Defining the Responsibility Space for the Information Systems Evolution Steering

Abstract

Part 2: Regular PapersInternational audienceInformation System (IS) evolution is today a continuous preoccupation of every modern organization that aims to have a perfect support for its constantly changing business ecosystem. However, the task of IS evolution is not anodyne, it presents several risks towards IS sustainability as well as towards enterprise activity. Taking a decision related to any IS change can be a troublesome responsibility because of the amount of information that has to be processed and the uncertainty of the impact of the change on the enterprise and its IS. To reduce this uncertainty, we have developed a conceptual framework for IS evolution steering. This framework allows to capture the information on how enterprise IS supports its activities and regulations, and then to extract the information relevant for realizing IS evolution activities, simulating their impact, and taking appropriate decisions. This second part of the framework is called the responsibility space of IS evolution steering and is the main subject of this paper

Evolution Models for Information Systems Evolution Steering

“…), and how they comply with regulations governing these activities (the definition of regulatory concepts, rules and roles). Although IS-SM is not the main subject of this paper (it was presented in [2,3]), it remains the bedrock of the framework, and is necessary to be presented for better understanding other models and illustrations. IS-SM is also the kernel model for implementing an Informational Steering Information System -ISIS.…”

“…The Responsibility Space (Ispace/Rspace) component [3] helps to deal with responsibility issues related to a particular IS evolution. Indeed, each IS change usually concerns one or several IS actors (i.e.…”

“…3). They are necessary to consider IS evolution at the management level [3], but also for informational and implementation purposes. For instance, replacing an integrity rule by a new one can be considered logically equivalent to delete it and then to create the new one.…”

“…1) with its two sub-spaces: its informational space (Ispace) and its regulatory space (Rspace). This part was presented in [3]. Below in the paper, all primitives are smart.…”

“…We found the development of such an approach on conceptual modelling by designing a conceptual framework for IS evolution steering. Some parts of this framework were presented in [2] and [3]. In this paper we pursue our work and present one of its componentsthe operationalization of the IS evolution through the metamodel of IS Evolution.…”