Technical appraisal

In this sub-section we describe the approach to technical appraisal based on model –  driven analysis, addressing scenarios. This is partly motivated by the definitions used in the approach to modelling digital ecosystems.

For the purposes of the discussion, a digital ecosystem can be viewed as a software-based artwork or a set of scientific experiments, together with their surrounding environment. An entity is a single element within that ecosystem such as a piece of software, a file or a display device. We define two types of risks.

A primary risk is a potential change to an entity arising through a stimulus that is external to the ecosystem.

A secondary (or higher-order) risk is a risk to an entity as a result of a potential change to another entity on which it has a dependency.

Projects such as PLANETS [Aitken et al, (2008)] used a so-called technology watch to detect changes in the external environment, which could then result in changes to archived content.

A model-driven approach such as the one adopted by PERICLES uses instead probabilistic models to model risks and predict the impact of potential changes to determine mitigating actions.

In such approach the main aims are:

  •        to quantify primary risks to the ecosystem
  •        to model the impact of primary risks on entities in the ecosystem.
  •        to model the impact resulting from higher-order risks through ecosystem models.
  •        to determine the mitigating actions with the least overall cost.

The overall approach to technical appraisal can be summarised in the flowchart below (Fig.1).  Requirements for external information are shown in green arrow boxes.

Technical appraisal workflow

Fig: 1 Technical appraisal workflow