A distance-based GRL approach to goal model refinement and alternative selection

Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) has been used widely to guide decision making in multi-attribute selection problems. Few studies have however proposed the use of combinations of MCDA approaches with goal-oriented modeling to rank design alternatives related to business process models. We propose a distance-based approach for models specified with the Goal-oriented Requirement Language (GRL) that guides the selection of alternatives, with a focus on business process integration. This approach, named DbGRL, exploits the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique and the Technique of Order Preference Similarity to the Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) for building and analyzing GRL models. DbGRL provides stakeholders/decision-makers with insights into the changes needed in the GRL model or related (process) models to achieve desired outcomes. It also identifies ideal and anti-ideal points used to investigate how close or how far the alternatives are from those points. This paper presents DbGRL and its usage with a simple but realistic healthcare-related example where results are promising. DbGRL's expected benefits and limitations are also discussed.