A Usage-Based Unified Resource Model

Most of the time engineering methodologies focus on the modeling of functional and non-functional requirements of the system-to-be with no or poor representation of resource elements. Resources are nevertheless central in most industrial domains and do have an important impact onto the performance and feasability of software requirements. That is why we propose, in this paper, an ontology for resource representation centered on its Usage i.e., the concepts of functionality for Resource Objects and competency for Resource Agents. This ontology does not tackle the particular problem of service level agreement which is a complementary dimension but rather focuses on how resources can be represented and handled at runtime. Heterogeneous resources can thus be represented in a unified manner within the context of “resource-intensive” domains where information systems are developed. Moreover, it could also be used to develop a specific heterogeneous monitoring system with, for instance, the agent technology so that it acts for interoperability purposes. The ontology proposal is applied on a case study in the industrial context of a steel industry, namely CARSID where lots of resources are collaborating to achieve defined services. The purpose is to show the applicability of the ontology in an industrial context where resources play a central role for the information system.