We introduce a basic model for contracts. Our model extends event structures with a new relation, which faithfully captures the circular dependencies among contract clauses. We establish whether an agreement exists which respects all the contracts at hand (i.e. all the dependencies can be resolved), and we detect the obligations of each participant. The main technical contribution is a correspo...

In this article we present a model for multiparty contracts in which contract conformance is defined abstractly as a property on traces. A key feature of our model is blame assignment, which means that for a given contract, every breach is attributed to a set of parties. We show that blame assignment is compositional by defining contract conjunction and contract disjunction. Moreover, to specif...

In recent years, the performance-based approach to contracting for medical services has been gaining popularity across different healthcare delivery systems, both in the United States (under the name of “pay for performance”) and abroad (“payment by results” in the United Kingdom). The goal of our research is to build a unified performance-based contracting (PBC) framework that incorporates pat...

Visual contracts provide a concise and intuitive representation of preand postconditions for operations in object-oriented or component-based systems, which can be used for documentation, testing, or simulation. However, defining visual contracts to correctly describe the behaviour of existing classes or components requires a deep understanding of their data model and behaviour. We propose an a...

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Grid computing platforms require automated and distributed resource allocation with controllable quality-of-service (QoS). Market-based allocation provides these features using the complementary abstractions of proportional shares and reservations. This paper analyzes a hybrid resource allocation system using both proportional shares and reservations. We also examine the use of price prediction...

Some manufacturers impose a time-based contract on their suppliers under which each supplier is paid only when all of the suppliers have completed their tasks. We investigate whether or not the manufacturer ought to demand such a delayed payment contract. In our model with one manufacturer and two suppliers, we compare the impact of both a delayed payment regime and a no delayed payment regime ...