computational problem. To solve this problem, an efficient UGF-based GO operation that combines the advantages of GO methodology and the universal generation function (UGF) is proposed. The algorithm can avoid the complex calculation process caused by the algorithm-based GO operation of traditional probability formulas, and can simplify the correction of the shared signal by regarding it as the system’s conditional probability. In addition, the further correction problem in which some dependent shared signals with a common failure are caused by other shared signals is also considered. Some application examples are presented to illustrate the proposed UGF-based GO methodology, as well as its effectiveness and practicability.

Towards a goal-oriented methodology for clinical-guideline-based management recommendations for patients with multimorbidity: GoCom and its preliminary evaluation.

Patients with chronic multimorbidity are becoming more common as life expectancy increases, making it necessary for physicians to develop complex management plans. We are looking at the patient management process as a goal-attainment problem. Hence, our aim is to develop a goal-oriented methodology for providing decision support for managing patients with multimorbidity continuously, as the patient's health state is progressing and new goals arise (e.g., treat ulcer, prevent osteoporosis). Our methodology allows us to detect and mitigate inconsistencies among guideline recommendations stemming from multiple clinical guidelines, while consulting medical ontologies and terminologies and relying on patient information standards. This methodology and its implementation as a decision-support system, called GoCom, starts with computer-interpretable clinical guidelines (CIGs) for single problems that are formalized using the PROforma CIG language. We previously published the architecture of the system as well as a CIG elicitation guide for enriching PROforma tasks with properties referring to vocabulary codes of goals and physiological effects of management plans. In this paper, we provide a formalization of the conceptual model of GoCom that generates, for each morbidity of the patient, a patient-specific goal tree that results from the PROforma engine's enactment of the CIG with the patient's data. We also present the "Controller" algorithm that drives the GoCom system. Given a new problem that a patient develops, the Controller detects inconsistencies among goals pertaining to different comorbid problems and consults the CIGs to generate alternative non-conflicted and goal-oriented management plans that address the multiple goals simultaneously. In this stage of our research, the inconsistencies that can be detected are of two types - starting vs. stopping medications that belong to the same medication class hierarchy, and detecting opposing physiological effect goals that are specified in concurrent CIGs (e.g., decreased blood pressure vs. increased blood pressure). However, the design of GoCom is modular and generic and allows the future introduction of additional interaction detection and mitigation strategies. Moreover, GoCom generates explanations of the alternative non-conflicted management plans, based on recommendations stemming from the clinical guidelines and reasoning patterns. GoCom's functionality was evaluated using three cases of multimorbidity interactions that were checked by our three clinicians. Usefulness was evaluated with two studies. The first evaluation was a pilot study with ten 6th year medical students and the second evaluation was done with 27 6th medical students and interns. The participants solved complex realistic cases of multimorbidity patients: with and without decision-support, two cases in the first evaluation and 6 cases in the second evaluation. Use of GoCom increased completeness of the patient management plans produced by the medical students from 0.44 to 0.71 (P-value of 0.0005) in the first evaluation, and from 0.31 to 0.78 (P-value<0.0001) in the second evaluation. Correctness in the first evaluation was very high with (0.98) or without the system (0.91), with non-significant difference (P-value≥0.17). In the second evaluation, use of GoCom increased correctness from 0.68 to 0.83 (P-value of 0.001). In addition, GoCom's explanation and visualization were perceived as useful by the vast majority of participants. While GoCom's detection of goal interactions is currently limited to detection of starting vs. stopping the same medication or medication subclasses and detecting conflicting physiological effects of concurrent medications, the evaluation demonstrated potential of the system for improving clinical decision-making for multimorbidity patients.

WITHDRAWN: Towards a goal-oriented methodology for clinical-guideline-based management recommendations for patients with multimorbidity: GoCom and its preliminary evaluation

WITHDRAWN: Towards a goal-oriented methodology for clinical-guideline-based management recommendations for patients with multimorbidity: GoCom and its preliminary evaluation

Towards Auditability Requirements Specification using an Agent-based Approach

Transparency is an important factor in democratic societies composed of characteristics such as accessibility, usability, informativeness, understandability and auditability. In this research we focus on auditability since it plays an important role for citizens that need to understand and audit public information. Although auditability has been a subject of discussion when designing systems, there is a lack of systematization in its specification. We propose an approach to systematically add auditability requirements specification during the goal-oriented agent-based Tropos methodology. We used the Transparency Softgoal Interdependency Graph that captures the different facets of transparency while considering their operationalization. An empirical evaluation was conducted through the design and implementation of LawDisTrA system that distributes lawsuits among judges in an appellate court. Experiments included the distribution of over 300,000 lawsuits at the Brazilian Superior Labor Court. We theorize that the presented approach for auditability provides adequate techniques to address the cross-organizational nature of transparency.

The Trajectory Touchpoint Technique: A Deep Dive Methodology for Service Innovation

This article introduces the trajectory touchpoint technique (TTT), a service design methodology that harnesses customer experiences for enriched understanding of value throughout multilevel service components to ultimately increase innovativeness. We detail the design and development of the TTT using design science research, a goal-oriented methodology that produces robust and practical solutions to organizational problems. We demonstrate the TTT’s practical utility through collaborations with different organizations (n = 9) and diverse service users (n = 240). We show how the TTT is an easy to use methodology that enhances understanding of value creation and illustrate its benefits with concrete examples of innovations to service encounters, the service system, and the value constellation. We reveal how a service design methodology can be the bridge between the theoretical standpoint of S-D logic’s perspective on value cocreation and the practical tools and techniques required to operationalize it.

Application of GO methodology in reliability analysis of aircraft flap hydraulic system

ABSTRACTThe Goal-Oriented methodology (GO methodology) is an effective method for the reliability analysis of complex systems. It is especially suitable for the reliability analysis of multi-state complex systems containing the actual logistics, such as current, airflow and liquid flow. In order to solve the limitation that the GO methodology is not suitable for the reliability analysis of the system with feedback loop, the Boolean algebra idea is introduced to construct the Boolean operation formula of the feedback loop. In this paper, a certain type of civil aircraft flap hydraulic system with feedback loop is taken as the research object. According to the structural schematic diagram of the flap hydraulic system, the GO model of the flap hydraulic system is established. Next, the GO calculation is carried out to obtain the reliability of the flap hydraulic system. The comparison between the system reliability without feedback loop and that with feedback loop proves that the GO methodology with feedback loop is more accurate. The reliability of the system is analyzed by using the fault tree analysis (FTA) method, and the GO methodology with feedback loop is compared with the FTA method to verify the availability and correctness of the GO methodology in the reliability analysis and safety evaluation of aircraft flap hydraulic system.

Reliability analysis of the gasification process of nuclear fuel manufacturing facilities based on the GO methodology

Uranium hexafluoride (UF6) leakage accidents represent one of the most serious classes of accidents in the gasification process in nuclear fuel manufacturing facilities. Common UF6 leakage accidents include various fault conditions, such as pipeline and valve breakages or ruptures and pipeline blockages. By establishing goal-oriented (GO) operators that can represent multi-fault states, this study estimates the probabilities of various fault states corresponding to UF6 leakage accidents in the gasification process using the GO methodology and analyzes the system reliability. This article expands the scope of the GO methodology and provides technical support for reliability analysis using the GO methodology in multi-fault systems.

Reliability analysis method of the uncertain system based on fuzzy GO methodology and its application in electro-hydrostatic actuator

The Goal-Oriented (GO) methodology is a success-oriented method for system reliability analysis. However, it is not suitable to evaluate the reliability of uncertain system caused by the insufficient or fluctuated data, model uncertainty, new components, and other external factors. In our study, with the combination of fuzzy set theory and the GO model, the triangular fuzzy number and the extended principle are introduced to quantify the fuzzy uncertainties of input and output state probability respectively. Hence, a new reliability analysis method of fuzzy GO methodology for the uncertain system is proposed. It serves to obtain the membership function of the intuitionistic fuzzy state probability and the fuzzy confidence interval by using the parameter programming for system reliability analysis. As a typical small sample complex electromechanical system, the reliability analysis of electro-hydrostatic actuator (EHA) has the characteristic of fuzzy uncertainty. Using EHA as the research object, the reliability analysis is conducted by the GO methodology, the fuzzy FTA method, and the fuzzy GO methodology respectively. The comparison results of the three methodologies show that the fuzzy GO methodology is an effective and a promising method, which is a reasonable and meaningful extension of the GO methodology. It can be used as a new reliability analysis method for the complex uncertain multi-state systems.