Here is the abstract: The concept of concern is used in Enterprise Architecture (EA) to express a stakeholder’s area of interest in a system whose architecture is to be described. Many EA-related problems are rooted in weak stakeholder orientation. We propose an approach to explicitly model stakeholders’ concerns as part of an architecture description. Our contribution is a modeling notation for concern elicitation and a method for concern identification. Our approach is based on goal-oriented requirements engineering and is compatible to the conceptual framework of the ISO 42010 international standard. We claim that our approach allows for a more thorough understanding of stakeholders’ concerns and facilitates a stronger stakeholder orientation in EA.

Keywords: Goal-oriented requirements engineering, GORE, enterprise architecture, concern elicitation, concern identification, stakeholder orientation.

Recommended citation: Lucke, C., and Lechner, U. (2011) Towards an Approach for Stakeholder-Oriented Elicitation and Identification of Concerns in EA, in: The Practice of Enterprise Modeling. 4th IFIP WG8.1 Working Conference, PoEM 2011, Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing (LNBIP-92), P. Johannesson, J. Krogstie and A.L. Opdahl (eds.), Springer, Oslo, Norway, pp. 147-161.

Abstract: In this paper we explore goal-oriented requirements engineering (GORE) as a means to address stakeholder-related issues in the enterprise architecting process. We elaborate on a recent literature analysis on enterprise architecting issues. We refine this literature analysis results by identifying problem areas that we consider solvable by increasing the focus on the stakeholders in EA. We develop a conceptual model, which we use to provide reasoning about means to foster stakeholder orientation and thereby to address stakeholder-related issues. We argue that a stronger focus on the stakeholders‟ benefits EA and that this increased stakeholder orientation can be reached by leveraging intentional modeling used in software engineering.

Recommended citation: Lucke, C., and Lechner, U. (2011) Goal-oriented requirements modeling as a means to address stakeholder-related issues in EA, in: 10. Internationale Tagung Wirtschaftsinformatik, A. Bernstein and G. Schwabe (eds.), Zürich, Switzerland, pp. 714-723.

Abstract: Enterprise Architecture (EA) has been identified as a means to Business-/IT-Alignment, cost reduction or to facilitate change. Research has been focusing on the effectiveness of EA management while the enterprise architecting process is the process of developing, managing, utilizing and maintaining architectural descriptions (ADs) for EA. In this paper we present the results of a literature review on the process of enterprise architecting. Our research contribution is a consolidated view on the challenges and issues arising throughout the architecting process.

Recommended citation: Lucke, Carsten; Krell, Sascha; and Lechner, Ulrike, “Critical Issues in Enterprise Architecting – A Literature Review” (2010). AMCIS 2010 Proceedings. Paper 305. http://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2010/305

German PHP 5 Cookbook

Book published by O’Reilly – written by David Sklar, Adam Trachtenberg, Stephan Schmidt, Ulrich Speidel, Carsten Lucke and Matthias Brusdeylins

The German PHP 5 cookbook in a new and completely revised 3rd edition with information on the new PHP 5.3. Collected knowledge of American and German PHP experts. It contains hundreds of well-approved “recipes” including explanations of the new PHP features.

Matthias Brusdeylins and I wrote the 3rd edition of the German PHP 5 Cookbook. This is a completely revised version of the 2nd edition written by Stephan Schmidt and Ulrich Speidel. We updated all contents in regard to the new PHP version (5.3) and added several interesting and helpful recipes utilizing the new features of PHP 5.3.

Description. The PHP 5 Cookbook provides solutions to a lot of tricky problems which often allow an easier solution to a problem than you had imagined. This new version addresses the changes and features addresses in the new PHP 5.3 like the introduction of namespaces, late static binding, lambda functions and closures, the PHAR extension and the updated Standard PHP Library (SPL) to name only a few. The whole book provides more than 350 recipes on topics like:

• basic datatypes like strings, numbers, dates and arrays
• variables, functions, classes and objects
• iterators, streams, wrapper, filter and exceptions
• web-programming including forms and database access
• XML and webservices
• regular expressions, encryption and security, graphics, internationalization and localization
• files and directories
• PEAR and PHAR

Language. German

Pages. 879

Links:

• Official O’Reilly book website
• Personal website of Matthias Brusdeylins
• Link to Amazon.de

Book published by the Hanser Fachbuchverlag – Editors: Ralf Wölfle & Petra Schubert

Todays company performance depends on powerful business software. But what part has business software in a company’s success and how can this success be identified and safeguarded? This book describes the solutions of 14 companies, using the proven eXperience method.

Description. My colleague Sebastian Richter and I wrote one of the 14 case studies provided in this book. In our case we described the ERP implementation project of the well known Austrian ski manufacturer BLIZZARD. The case study presents information about the initial situation, the implementation of the Semiramis ERP system and how it supports 95% of BLIZZARD’s operational business processes as an integrated total solution.

In all case studies in this book the reader finds helpful information on investment decisions, project management practices, running expenses and lessons learned that help to avoid potential mistakes.

Eric-Jan Kaak and I presented the case study at the KoFoBiS conference on 22 Sept. 2009 in Koblenz. As usual, the case study was presented as an interview between author (me) and the company representative (E. J. Kaak, BLIZZARD).

Language. German

Pages. 281

Links:

• KoFoBiS event
• The book on Amazon.de
• BLIZZARD ski manufacturer
• Semiramis ERP solution
• Information on the case study (eXerience online case study database)

EMISA 2009 Proceedings

Last week I attended the EMISA 2009 where I presented a research paper we wrote at the chair for information systems of the Federal Armed Forces University, Munich, Germany.The title of the paper is “How do system and enterprise architectures influence knowledge management in software projects? – An exploratory study of six software projects.”. This paper covers an investigation of the influence of system- and enterprise architectures on knowledge management in software development projects. The common impact of architectures is researched in the context of six case studies of medium and large sized software- and system development as well as technical and organizational consultancy companies in the military and non-military domain. Observations are collected in a wide variety of aspects and evaluated on the basis of the Probst et al. knowledge management model.

Recommended citation: Lucke, C, M May, N Kratzke, and U Lechner. “How Do System and Enterprise Architectures Influence Knowledge Management in Software Projects? – an Exploratory Study of Six Software Projects.” In Enterprise Modelling and Information Systems Architectures (EMISA ’09), 69-82. Ulm, Germany, 2009.

Architektur Grafischer Bedienoberflächen by Carsten Lucke

Book published by the VDM Verlag – Written by Carsten Lucke

When developing applications, about 50% of the total development costs are spent for the graphical user interface (GUI). For “GUI-heavy” applications this percentage is even higher. Working without a proper plan and a well structured software architecture is dangerous and can lead to immense costs and applications that are hard to maintain.

Description. My former diploma thesis which I wrote at the Capgemini sd&m AG in Munich, Germany has been published as a book by the Verlag Dr. Müller (VDM). It is titled “Architektur Grafischer Bedienoberflächen”. In English this title could be translated to something like “Graphical User Interface (GUI) architecture”.

Topics covered are:

• Introduction to GUI client architecture and explanation why a plain 3-tier architecture is often not sufficient for complex applications
• Introduction to the QUASAR client-architecture (web- and native-clients) using Swing and JavaServer Faces with building blocks of components needed for complex client applications
• Creation of a component-driven framework that allows to develop multi-channel GUI-clients which support re-use of for instance business logic in clients developed for different channels
• Presentation of problems commonly faced when developing web clients and solutions on how to solve them. These solutions are built into the QUASAR client framework.

Language. German

Pages. 160

Links:

• The official book website
• VDM Verlag website
• Capgemini sd&m AG website
• The book at Amazon.de

German PHP Magazine - issue 6.08

Published in PHP Magazin 6.08 by Carsten Lucke

The adoption of caching techniques allows to increase an applications performance significantly. Especially complex and time consuming operations can benefit from using a cache.

Description. My latest article titled “Daten auf Vorrat” has been published in the 6.08 issue of the German PHP Magazine. It gives an introduction to the caching library Zend_Cache that comes with the Zend Framework. Topics covered are:

• Basic knowledge about caching
• Introduction the Zend_Cache components basic API
• Introduction to Zend_Cache backends and frontend, what these are and which are available

Language. German

Characters. 22743

Links:

• German PHP Magazin website
• Zend Framework website
• Read the online version of this article

German PHP Magazine - Issue 5.08

Published in PHP Magazin 5.08 by Carsten Lucke

Programming desktop applications in PHP? Yes, that’s possible. Usually the PHP-GTK extension to accomplish this task. GTK is available for a lot of operating systems and thus quite portable. However, GTK applications often have a different look that distinguishes them from native applications. For Mac OS X the PHP/Objective-C bridge allows the creating of applications in the usual OS X look and feel. This article explains how to use the bridge.

Description. My new article with the title “Brückenschlag” has been published in issue 5.08 of the German PHP Magazine. It provides an introduction to the new PHP/Objective-C bridge extension developed by Wez Furlong. The bridge enables you to write Mac OS X applications using PHP as programming language.

Language. German

Characters. 21443

Links:

• German PHP Magazin website
• Blog entry by Wez Furlong introducing the PHP/Objective-C bridge

PHP Solutions Magazine - May 2008 issue

Published in PHP Solutions magazine by Matthias Brusdeylins and Carsten Lucke

After an extensive beta-test Zend went public early this year with the final version of Zend Studio for Eclipse (ZSfE). The most important functions – besides the IDE being based on the Eclipse platform – are code generation abilities, refactoring, debugging and profiling and unit-testing support. Zend calls it the most powerful PHP IDE available on the market. This article discovers the new IDE and evaluated the pros and cons.

Description. This article gives an experience report about the new Zend Studio IDE. It presents an overview about the new features. The most important topics covered are:

• The brilliant Integration of the PHP debugger into the ZSfE
• The profiling abilities
• PHP-Unit-Testing
• The new PHP code formatting and generation features

Language. German

Characters. 31377

Links:

• phpsolutions magazine website
• Zend Studio website

T3N Magazine #11 - Cover Photo

Published in T3N Magazin #11 by Carsten Lucke

Zend describes themselves as “The PHP company”. For a while now, they offer the Zend Framework – a PHP application framework – and call it “the leading open-source PHP framework”. The hype around this framework has increased significantly since it was published for the first time. This article gives an introduction to the framework and its basic principles.

Description. I wrote an introductory article on the Zend Framework for the german t3n-Magazin. It is published in issue #11 and covers all the stuff you should know, to get started with the Zend Framework:

• Basic knowledge about the request processing lifecycle
• Basic knowledge about the Controller/Action pattern applied in the Zend Framework
• Introduction the the MVC-Conponents
• Introduction to renderers, helpers, etc.

Language. German

Characters. 21500

Links:

• T3N Magazin website
• Zend Framework website
• Online version of the article

Google didn’t help much or at least I didn’t find anything useful. After some trial-and-error research with the configuration switches I found out that the ‘-s’ switch was responsible for the problems. Here’s what the documentation says about it:

‘-s’: The “waReZ protection”. Don’t allow anonymous users to download files owned by “ftp” (generally, files uploaded by other anonymous users) . So that uploads have to be validated by a system administrator (chown to another user) before being available for download.

Obviously the server was looking for a system-account (ftp) that didn’t exist, which is hardly suprising as I use other accounts for ftp-ing. I didn’t find any hints on configuring the account-id Pure-FTPd expects. This anti-warez thingy being just a switch, there seems to be no solution apart from creating the ‘ftp’ account. Thus I finally disabled the anti-warez feature. Maybe someone has the same problem and finds this post useful.

Approx. one year ago I tried to get a remote-debugging environment using PHPEclipse together with DBG. That was a PITA to set up and once it worked it was just awfully unstable. I figured out that the PHPEclipse people were developing a plugin to use XDebug but there didn’t seem to be much progress. So I stopped my efforts on free remote-debugging. Some weeks ago XDebug2 was released and I decided to give the remote-debugging thing one more shot. I tried PDT + XDebug2 and guess what – it worked out fine!

First of all you need a PHP installation with XDebug2. If you don’t have it installed yet (shame on you ), you can find instructions here. Your next step should be getting PDT. I tried the latest integration build. Additionally you need some plugins for XDebug-support that are only available from the PDT bugzilla:

• Prebuilt Binary of XDebug Support for V0.2.3 for PDT 1.0 I20070712
• Example Mapper V0.0.2 for XDebug 0.2.3

Once you have all that installed you can create a PHP-project in your PDT-eclipse and configure the environment (XDebug2 and PDT) for debugging. Daniel Holmström published a really good guide on how to install and set up everything in detail. If you follow his instructions you should have everything up and running within half an hour. After that you will be able to enjoy local- and remote-debugging of your PHP-scripts.

PHP-Magazin 4.07 - PHP und TextMate

It’s been a while since my last article but finally I had some time and managed to write for the german PHP-Magazin, again. To my surprise my article was even chosen as cover-topic. Yippieh! I wrote about PHP- and web-development on Mac OS X using TextMate.

Published in PHP Magazin 4.07 by Carsten Lucke

TextMate brings Apple’s approach to operating systems into the world of text editors. By bridging UNIX underpinnings and GUI, TextMate cherry-picks the best of both worlds to the benefit of expert scripters and novice users alike. (macromates.com)

Description. TextMate is a very popular editor these days and not without reason! I used the first part of the article to introduce the reader to the command-line abilities and the main editing features. The second part covers the bundle-concept. Here I introduced the PHP-bundle and explained how to use TextMate as a powerful PHP-editor.

If you are a subscriber of the PHP-Magazin go out and look at your mailbox! My issue arrived today. If you aren’t you will have to wait until May 16th, till the magazin hits the shelves.

Language. German

Characters. 25734

Links:

• German PHP Magazine website
• Official TextMate website

Beolingus dashboard widget

Some of you supposedly know about Leo, the online-translation service founded by some students of the TU München. Another nice translation-service is Beolingus provided by the TU Chemnitz. I already had the dashboard-widget for Leo installed on my Mac. However, I was disappointed to find out there was no such thing for Beolingus. Disappointed enough to build one on my own. You can find some details here or also directly download it here. The widget allows to enter the term to be translated and shows you the results in your browser.

The Apple developer howtos provide lots of information on how to create dashboard widgets. But luckily I didn’t have to read all that stuff because the folks at Apple provide an IDE named Dashcode that is pretty much straightforward. It aids you in editing widget meta information, craeting a preview image, etc. All you have to know is how to use JavaScript and some HTML and CSS. Ok, you need to lookup some API to find out about how to persistently store widget properties, etc. But after all, developing a simple widget like that is pretty easy. Nice!

Honored by the VDI for an outstanding final study degree

At the annual members meeting 2007 of the Verein Deutscher Ingenieure Berlin/Brandenburg (VDI) me and other fantastic graduates got honored for an outstanding final study degree.

Links:

• My former blog-post on being honored as the best graduate in computer science in 2006 at the University of Applied Science Brandenburg, Germany

PHP Programming with PEAR

Packt Publishings PEAR book (PHP Programming with PEAR) has finally been published.

PEAR is the PHP Extension and Application Repository, and is a framework and distribution system for reusable, high-quality PHP components, available in the form of “packages”.

I co-authored this book together with my very good friend Stephan Schmidt, and Stoyan Stefanov and Aaron Wormus.

In this book, you will learn how to use a number of the most powerful PEAR packages available to boost your PHP development productivity. By focusing on these packages for key development activities, this book is an in-depth guide to getting the most from these powerful coding resources.

You will become a master of various PEAR packages that help you with the essential tasks of PHP development such as:

• Accessing databases with MDB2
• Displaying data in a range of formats (HTML, Excel spreadsheet, PDF)
• Creating and parsing XML documents
• Serializing PHP objects into XML, and unserializing XML documents to PHP objects
• Consuming and offering web services
• Accessing Web APIs including Google, Yahoo, Amazon, and Technorati

Links:

• Book website at Packt Publishing

University of Applied Sciences Brandenburg - Best graduates of the class of 2001

At the new students matriculation event I got honored as best student of the class of 2001 in computer science at the University of Applied Sciences Brandenburg, Germany.

Links:

• The university’s official news bulletin