Towards a Benchmark for E-Contract Checking and Monitoring

One good quantitative means of gauging research progress is through like-forlike comparative evaluation of software implementations and algorithms. However, a notable omission from the work in the new field of electronic contracting, is a standard means of evaluating performance of the components used for contract consistency-checking and monitoring, against earlier approaches. In this paper we propose a benchmark for assessing the efficiency of such components. We define a replicable experimental framework and use it to test a basic but expressive contract assessment prototype, EDEE. EDEE’s execution metrics set the bar for other contract assessment approaches. We hope that this experimental framework will stimulate researchers in the e-contracting community to develop competing data models and algorithms and raise the bar for time and space efficiency of contract checking and monitoring software.