Aims:

This project serves to improve the design for IT architecture and applications by further developing MEASUR method.  The successful outcomes of this research include:

• Integration and refinement of the MEASUR methods (each comprising several techniques), which aid users, analysts and specialists in the whole lifecycle of information systems development. The three methods are comprised of: i) Problem Articulation Method: for analysing complex and ill-defined problems, ii) Semantic Analysis Method: for modelling the business domain and information requirements with explicit representation of meaning and relationships between the semantic models and business activities, and iii) Norm Analysis Method: for capturing business knowledge and incorporating them into IT systems to produce dynamically adaptable IT solutions.

• Extension of the suite of MEASUR techniques for systematic transformation of specifications, to the design and implementation of enterprise IT solution.

• Formalisation of the systems design techniques based on the Semantic Normal Form (SNF) as the underlying mechanism (the SNF defines a canonical metadata structure encapsulating all necessary properties of an information item stored in the information system).

• Development of two prototypes: i) the PAM prototype, based on the Problem Articulation Method, is a project planning and resource management tool designed to aid the planning and management of complex IT projects. ii) The Semantic Modelling tool, based on the Semantic Analysis Method to support the analysis and the production of a semantic model including ontological dependency diagrams and the capture of Norms.

• Validation of the MEASUR methods. We have been working closely with industrial collaborators on real cases to develop and test the methods using the prototype tools to validate the acceptability, effectiveness and correctness of the methods.