Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Using i*-Based Organizational Modeling to Support Blockchain-Oriented Software Engineering: Case Study in Supply Chain Management

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Research and Innovation Forum 2020 (RIIFORUM 2020)

Part of the book series: Springer Proceedings in Complexity ((SPCOM))

Included in the following conference series:

Abstract

Popularized by the rise of cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology has been gaining an increasing exposure. The potential of the distributed ledger lies in decentralization and immutable information. It promises complete transparency and a unique source of truth. In this article, a blockchain project is considered from a business and social perspective rather than from a technical one. More precisely, the focus is on understanding, from a functional analyst perspective, how the technology can fit the adopting organization’s supply chain. More specifically, the i* organizational modeling framework is proposed to depict the interactions between involved actors and the roles of the multiple stakeholders of a blockchain. i* allows to identify the relations and goals within the actors of a complex network at early and late stages of the blockchain’s adoption. The applicability and advantages/limitations of i* to the organization of blockchain projects is tested through a case study of a food retail group who is adopting the distributed ledger for Supply Chain Management (SCM).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    The case study is a supermarket chain active in Belgium but for confidentiality reasons its real name has been changed.

References

  1. G. Blossey, J. Eisenhardt, G. Hahn, Blockchain technology in supply chain management: An application perspective, in Proceedings of the 52nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  2. B. Carminati, Merkle trees, in Encyclopedia of Database Systems, ed. by L. Liy, M.T. ÖZsu (Springer US, 2009), pp. 1714–1715

    Google Scholar 

  3. P. Chakraborty, R. Shahriyar, A. Iqbal, A. Bosu, Understanding the software development practices of blockchain projects: A survey, in Proceedings of the 12th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement, pp. 1–10 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  4. K. Charmaz Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis (Sage, 2006)

    Google Scholar 

  5. L. Chung, B.A. Nixon, E. Yu, J. Mylopoulos, Non-Functional Requirements in Software Engineering, International Series in Software Engineering, vol. 5 (Springer, Berlin, 2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5269-7

  6. M. Dabbagh, M. Sookhak, N.S. Safa, The evolution of blockchain: A bibliometric study. IEEE Access 7, 19212–19221 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. G. Destefanis, M. Marchesi, M. Ortu, R. Tonelli, A. Bracciali, R. Hierons, Smart contracts vulnerabilities: A call for blockchain software engineering? in 2018 International Workshop on Blockchain Oriented Software Engineering (IWBOSE) (IEEE, New York, 2018), pp. 19–25

    Google Scholar 

  8. F. Duchmann, A. Koschmider, Validation of smart contracts using process mining. ZEUS. CEUR Workshop Proc. 2339, 13–16 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  9. S. Eric, P. Giorgini, N. Maiden, J. Mylopoulos Social Modeling for Requirements Engineering (MIT Press, 2011)

    Google Scholar 

  10. P. Forte, D. Romano, G. Schmid, Beyond bitcoin-part I: A critical look at blockchain-based systems. IACR Cryptol. ePrint Archive 2015, 1164 (2015)

    Google Scholar 

  11. M. Garriga, M. Arias, A. De Renzis, Blockchain and cryptocurrency: A comparative framework of the main architectural drivers. arXiv preprint arXiv:1812.08806 (2018)

  12. H. Halpin, M. Piekarska, Introduction to security and privacy on the blockchain, in 2017 IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops (EuroS&PW) (IEEE, New York, 2017), pp. 1–3

    Google Scholar 

  13. Y. He, H. Li, X. Cheng, Y. Liu, C. Yang, L. Sun, A blockchain based truthful incentive mechanism for distributed p2p applications. IEEE Access 6, 27324–27335 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Z. Hintzman, Comparing blockchain implementations-NCTA technical papers, in 2017 Fall Technical Forum SCTE-ISBE (NCTA, CABLELABS, 2017)

    Google Scholar 

  15. M. Kolp, Y. Wautelet, S. Faulkner, Sociocentric design of multi-agent architectures, in Social Modeling for Requirements Engineering, ed. by Yu, E., Giorgini, P., Maiden, N., Mylopoulos, J. (MIT Press, 2011)

    Google Scholar 

  16. M. Kolp, S. Faulkner, Y. Wautelet, Social structure based design patterns for agent-oriented software engineering. IJIIT 4(2), 1–23 (2008). https://doi.org/10.4018/jiit.2008040101

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. M. Kolp, Y. Wautelet, Human organizational patterns applied to collaborative learning software systems. Comput. Human Behavior 51, 742–751 (2015)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. M. Kolp, Y. Wautelet, DesCARTES architect: design CASE tool for agent-oriented repositories, techniques, environments and systems. Louvain School of Management, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Descartes Case Tool (2020). https://www.isys.ucl.ac.be/descartes/

  19. J. de Kruijff, H. Weigand, An introduction to commitment based smart contracts using reaction ruleML, in VMBO, pp. 149–157 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  20. N. Kshetri, 1 blockchain’s roles in meeting key supply chain management objectives. Int. J. Inf. Manage. 39, 80–89 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. I. Makhdoom, M. Abolhasan, H. Abbas, W. Ni, Blockchain’s adoption in IoT: The challenges, and a way forward. J. Network Comput. Appl. 125, 251–279 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. D. Mao, Z. Hao, F. Wang, H. Li, Innovative blockchain-based approach for sustainable and credible environment in food trade: A case study in Shandong Province. China. Sustainability 10(9), 3149 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. R.C. Merkle, A digital signature based on a conventional encryption function, in Advances in Cryptology - CRYPTO ’87, ed. by C. Pomerance (Springer, Berlin, 1988), pp. 369–378

    Google Scholar 

  24. OMG: Business process model and notation (BPMN). Version 2.0.1. Tech. rep., Object Management Group (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  25. M. Pilkington, Blockchain technology: Principles and applications, in Research Handbook on Digital Transformations (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016)

    Google Scholar 

  26. M.M. Queiroz, S.F. Wamba, Blockchain adoption challenges in supply chain: An empirical investigation of the main drivers in India and the USA. Int. J. Inf. Manage. 46, 70–82 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. F. Renkes, C. Sommer, Blockchain in the context of business applications and enterprise databases. BTW 2019, (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  28. J. van Rossum, The blockchain and its potential for science and academic publishing. Inf. Services & Use 38(1–2), 95–98 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. N. Szabo, Smart contracts: Building blocks for digital markets, extropy. Transhumanist Thought (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  30. D. Tapscott, A. Tapscott, Realizing the potential of blockchain. A multistakeholder approach to the stewardship of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, in World Economic Forum (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  31. M. Vukolić, Rethinking permissioned blockchains, in Proceedings of the ACM Workshop on Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies and Contracts, pp. 3–7 (2017)

    Google Scholar 

  32. Y. Wautelet, Representing, modeling and engineering a collaborative supply chain management platform. Int. J. Inf. Syst. Supply Chain Manage. (IJISSCM) 5(3), 1–23 (2012)

    Google Scholar 

  33. Y. Wautelet, A model-driven IT governance process based on the strategic impact evaluation of services. J. Syst. Softw. 149, 462–475 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2018.12.024

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Y. Wautelet, S. Heng, M. Kolp, L. Penserini, S. Poelmans, Designing an MOOC as an agent-platform aggregating heterogeneous virtual learning environments. Behaviour & Inf. Technol. 35(11), 980–997 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Y. Wautelet, M. Kolp, S. Heng, S. Poelmans, Developing a multi-agent platform supporting patient hospital stays following a socio-technical approach: Management and governance benefits. Telematics Informatics 35(4), 854–882 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Y. Wautelet, M. Kolp, L. Penserini, Service-driven iterative software project management with I-Tropos. J. UCS 24(7), 975–1011 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  37. G. Wood et al., Ethereum: A secure decentralised generalised transaction ledger. Ethereum Project Yellow Paper 151(2014), 1–32 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Yasmine Ben Hamadi

  2. HEC Liège, Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium

    Samedi Heng

  3. KU Leuven, Belgium

    Yves Wautelet

Authors
  1. Yasmine Ben Hamadi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Samedi Heng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Yves Wautelet
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yves Wautelet .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Research & Innovation Institute (Rii), Warsaw, Poland

    Anna Visvizi

  2. Effat University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Miltiadis D. Lytras

  3. Faculty of Computing and Information Technology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Naif R. Aljohani

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Hamadi, Y.B., Heng, S., Wautelet, Y. (2021). Using i*-Based Organizational Modeling to Support Blockchain-Oriented Software Engineering: Case Study in Supply Chain Management. In: Visvizi, A., Lytras, M.D., Aljohani, N.R. (eds) Research and Innovation Forum 2020. RIIFORUM 2020. Springer Proceedings in Complexity. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62066-0_38

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62066-0_38

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-62065-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-62066-0

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation