Finding Solutions in Goal Models: An Interactive Backward Reasoning Approach
Jennifer Horkoff, Eric S. K. Yu · 2010
Abstract. Modeling in the early stage of system analysis is critical for understanding stakeholders, their needs, problems, and different view-points. We advocate methods for early domain exploration which pro-voke iteration over captured knowledge, helping to guide elicitation, and facilitating early scoping and decision making. Specifically, we provide a framework to support interactive, iterative analysis over goal- and agent-oriented (agent-goal) models. Previous work has introduced an interac-tive evaluation procedure propagating forward from alternatives allowing users to ask “What if? ” questions. In this work we introduce a back-wards, iterative, interactive evaluation procedure propagating backward from high-level target goals, allowing users to ask “Is this possible?” questions. The approach is novel in that it axiomatizes propagation in the i * framework, including the role of human intervention to potentially resolve conflicting contributions or promote multiple sources of weak ev-idence.