Finding Solutions in Goal Models: An Interactive Backward Reasoning Approach Jennifer Horkoff 1 Eric Yu 2 Department of Computer Science 1 Faculty of Information 2 University of Toronto November 1, 2010 ER’10

Outline  Early RE  A Framework for Iterative, Interactive Analysis of Agent- Goal Models in Early RE  Background: Goal Models  Background: Interactive Forward Satisfaction Analysis  Need for Backward Analysis  Interactive, Iterative Backward Analysis Example Implementation  Qualitative Studies  Conclusions and Future Work Finding Solutions in Goal Models - Horkoff, Yu 2

Early Requirements Engineering  Domain understanding in the early stages of a project is crucial for the success of a system  Characterized by incomplete and imprecise information  Many non-functional, hard to quantify success criteria: customer happiness, privacy, job satisfaction, security,…  (Ideally) a high degree of stakeholder participation  Goal models can be a useful conceptual tool for Early RE Represent imprecise concepts (softgoals) and relationships (contribution links) Relatively simple syntax Amenable for high-level analysis and decision making Finding Solutions in Goal Models - Horkoff, Yu 3

Example: inflo Case Study Finding Solutions in Goal Models - Horkoff, Yu 4

Framework for Iterative, Interactive Analysis of Agent-Goal Models in Early RE  We develop a framework to support iteration and stakeholder participation in early goal model analysis Survey and analysis of existing analysis procedures (SAC’11) Interactive forward evaluation (CAiSE’09 Forum, PoEM’09, IJISMD) Interactive backward evaluation (this work!) Visualizations for backward evaluation (REV’10) User testing (PoEM’10) Suggested methodology (CAiSE’09, PoEM’09, IJISMD,…) More… Finding Solutions in Goal Models - Horkoff, Yu 5

Background: Goal Models  We use i* as an example goal modeling framework Finding Solutions in Goal Models - Horkoff, Yu 6

Interactive Forward Satisfaction Analysis  A question/scenario/alternative is placed on the model and its affects are propagated “forward” through model links Dependency links propagate values as is AND/OR (Decomposition/Means-Ends) links take the min/max Contribution links propagated as follows:  Interactive: user input (human judgment) is used to decide on partial or conflicting evidence “What is the resulting value?” Finding Solutions in Goal Models - Horkoff, Yu 7

Example: Interactive Forward Satisfaction Analysis Finding Solutions in Goal Models - Horkoff, Yu 8 Human Judgment What if… the application asked for secret question and did not restrict the structure of password?

Need for Backward Analysis  We can ask “what if…?” questions, but what about “Is this possible?” “How?” “If not, why?” Finding Solutions in Goal Models - Horkoff, Yu 9 Is it possible for Attract Users to be Satisfied? Partially Satisfied? If so how? If not, why not?

Background: SAT and UNSAT Core  SAT Solver: Algorithms which solve Boolean Satisfiability Problem  Accept a Boolean formula in conjunctive normal form (CNF), composed of a conjunction of clauses.  Searches for an assignment of the formula’s clauses in which it makes the formula true.  Although the SAT problem is NP-Complete, algorithms and tools which can solve many SAT problems in a reasonable amount of time have been developed.  When a SAT problem does not have a solution, we can find the UNSAT core  UNSAT core: an unsatisfiable subset of clauses in a CNF  We use the zChaff and zMinimal implementations in our tool Finding Solutions in Goal Models - Horkoff, Yu 10

Interactive, Iterative Backward Analysis

 Procedure overview: i* model and target values are encoded into CNF Iteratively call a SAT solver on the CNF representation:  After each iteration, prompt for human judgment for intentions with conflicting or multiple sources of partial evidence  Re-encode CNF formula If SAT solver finds an answer and no human judgment is needed:  Success: answer provided If SAT solver cannot find an answer  Display UNSAT core  Backtrack over last round of human judgment  If no more human judgment to backtrack over:  Failure: no answer Finding Solutions in Goal Models - Horkoff, Yu 12

Formally Expressing i*  i* model: a tuple M = I is a set of intentions R is a set of relations between intentions A is a set of actors  Intention type: each intention maps to one type in IntentionType = {Softgoal, Goal, Task, Resource}  Relation type: Each relation maps to one type in RelationType = {R me, R dec, R dep, R c } R c can be broken down into {R m, R hlp, R u, R hrt, R b }  Relation behavior: R dep and R c are binary (one intention relates to one intention), R me and R dec are (n+1)-ary (one to many intentions relate to one intention) Finding Solutions in Goal Models - Horkoff, Yu 13

Analysis Predicates  Formal expression of analysis predicates  Similar to predicates used in Tropos Framework (Sebastiani et al. CAiSE’04)  For i ∈ I: Example: PS(Attract Users), D(Ask for Secret Question)  Conflict label: C(i),  Conflict situation: for i ∈ I a predicate from more than one of the following sets hold: {S(i), PS(i)}, {U(i)}, {C(i)}, {PD(i), D(i)} Finding Solutions in Goal Models - Horkoff, Yu 14 S(i)PS(i)C(i)U(i)PD(i)D(i) SatisfiedPartially Satisfied ConflictUnknownPartially Denied Denied

Propagation in CNF  We use the SAT formula from the Tropos Framework: Φ = ΦTarget ∧ (the target values representing the question) ΦForward ∧ (axioms describing forward propagation) ΦBackward ∧ (axioms describing backward propagation) ΦInvariants ∧ (axioms describing invariant properties) ΦConstraints (constraints on propagation) ΦInvariants: S(i) → PS(i)D(i) → PD(i) ΦConstraints: ∀ i ∈ I s.t. i is a leaf: PS(i) ⋁ C(i) ⋁ U(i) ⋁ PD(i) ∀ i ∈ I s.t. i is a non-softgoal leaf: i must not have conflicting predicates (?) Finding Solutions in Goal Models - Horkoff, Yu 15

Forward Propagation Axioms  We develop axioms to express forward and backward propagation  Forward Propagation, for i ∈ I, R:i 1 x … x i n → i: (Some combination of v(i 1 )…v(i n )) → v(i)  Samples (complete list in paper): R hlp : S(i) → PS(i)PS(i) → PS(i)U(i) → U(i) C(i) → C(i)PD(i) → PD(i)D(i) → PD(i) Finding Solutions in Goal Models - Horkoff, Yu 16

Forward Propagation Axioms  Forward Propagation, for i ∈ I, R:i 1 x … x i n → i: (Some combination of v(i 1 )…v(i n )) → v(i)  R dec : Finding Solutions in Goal Models - Horkoff, Yu 17

Backward Propagation Axioms  Decomposition, Means-Ends and Dependency backward axioms are the inverse of forward axioms  Forward Propagation, for i ∈ I, R:i 1 x … x i n → i: (Some combination of v(i 1 )…v(i n )) → v(i)  Backward Propagation, for i ∈ I, R:i 1 x … x i n → i: v(i) → (Some combination of v(i 1 )…v(i n ))  Contribution links are different – information is lost during value combination in forward direction In the backward direction, we can make limited assumptions Finding Solutions in Goal Models - Horkoff, Yu 18

Human Judgment  An intention, i ∈ I, needs human judgment if: i is the recipient of more than one contribution link, AND:  There is a conflict situation  OR, PS(i) or PD(i) holds and i has not received a human judgment in the previous iteration (allows promotion of partial evidence)  When a judgment is provided, the CNF encoding is adjusted as follows: Forward and backward axioms propagating to or from i are removed  (Any combination of v(i 1 )…v(i n )) → v(i)  v(i) → (Any combination of v(i 1 )…v(i n )) New axioms representing the judgment are added  Forward: (v(i 1 ) ⋀ … ⋀ v(i n )) → judgment(i)  Backward: judgment(i) → (v(i 1 ) ⋀ … ⋀ v(i n )) Finding Solutions in Goal Models - Horkoff, Yu 19

Example: Interactive Backward Satisfaction Analysis Finding Solutions in Goal Models - Horkoff, Yu 20 Human Judgment Conflict Backtrack Is it possible for Attract Users to be Partially Satisfied? If so how? If not, why not? Target(s) unsatisfiable The following intentions are involved in the conflict: SecurityPS Attract UsersPS UsabilityPS The following intentions are the sources of the conflict: Restrict Structure of Password PS, D, not PD, PD

Implementation  Implemented in OpenOME  Worst case run time: O(6 q (l * n 2 + n * runtime(SAT))) There are 6 evaluation labels n = number of intentions q = maximum number of sources for intentions l = number of links in the model  Procedure has been applied to several medium to large sized models  If the user does not repeat judgments, procedure will terminate Finding Solutions in Goal Models - Horkoff, Yu 21

Qualitative Studies of Interactive Goal Model Analysis  Tested the procedure with a group implementing the inflo “back-of- the-envelope” calculation modeling tool  Ten individual case studies (PoEM’10)  Qualitative analysis of results (no statistical significance)  Observations showed benefits and revealed usability issues Individuals and groups able to understand and apply backward analysis In some cases interesting discoveries were made about the model and domain (model incompleteness, meaning of intentions) Analysis may be less useful on incomplete, smaller models, or models without tradeoffs i* and evaluation training, or presence of an experienced facilitator is needed to get the full intended benefits Finding Solutions in Goal Models - Horkoff, Yu 22

Inflo Example Finding Solutions in Goal Models - Horkoff, Yu 23

Conclusions and Future Work  Expanded the analysis ability of i* models as part of an interactive, iterative framework aimed for Early RE  Future work includes: Procedure optimizations  Optionally reusing human judgment  Deriving judgments from existing judgments  Improving run time Further visualizations  Highlighting intentions involved in human judgment  Links coloring for conflicts Further applications  More realistic action research setting Finding Solutions in Goal Models - Horkoff, Yu 24

Thank you      OpenOME: Finding Solutions in Goal Models - Horkoff, Yu 25

Related Work  Giorgini et al. have introduced a formal framework for (forward and) backward reasoning with goal models (CAiSE’04)  We use the CNF formula and some of the axioms from this work; however, we make the following expansions and modifications: Incorporating interaction through human judgment – making the procedure more amenable to Early RE Accounting for additional agent-goal syntax (dependencies, unknown) and analysis values (conflict, unknown) Producing results with only one value per intention Providing information on model conflicts when a solution cannot be found Finding Solutions in Goal Models - Horkoff, Yu 26 S, PD PS PS, D PS, PD