Documenting the decision structure in software development

Current software development paradigms focus on the products of the development process. Much of the decision making process which produces these products is outside the scope of these paradigms. The Decision-Based Software Development (DBSD) paradigm views the design process as a series of interrelated decisions which involve the identification and articulation of problems, alternates, solutions and justifications. Decisions made by programmers and analysts are recorded in a project data base. Unresolved problems are also recorded and resources for their resolution are allocated by management according to the overall development strategy. This decision structure is linked to the products affected by the relevant decision and provides a process oriented view of the resulted system. Software maintenance uses this decision view of the system to understand the rationale behind the decisions affecting the part of the system to be modified. D-HyperCase, a prototype Decision-Based Hypermedia System is described and results of applying the DBSD approach during its development are presented

The Application Of Object-oriented Techniques To Preliminary Design Problems

Preliminary structural design is an early stage in building design during which the engineer formulates and assesses a number of different structural schemes. It is conceptual in nature and involves decision making, which relies on heuristics. Whilst preliminary structural design has not been well supported by PC software, recent research has indicated the potential for knowledge-based, object-oriented systems to assist in the area. This thesis explores the issues that arise when object-oriented techniques arc used to develop knowledge-based software. lt reviews certain basic principles of structural design, methods of representing structural design knowledge and earlier approaches to the design of software to support preliminary structural design. The thesis describes how the writer created a software development methodology to apply object-oriented analysis and design techniques. It then describes the use of this methodology to develop a system for preliminary structural design, including the drafting of requirements, the creation of an object model for these requirements and their implementation in Kappa-PC software. The thesis proposes an approach to the development of Software to support preliminary design in buildings and has demonstrated this approach in a prototype design tool. It has also described some of the difficulties hindering the effective application of the object-oriented methods

Information System Product Development by Integration of Kano\u27s Customer Satisfaction Model with Quality Function Deployment

Product development of complex, innovative information technology related systems presents difficult challenges for technology managers, and new product failures are a significant problem. The main reason for this is insufficient decision-making due to the lack of a customer-oriented product development process in the information system (IS) companies, which is often related to deficiencies in cooperation between R&D and marketing departments. Integrating consumer requirements into the product design phase is an important factor for improving market success. Therefore, a product development decision model is needed for the managers of information system companies to make more accurate decisions about the characteristics of the new products that meet customer needs. This research examines various decision models for IS product design and concludes that an integrated approach including Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Kano\u27s customer satisfaction model is the most useful one for the new product development problems of the IS industry. For this reason, it creates a unique methodology to develop a combined model specifically for IS design by providing critical differences and improvements in this research area: Integration of Kano\u27s model into QFD. Then, it successfully tests this methodology on an information system product development case that presents an excellent example of information systems: A NASA problem on new general aviation (GA) cockpit weather information system development. Consequently, this research provides a unique, useful and valid decision model to prevent the IS product development failures, and successfully demonstrates the model on a relevant problem

Analisis Sistem Informasi Manajemen Keluarga Miskin (SIMGAKIN) dalam Proses Pengambilan Keputusan Kebijakan Dinas Pendidikan dengan Kegiatan Pemberian Fasilitasi Sumbangan Pembinaan Pendidikan (SPP) Siswa Miskin yang Bersekolah Swasta di Kota Semarang

The analysis of management information System Poor Family (SIMGAKIN) is one form of utilization of electronic governance. The application of SIMGAKIN in Local Development Planning Agency (Bappeda) at Semarang city, needed budgets, facilities and infrastructure/availability of technology, human resource management, and integration among other institution. Departement of Education is one user of SIMGAKIN for decision-making process. Research methodology descriptive with a qualitative approach used in this research to identify the development of SIMGAKIN and decision-making process. The result of the research showed that influence the stage of decision making in the implementation of activities by giving SPP facilities to needy students, related to the management of SIMGAKIN, that is oriented to decision, availability of technology, human resource management, communication systems, and integration, while in the decision-making is comprehension, planning or design, and selection. Oriented to decision of the SIMGAKIN, have been applied poor data collection service that's fast and accurate. Availability of technology to apply database, hardware, software, branware is still inadequate. In the implementation of SIMGAKIN Has been applied Training and development in accordance with the main main task and fungtion employees. Comunication system has been well-executed. Integration of BAPPEDA with other institutions, can be seen from the cooperation and planning programmed. Therefore comprehension, planning or design, and selection has been exploit the SIMGAKIN but still uses a long of activities. Based on the result this research recommends, need to be improve of poor data collection. Need to be improved SIMGAKIN application. Improving the quality and quantity of employees. Decision making by the selection new activities to maximize the fungtion and role of SIMGAKIN

An Experiment to Apply Some Substance-Theories to the Development of an ODSS in a Small Company

The focus of this research is on the appropriateness of the Substance-Theory-Oriented approach to the implementation of an Organizational Decision Support Systems in a small company. An ODSS is a general-purpose, multiple-user, large-scale system that has a relatively definite, continuous and organized position in the planning and decision making processes of an organization and which are designed for a variety of organizational decisions. We constructively show by means of a real case how the substance theories can be used to determine the actual contents of an ODSS. We have tested design guidelines and implementation strategies that can be exploited in small business companies in general. The main idea of the proposed approach is that the managerial substance-theories should be utilized at each phase of the development process, beginning from the initial problem review and ending with the use and the evolution of the developed system. It is assumed that only these theories can direct the design and development process in the right direction and carry appropriate information and knowledge into the organization. By applying the proposed approach small companies are able to decide the contents of an ODSS, manage the development process, increase their managerial knowledge, and finally, make more structured and better decisions

A Socio-technical Approach to Designing and Evaluating Industry Oriented Applications

Over the past few years many views have emerged that maximize the utilization of design research in Information Systems (IS) application development. A recent insightful debate in the IS community has suggested two major design views in IS research: a) a pragmatic technical artifact orientation, and b) a theory-grounded user and meta-artifact focus. The first (pragmatic design-based) view focuses on explicit knowledge and on a step-by-step methodology for innovative artifact design and building. The second (theory-grounded) view more broadly emphasizes meta-artifact design in IS development and a more prescriptive guidance approach that is grounded in design research. The debate between these two views leads to the question: which method is more suitable for Decision Support System (DSS) design? In extending the debate on design views in IS research, this paper evaluates a DSS application through both the utility of the pragmatic and the socio-technical design research views. This helps create a methodological foundation for industry-oriented DSS design and evaluation. The findings suggest that both positions have merit, but the latter view of design science is more suitable for industry-oriented DSS design

"Field Manager" Application Package

One of the important problems in the development of Decision Support Systems regards the issue of designing and implementation of man-machine interface. Importance of this component of the DSS follows from the fact that the end-user is usually not a computer specialist and, therefore, even the most useful decision-theoretic framework will be rejected if communication with the computer is too difficult for him. From the other side, design and implementation of user interface requires a lot of experience from the system designer, big resources for programming and a long time for for debugging and coding. Therefore, every attempt to simplify this aspect of DSS design and development is important. In this paper the software package Field Manager is presented. This package allows easy and quick development of user interfaces. The design is based on two novel ideas in the field of software management -- the abstract data type approach and object-oriented software specification. The package has been applied in several practical applications and the collected experience has shown its effectiveness and simplicity

A Multidimensional and Visual Exploration Approach to Project Portfolio Management

Managing projects in an organization, especially a project-oriented organization, is a challenging task. Project data has a large volume and is complex to manage. It is different from managing a single project, because one needs to integrate and synthesize information from multiple projects and multiple perspectives for high-level strategic business decisions, such as aligning projects with business objectives, balancing investment and expected return, and allocating resources. Current methods and tools either do not well integrate multiple aspects or are not intuitive and easy to use for managers and executives. In this dissertation project, a multidimensional and visual exploration approach was designed and evaluated to provide a unique and intuitive option to support decision making in project portfolio management. The research followed a general design science research methodology involving phases of awareness of problem, suggestion, development, evaluation and conclusion. The approach was implemented into a software system using a prototyping method and was evaluated through user interviews. The evaluation result demonstrates the utility and ease-of-use of the approach, and confirms design objectives. The research brings a new perspective and provides a new decision support tool for project portfolio management. It also contributes to the design knowledge of visual exploration systems for business portfolio management by theorizing the system

National freight transport planning: towards a Strategic Planning Extranet Decision Support System (SPEDSS)

This thesis provides a `proof-of-concept' prototype and a design architecture for a Object Oriented (00) database towards the development of a Decision Support System (DSS) for the national freight transport planning problem. Both governments and industry require a Strategic Planning Extranet Decision Support System (SPEDSS) for their effective management of the national Freight Transport Networks (FTN). This thesis addresses the three key problems for the development of a SPEDSS to facilitate national strategic freight planning: 1) scope and scale of data available and required; 2) scope and scale of existing models; and 3) construction of the software. The research approach taken embodies systems thinking and includes the use of: Object Oriented Analysis and Design (OOA/D) for problem encapsulation and database design; artificial neural network (and proposed rule extraction) for knowledge acquisition of the United States FTN data set; and an iterative Object Oriented (00) software design for the development of a `proof-of-concept' prototype. The research findings demonstrate that an 00 approach along with the use of 00 methodologies and technologies coupled with artificial neural networks (ANNs) offers a robust and flexible methodology for the analysis of the FTN problem domain and the design architecture of an Extranet based SPEDSS. The objectives of this research were to: 1) identify and analyse current problems and proposed solutions facing industry and governments in strategic transportation planning; 2) determine the functional requirements of an FTN SPEDSS; 3) perform a feasibility analysis for building a FTN SPEDSS `proof-of-concept' prototype and (00) database design; 4) develop a methodology for a national `internet-enabled' SPEDSS model and database; 5) construct a `proof-of-concept' prototype for a SPEDSS encapsulating identified user requirements; 6) develop a methodology to resolve the issue of the scale of data and data knowledge acquisition which would act as the `intelligence' within a SPDSS; 7) implement the data methodology using Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) towards the validation of it; and 8) make recommendations for national freight transportation strategic planning and further research required to fulfil the needs of governments and industry. This thesis includes: an 00 database design for encapsulation of the FTN; an `internet-enabled' Dynamic Modelling Methodology (DMM) for the virtual modelling of the FTNs; a Unified Modelling Language (UML) `proof-of-concept' prototype; and conclusions and recommendations for further collaborative research are identified

Agent-based hybrid framework for decision making on complex problems

Electronic commerce and the Internet have created demand for automated systems that can make complex decisions utilizing information from multiple sources. Because the information is uncertain, dynamic, distributed, and heterogeneous in nature, these systems require a great diversity of intelligent techniques including expert systems, fuzzy logic, neural networks, and genetic algorithms. However, in complex decision making, many different components or sub-tasks are involved, each of which requires different types of processing. Thus multiple such techniques are required resulting in systems called hybrid intelligent systems. That is, hybrid solutions are crucial for complex problem solving and decision making. There is a growing demand for these systems in many areas including financial investment planning, engineering design, medical diagnosis, and cognitive simulation. However, the design and development of these systems is difficult because they have a large number of parts or components that have many interactions. From a multi-agent perspective, agents in multi-agent systems (MAS) are autonomous and can engage in flexible, high-level interactions. MASs are good at complex, dynamic interactions. Thus a multi-agent perspective is suitable for modeling, design, and construction of hybrid intelligent systems. The aim of this thesis is to develop an agent-based framework for constructing hybrid intelligent systems which are mainly used for complex problem solving and decision making. Existing software development techniques (typically, object-oriented) are inadequate for modeling agent-based hybrid intelligent systems. There is a fundamental mismatch between the concepts used by object-oriented developers and the agent-oriented view. Although there are some agent-oriented methodologies such as the Gaia methodology, there is still no specifically tailored methodology available for analyzing and designing agent-based hybrid intelligent systems. To this end, a methodology is proposed, which is specifically tailored to the analysis and design of agent-based hybrid intelligent systems. The methodology consists of six models - role model, interaction model, agent model, skill model, knowledge model, and organizational model. This methodology differs from other agent-oriented methodologies in its skill and knowledge models. As good decisions and problem solutions are mainly based on adequate information, rich knowledge, and appropriate skills to use knowledge and information, these two models are of paramount importance in modeling complex problem solving and decision making. Follow the methodology, an agent-based framework for hybrid intelligent system construction used in complex problem solving and decision making was developed. The framework has several crucial characteristics that differentiate this research from others. Four important issues relating to the framework are also investigated. These cover the building of an ontology for financial investment, matchmaking in middle agents, reasoning in problem solving and decision making, and decision aggregation in MASs. The thesis demonstrates how to build a domain-specific ontology and how to access it in a MAS by building a financial ontology. It is argued that the practical performance of service provider agents has a significant impact on the matchmaking outcomes of middle agents. It is proposed to consider service provider agents\u27 track records in matchmaking. A way to provide initial values for the track records of service provider agents is also suggested. The concept of ‘reasoning with multimedia information’ is introduced, and reasoning with still image information using symbolic projection theory is proposed. How to choose suitable aggregation operations is demonstrated through financial investment application and three approaches are proposed - the stationary agent approach, the token-passing approach, and the mobile agent approach to implementing decision aggregation in MASs. Based on the framework, a prototype was built and applied to financial investment planning. This prototype consists of one serving agent, one interface agent, one decision aggregation agent, one planning agent, four decision making agents, and five service provider agents. Experiments were conducted on the prototype. The experimental results show the framework is flexible, robust, and fully workable. All agents derived from the methodology exhibit their behaviors correctly as specified