Alternative Process Notations for Mobile Information Systems

Model-based requirements specifications may be performed using a wide variety of notations, emphasizing different standards and information needs. Most of these notations have been developed with more traditional information systems development in mind, not specifically for mobile information systems. While many of the same modelling approaches will be relevant for mobile information systems, too, there are reasons to believe that the modelling needs in that domain might be somewhat different. In particular, the location and context of an information processing activity will be less fixed than for a desktop-based system, and this may also cause a bigger need for modeling this location and context. This paper explores some alternative notation variants for UML activity diagrams to address these needs. Some notations are proposed and compared, using a case study from the home care domain.