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104 GIORGINI, KOLP, AND MYLOPOULOS
Figure 7.3 Means–Ends Analysis for the Softgoal Increase Market Share

Accounting
Telecom Communication Process
Bank Cpy Cpy Services Medi@ Internet
Increase Orders
Market Share

Run
Shop
Buy Media Handle OrderBy
Items Billing Internet
Run Shop
Media OrderBy
Handle
Customer Shop Customer Phone
Improve
Service Orders
Manage
Staff Select
OrderIn Items
Happy Staff Manage Person
Customers Training Inventory
Be Friendly
Determine
Satisfy Amount
Media Customer
Enhance
Consult
Supplier Desires Sell Stock Catalogue Catalogue
Media
Items
Continuing
Business
Depender X Dependee Actor
Dependency Goal Task
Continuing Decomposition link Means-ends link
Supply Legend Ressource Softgoal Actor Boundary

Shop expects Medi@ to be easily adaptable (e.g., catalogue enhancing, item database evolution,
user interface update, etc.). Finally, Medi@ relies on Internet services provided by Telecom Cpy
and on secure online financial transactions handled by Bank Cpy.
Although an actor diagram provides hints about why processes are structured in a certain way,
it does not sufficiently support the process of suggesting, exploring, and evaluating alternative
solutions. As late requirements analysis proceeds, Medi@ is given additional responsibilities
and ends up as the dependee of several dependencies. Moreover, the system is decomposed into
several subactors, which take on some of these responsibilities. This decomposition and respon-
sibility assignment is realized using the same kind of means–ends analysis as that illustrated in
Figure 7.3. Hence, the analysis in Figure 7.5 focuses on the system itself, instead of an external
stakeholder.
Figure 7.5 postulates a root task Internet Shop Managed providing sufficient support (++)
(Chung et al., 2000) to the softgoal Increase Market Share. That task is first refined into goals
Internet Orders Handled and Item Searching Handled, softgoals Attract New Customer, Secure,
and Available, and tasks Produce Statistics and Adaptation. To manage Internet orders, Internet
Orders Handled is achieved through the task Shopping Cart, which is decomposed into subtasks