The is-a relationship among actors has been introduced since the very beginning in the i* framework. However, the effect of this construct at the level of intentional elements and dependencies is not always completely determined. In this paper, we explore the semantics of inheritance in i* with focus on SR models. Aligning with its usual meaning in object-orientation, we distinguish 3 main notions to be defined: extension, refinement, and redefinition. For each of them, we have studied its effects on the different types of intentional elements and their links, and also dependencies, making explicit what can be and cannot be done. We have also analysed the proposal with an example that makes intensive use of inheritance, a multi-stakeholder distributed system in which different types of related stakeholders co-exist.

Peer Reviewed