REDEPEND_REACT-BCN

General Information

Tool Name

REDEPEND-REACT-BCN

Version

2.0

Group

UPC-Barcelona & City University-London

Web page (if available)

http://www.lsi.upc.edu/~ggrau/REDEPEND-REACT/

Main Purpose of the Tool

REDEPEND-REACT is a tool that supports i* modelling and the analysis of the resulting models.
This tool extends the REDEPEND i* modelling tool. The extension focus on the representation of the information system using the i* framework and provides specific functionalities for the generation and evaluation of alternative architectures for the modelled information system.

i* framework supported

Yu'95

Availability of the tool

• ( ) For i* modelling only
• ( ) For development only
• (X) Both

Programming Language

VBA (Visual Basic for Applications)

Platform Requirements

Windows

Other technology needed

VISIO 2003

Current state of the tool

Available for development and use.

Ongoing work

Improving the usability of the tool by adding new ways of model the architectures and define the evaluation properties.

i* Modelling Suitability

1. Does the tool allow SD modelling?

Yes

2. Does the tool allow SR modelling?

Yes

3. Does the tool allow working with SD & SR models jointly?

Yes. It is possible to transform the SR models into SD models.

4. Does the tool allow the construction of the models graphically?

Yes
If so, please specify how (i.e., dragging and dropping the elements into a drawing page)

• Dragging and dropping the elements into a drawing page.

5. Does the tool allow the construction of the models textually?

No

6. Describe how the elements are modelled and their flexibility (i.e., the elements can be moved and reordered).

• The elements can be moved, reordered, deleted, copied, pasted and highligted.
• The elements can be moved and reordered manually in the working sheet.
• The elements can be labeled with a symbolic attribute.
• It is possible to change the name, size and type of an element.

7. Describe how the dependency links are modelled and their flexibility (i.e., dependencies are modelled with straight lines that can not be redirected).

• The dependency links are modelled with straight lines that can be curved, straightened and redirected.
• It is possible to change the size and type of a dependency link.
• The dependency links can be moved, reordered, deleted, copied, pasted and highlighted.

8. Does the tool allow automatic organization of the elements?

• Selected elements can be aligned vertically or horitzontally.

9. Other modelling facilities provided by the tool:

• Creation of an Actors Catalogue that allows storing an actor with its main dependencies in the SD and/or SR model in order to reuse it.
• General VISIO 2003 facilities (e.g., undo/redo all the modelling actions, copy & paste groups of elements)

10. Does the tool check SD models?

Yes. The user can enable the verification of connections: checks for unrecognised connections and checks for invalid connections.

11. Does the tool check SR models?

Yes. The user can enable the verification of connections: checks for unrecognised connections and checks for invalid connections.

12. Other checks provided by the tool (i.e., cross validation between SD and SR models).

N/A

13. Does the tool allow working with two or more models at the same time?

Yes

14. Does the tool allow to group models in projects?

Yes. All models of the same project can be in different worksheets in the same VISIO file.

15. Does the tool allow working with two or more projects at the same time?

Yes

16. What are the other functionalities that the tool provides?

• Definition of a catalogue of actors with the possibility to store part of the SR or SD model of the actor.
• Definition of a catalogue of COTS components to be used in the generation and evaluation of alternatives.
• Definition of a catalogue of properties with their metrics for evaluating the architectures.
• Generation of alternative architectures for the modelled information system (by using COTS components).
• Evaluation of alternative architectures for the modelled information system, based on the properties stored on the catalogue of properties.

Usability

17. Rate the understandability of the user interface

• ( ) Internal use
• (X) Ready for public use
• ( ) Has been used publicly

If it is not ready for public use, mark one or more of the following:

• ( ) not in English
• ( ) writing not polished
• ( ) poor usability (colours, ...)
• ( ) others: there is no user manual associated with the tool

Expected date for public use (if any):

18. Rate the quality of the user manual

• ( ) Inexistent
• ( ) Internal use
• (X) Ready for public use
• ( ) Has been used publicly

Expected date for public use (if any):

19. Does the tool provides i* learning facilities?

Yes. It provides some facilities for applying the PRiM methodology (Process Reeingineering i* Methodology)

20. Does the tool provide any examples for the users?

No.

21. Rate the difficulty of installing the tool

• ( ) Copy files and initializing paths
• (X) Copy files
• ( ) Executable installation file provided

Maturity of the Tool

22. Rate the maturity of the tool from the user point of view:

• ( ) Under Development
• ( ) Prototype
• (X) Ready for public use
• ( ) Has been used publicly

If not for public use, mark one or more of the following:

• ( ) incomplete
• ( ) occasional testing
• ( ) non-exhaustive testing
• ( ) non-persistent data
• ( ) poor efficiency
• ( ) not portable
• ( ) others: please specify

Expected date for public use (if any):

23. Has the tool been used for any case study?

Yes. The tool has been used in some academic case studies concerning a Meeting Scheduler system, an eLearning system and an eBusiness system.

24. Has the tool been tested in large models?

Yes.

25. Has the tool any drawback when working with very large models?

As the automatic architectures are generated as new pages on the model, the generation of architectures can take a few minutes, but this functionality is not needed often.

26. Which is approximately the maximum size of the model (in terms of actors and dependencies) the tool has been used for?

30 actors, 500 dependencies (including the elements on the different generated architectures)

Extensibility and Interoperability

27. Does the tool allow importing files?

Yes. VISIO 2003, allow importing files in XML in a Visio Propietary format.

28. Does the tool allow exporting files?

Yes. VISIO 2003, allow importing files in XML in a Visio Propietary files and into different kinds of images. It is also possible to export the different models into an EXCEL file.

29. Does the tool allow importing/exporting the data through an XML format?

Yes. The format is propietary.

30. Is the architecture of the tool published?

The architecture of VISIO 2003 is propietary, but the organization of the REDEPEND-REACT-BCN code is explained in the development documentation.

31. Does the tool allow the addition of other elements outside the i* framework of the tool?

Yes

32. New functionalities can be added to the tool by means of:

• (X) PLUG-IN
• ( ) Open-Source code
• ( ) import & export XML
• ( ) NONE

33. Rate the maturity of the tool from for open development:

• ( ) Under Development
• ( ) Prototype
• (X) Ready for public development use
• ( ) Has been used for public development

If not for public development use, mark one or more of the following:

• ( ) incomplete code
• ( ) no help provided
• ( ) non-persistent data
• ( ) non-exhaustive testing
• ( ) poor efficiency
• ( ) not portable
• ( ) no development installation facilities provided
• ( ) others: please specify

Expected date for public development use (if any):

34. Is there any internal documentation for programmers?

Yes
If so, enumerate the facilities provided

• (X) Requirements specification and design decisions available
• (X) Interface conventions
• (X) Code conventions
• (X) Full commented code
• ( ) Examples
• ( ) others: please specify