Representing and Reasoning with Scenarios within Information Systems Modeling

Abstract

Recent research in systems engineering shows the community’s interest in scenarios. Advantages of using scenarios have been reported in wide range of contexts within the area. Recalling that any systematic, and eventually, automated management of scenarios presupposes firm formal ground, research on formal theories for scenarios is highly motivated. However, only little work has been reported for that purpose, e.g. Hsia, Samuel, Gao, Kung, Toyoshina and Chen (1994). This chapter presents a formal approach to managing scenarios, using first order temporal logic extended with basic set theory, in the context of information systems modelling (ISM). In our framework scenarios are dealt with from two formal points of view, namely representation and reasoning.