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Method Engineering: A Formal Description

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Information Systems Development

Abstract

The development of information systems (IS) requires methods that recommend how to act during the development process. In some cases existing methods cannot cope with the requirements of the project situation at hand. Therefore, new methods must be developed. Method engineering (ME) attends to this application field. In this chapter, we provide a detailed overview of IS method engineering approaches in order to describe the concept of method engineering. Based on a literature review we derive a formal description of methods that can be used to describe them in a basic way and transfer them to other fields of application. With the formal description of methods this chapter facilitates the process of understanding method engineering both for method user and its engineer.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Nilsson makes a difference between strategic, process-oriented and system-oriented development, see [16].

  2. 2.

    The third dimension abstraction level is not the subject of consideration.

  3. 3.

    Cited in [8].

  4. 4.

    Process and product fragments in [10, 19], process and notation in [21].

  5. 5.

    5 To be read: for a process fragment p element of P there exists (at least) one product fragment r element of R, for that applies: p requires r.

  6. 6.

    CCTA's (Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency of the UK Government) Risk Analysis and Management Methodology, see Baskerville [3].

  7. 7.

    Information security risk analysis method, see Karabacak and Sogukpinar [12]

  8. 8.

    For details to the mentioned formula (67.2), see Karabacak and Sogukpinar [12].

  9. 9.

    For details to the mentioned formula (67.2), see Karabacak and Sogukpinar [12].

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Informatics, Technische Universität München, München, Germany

    Ali Sunyaev, Matthias Hansen & Helmut Krcmar

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  1. Ali Sunyaev
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  2. Matthias Hansen
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  3. Helmut Krcmar
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Computer Science, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus

    George Angelos Papadopoulos

  2. College of Business & Economics, Dept. Information Technology &, Boise State University, Univesity Dr. 1910, Boise, 83725-1615, Idaho, USA

    Wita Wojtkowski

  3. College of Business & Economics, Dept. Information Technology &, Boise State University, Univesity Dr. 1910, Boise, 83725-1615, Idaho, USA

    Gregory Wojtkowski

  4. Dep. of Information Systems, University of Gdansk, 81-824 Sopot,Polska ul. Armii, Krajowej, 119121, Poland

    Stanislaw Wrycza

  5. University of Maribor, Presernova 11, Kranj, 4000, Slovenia

    Jože Zupancic

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Sunyaev, A., Hansen, M., Krcmar, H. (2009). Method Engineering: A Formal Description. In: Papadopoulos, G., Wojtkowski, W., Wojtkowski, G., Wrycza, S., Zupancic, J. (eds) Information Systems Development. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/b137171_67

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/b137171_67

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  • Print ISBN: 978-0-387-84809-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-387-84810-5

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