Designing communication-intensive web applications: experience and lessons from a real case

Who uses requirements engineering and design methodologies besides the people who invented them? Are researchers -at least- actually trying to use them in real-world complex projects and not in "paper project"? In this paper, we dare to recount the experience and the lessons we gained in trying to use seriously and in-depth a requirements engineering method (called AWARE) combined with a conceptual user-centered design method (called W2000) for the development of a real-world web application. The project is recounted through the process followed and the artefacts produced, as well as by crystallizing our experience in using and transferring the method to industry in practical and methodological recommendations.Facultad de Informátic

Goal-driven requirements analysis for hypermedia-intensive Web applications

Requirements analysis for Web applications still needs to employ effective RE practices to accommodate some distinctive aspects: capturing high-level communication goals, considering several user profiles, defining hypermedia-specific requirements, bridging the gap between requirements and Web design, and reusing requirements for an effective usability evaluation. Techniques should be usable, informal, require little training effort, and show relative advantage to project managers. On the basis of the i * framework, this paper presents a proposal for defining hypermedia requirements (concerning aspects such as content, interaction, navigation, and presentation) for Web applications. The model adopts a goal-driven approach coupled with scenario-based techniques, introduces a hypermedia requirement taxonomy to facilitate Web conceptual design, and paves the way for systematic usability evaluation. Particular attention is paid to the empirical validation of the model based on the perceived quality attributes theory. A case study developed with industrial partners is discusse

COBRA framework to evaluate e-government services: A citizen-centric perspective

E-government services involve many stakeholders who have different objectives that can have an impact on success. Among these stakeholders, citizens are the primary stakeholders of government activities. Accordingly, their satisfaction plays an important role in e-government success. Although several models have been proposed to assess the success of e-government services through measuring users' satisfaction levels, they fail to provide a comprehensive evaluation model. This study provides an insight and critical analysis of the extant literature to identify the most critical factors and their manifested variables for user satisfaction in the provision of e-government services. The various manifested variables are then grouped into a new quantitative analysis framework consisting of four main constructs: cost; benefit; risk and opportunity (COBRA) by analogy to the well-known SWOT qualitative analysis framework. The COBRA measurement scale is developed, tested, refined and validated on a sample group of e-government service users in Turkey. A structured equation model is used to establish relationships among the identified constructs, associated variables and users' satisfaction. The results confirm that COBRA framework is a useful approach for evaluating the success of e-government services from citizens' perspective and it can be generalised to other perspectives and measurement contexts. Crown Copyright © 2014.PIAP-GA-2008-230658) from the European Union Framework Program and another grant (NPRP 09-1023-5-158) from the Qatar National Research Fund (amember of Qatar Foundation

Mastering the requirements analysis for communication-intensive websites

Web application development still needs to employ effective methods to accommodate some distinctive aspects of the requirements analysis process: capturing high-level communication goals, considering several user profiles and stakeholders, defining hypermedia-specific requirements (concerning navigation, content, information structure and presentation aspects), and reusing requirements for an effective usability evaluation. Techniques should be usable by both stakeholders and the design team, require little training effort, and show relative advantage to project managers. Over the last few years, requirements methodologies applied to web-based applications have considered mainly the transactional and operational aspects typical of traditional information systems. The communicational aspects of web sites have been neglected in regards to systematic requirements methods. This thesis, starting from key achievements in Requirements Engineering (hereafter RE), introduces a model (AWARE) for defining and analyzing requirements for web applications mainly conceived as strategic communication means for an institution or organization. The model extends traditional goal and scenario-based approaches for refining highlevel goals into website requirements, by introducing the analysis of ill-defined user goals, stakeholder communication goals, and a hypermedia requirement taxonomy to facilitate web conceptual design, and paving the way for a systematic usability evaluation. AWARE comprises a conceptual toolkit and a notation for effective requirements documentation. AWARE concepts and notation represent a useful communication and analysis conceptual tool that may support in the elicitation, negotiation, analysis and validation of requirements from the relevant stakeholders (users included). The empirical validation of the model is carried out in two ways. Firstly, the model has been employed in web projects on the field. These case studies and the lessons learnt will be presented and discussed to assess advantages and limits of the proposal. Secondly, a sample of web analysts and designers has been asked to study and apply the model: the feedback gathered is positive and encouraging for further improvement.Lo sviluppo di applicazioni web necessita di strumenti efficaci per gestire alcuni aspetti essenziali del processo di analisi dei requisiti: l'identificazione di obiettivi di comunicazione strategici, la presenza di una varietà di profili utente e di stakeholders, le definizione di requisiti ipermediali (riguardanti navigazione, interazione, contenuto e presentazione), e il riuso dei requisiti per una pianificazione efficace della valutazione dell'usabilità. Sono necessarie tecniche usabili sia dagli stakeholders che dai progettisti, che richiedono un tempo breve per essere appresi ed usati con efficacia, mostrando vantaggi significativi ai gestori di progetti complessi. La tesi definisce AWARE (Analysis of Web Application Requirements) - una metodologia per l'analisi dei requisiti specifica per la gestione di siti web (ed applicazioni interattive) con forti componenti comunicative. La metodologia estende le tecniche esistenti dell''analisi dei requisiti basate su approcci goal-oriented e scenario-based, introducendo una tassonomia di requisiti specifica per siti web (che permette di dare un input strutturato all'attività di progetazione), strumenti per l'identificazione e l'analisi di obiettivi ill-defined (generici o mal-definiti) e di obiettivi comunicativi e supporto metodologico per la valutazione dell'usabilità basata sui requisiti dell'applicazione. La metodologia AWARE è stata valutata sul campo attraverso progetti con professionisti del settore (web designers e IT managers), e grazie ad interventi di formazione in aziende specializzate nella comunicazione su web

Requirements Engineering for Web Applications: A Comparative Study

The requirements engineering discipline has become more and more important in the last years. Tasks such as the requirements elicitation, the specification of requirements or the requirements validation are essential to assure the quality of the resulting software. The development of Web systems usually involves more heterogeneous stakeholders than the construction of traditional software. In addition, Web systems have additional requirements for the navigational and multimedia aspects as well as for the usability as no training is possible. Therefore a thoroughly requirements analysis is even more relevant. In contrast, most of the methodologies that have been proposed for the development of Web applications focus on the design paying less attention to the requirements engineering. This paper is a comparative study of the requirements handling in Web methodologies showing trends in the use of techniques for capturing, specifying and validating Web requirements

The changing perception in the artefacts used in the design practice through BIM adoption

When CAD (Computer Aided Design) was generally adopted in the early 1990’s, the hand drawn process was replaced with the CAD drawing but the nature of the artefacts / deliverables and the exchanges of information between disciplines remained fundamentally the same. The deliverables remained 2D representations of 3D forms and Specifications and Bill of Quantities. However, the building industry is under great pressure to provide value for money, sustainable design and construction. This has propelled the adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM). BIM is a foundational tool for a team based lean design approach. It can enable the intelligent interrogation of design; provide a quicker and cheaper design production; better co-ordination of documentation; more effective change control; less repetition of processes; a better quality constructed product; and improved communication both for the architectural practice and across the supply chain. As BIM enables a new of working methodology, it entails the change in perceiving artefacts used and deliverables produced in the design and construction stages. In other words, defining what the informational issues are, who does what and who is responsible for what and the level of detail required at each stage in design and construction is critically important to adopt and implement BIM in the construction sector. This paper presents the key findings through the action research methodology about the change in the nature of artefacts and deliverables resulting from the BIM adoption in the KTP (Knowledge Transfer Partnership) project undertaken by the University of Salford and John McCall Architects

Collaborative Business Process Management - A Literature-based Analysis of Methods for Supporting Model Understandability

Due to the growing amount of cooperative business scenarios, collaborative Business Process Management (cBPM) has emerged. The increased number of stakeholders with minor expertise in process modeling leads to a high relevance of model understandability in cBPM contexts. Despite extensive works in the research fields of cBPM and model understandability in BPM, there is no analysis and comprehensive overview of methods supporting process model understandability in cBPM scenarios. To address this research gap, this paper presents the results of a literature review. The paper identifies concepts for supporting model understandability in BPM, provides an overview of methods implementing these concepts, and discusses the methods’ applicability in cBPM. The four concepts process model transformation, process model visualization, process model description, and modeling support are introduced. Subsequently, 69 methods are classified and discussed in the context of cBPM. Results contribute to revealing existing academic voids and can guide practitioners in cBPM scenarios