The deontic pattern – a framework for domain analysis in information systems design

摘要

Methods for the reuse of specification knowledge have been developed to reduce the costs of systems development. One approach is to build libraries of reusable analysis patterns, i.e. models describing the generic features of a situation that can occur in different domains. In order to systematise libraries of such patterns, we propose a novel analysis pattern based on a deontic perspective. The basic components of this pattern are object types representing obligations, the parties involved in these obligations, their respective roles, and the speech acts that create and terminate the obligations. We argue that this pattern captures specification knowledge at an appropriate level of abstraction, has wide applicability, and effectively supports designers in the construction of models. Furthermore, a number of instances of this pattern are analysed and classified into different categories.