Several notations have been proposed in the last decades to support information system architecting, design and implementation. Although some of them have been widely adopted, their practical application remains cumbersome. Reasons are manifold: ambiguous semantics, confusing graphical representation, lack of safe guidelines, etc. In this paper, we explored the use of the i* framework in industry for modeling organizational context. We review the models resulting from 36 industrial collaborations conducted in the last five years, where i* has been intensively used by novice modellers, without previous exposure to i*, acting as junior consultants in the organizations. We identify and categorize the main problems that they faced and as a result, we propose a set of guidelines to improve the adoption and practical application of the framework.

Peer Reviewed