Autonomic system design based on the integrated use of SSM and VSM

Artificial Intelligence Review - Tập 25 - Trang 313-327 - 2007
D. W. Bustard1, R. Sterritt1, A. Taleb-Bendiab2, A. Laws2
1Faculty of Engineering, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, UK
2School of Computing & Mathematical Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK

Tóm tắt

This paper describes an approach to autonomic systems development that involves the integrated use of two general systems design techniques: Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) and the Viable System Model (VSM). The paper summarizes the relevant aspects of each technique and describes how they can be used together to create design models of an autonomic system and its environment. The discussion is illustrated through a consideration of the development of a generic computing system to help manage the technology used in an organisation.

Tài liệu tham khảo

Ackoff RL (1974). Towards a system of systems concepts. In: Couger, JD and Knapp, RW (eds) Systems analysis techniques, pp 27–38. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester Ackoff RL (1981). Creating the corporate future. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester Bantz DF (2003). Autonomic Personal Computing. IBM Syst J 42(1): 165–176 Beer S (1979). The heart of enterprise. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester Beer S (1981). Brain of the firm (2nd ed). John Wiley & Sons, Chichester Beer S (1984). The viable system model: Its provenance, development, methodology and pathology. J Oper Res Soc 35: 7–26 Beer S (1985). Diagnosing the system for organizations. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester Bustard DW, Oakes R, Heslin E (1993) Support for the integrated use of conceptual and dataflow models in requirements specification. In: Proceedings of colloquium on requirements for software intensive systems, DRA Malvern, 37–44 Bustard DW, Lundy PJ (1995) Enhancing soft systems analysis with formal modelling. In: proceedings of requirements engineering symposium, IEEE Computer Society. York, UK, 164–171 Bustard DW, Dobbin TJ, Carey B (1996) Integrating soft systems and object oriented analysis. In: Proceedings of international conference on requirements engineering, IEEE Computer Society. Colorado Springs, 52–59 Bustard DW, He Z and Wilkie FG (2000). Linking soft systems and use-case modelling through scenarios. Interacth Comput 13: 97–110 Bustard DW, Sterritt R, Taleb-Bendiab A, Laws A, Randles M, Keenan F (2005) Towards a systemic approach to autonomic systems engineering. In: Proceedings of international conference on the engineering of computer based systems, IEEE Computer Society. Greenbelt, MA: 465–472 Checkland P (1999). Systems thinking, systems practice (with 30-year retrospective). John Wiley & Sons, Chichester Checkland P and Scholes J (1990). Soft systems methodology in action. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester Cheng S-W, Huang A-C, Garlan D, Schmerl BR, Steenkiste P (2004) Rainbow: architecture-based self-adaptation with reusable infrastructure. In: Proceedings of international conference on autonomic computing, IEEE Computer Society. New York: 276–277 Ganek AG and Corbi TA (2003). The dawning of the autonomic computing era. IBM Syst Jo 42(1): 5–18 Gracanin D, Bohner SA, Hinchey M (2004) Towards a model-driven architecture for autonomic systems. In: Proceedings of international conference on the engineering of computer based systems, IEEE Computer Society. Brno, Czech Republic 500–505 Guo M, Wu Z, Stowell FA (2000) Information systems specifications within the framework of client-led design. In: Bustard DW, Kawalek P, Norris MT (eds) Systems modelling for business process improvement. Artech House, 199–212 Herring C (2002) Viable Software: the intelligent control paradigm for adaptable and adaptive architecture. PhD Thesis, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia Herring C, Kaplan S (2001) The viable systems architecture. In: Proceedings of Hawaii international conference on system sciences. Hawaii IBM (2005) Alphaworks autonomic computing site, http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/autonomic Jackson M (1995) Software requirements & specifications: a lexicon of software practice, principles and prejudices. ACM press Addison-Wesley Kephart JO and Chess DM (2003). The vision of autonomic computing. Computer 36(1): 41–52 Laws AG, Taleb-Bendiab A and Wade SJ (2001). Towards a viable reference architecture for multi-agent supported holonic manufacturing systems. J Appl Syst Stud 2(1): 61–81 Laws AG, Taleb-Bendiab A, Wade SJ (2003) From wetware to software: a cybernetic perspective of self-adaptive software In: Proceedings of second international workshop on self-adaptive software. Springer-Verlag. Berlin, 257–280 Mingers J (2002). An idea ahead of its time: the history and development of soft systems methodology. Systemist 24(2): 113–139 Mingers J and Taylor S (1992). The use of soft systems methodology in practice. J Operat Res 43(4): 321–332 Shackleton M, Saffre F, Tateson R, Bonsma E and Roadknight C (2004). Autonomic computing for pervasive ICT a whole-system perspective. BT Technol J 22(3): 191–199 Sterritt R, Bustard DW (2003) Towards an autonomic computing environment. In: Proceedings of 1st international workshop on autonomic computing systems at 14th international conference on database and expert systems applications, Prague, Czech Republic, 694–698 Stowell FA (1995). Information systems provision: the contributions of SSM. McGraw-Hill, London White SR, Hanson JE, Whalley I, Chess DM, Kephart JO (2004) An architectural approach to autonomic computing. In: Proceedings of IEEE international conference on autonomic computing, New York, IEEE Computer Society 2–9. Wilson B (1990). Systems: concepts, methodologies and applications. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester Wilson B (2001) Soft systems methodology: conceptual model building and its contribution. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester (Diagrams can be found at ftp://ftp.wiley.co.uk/pub/books/wilson/)