1,363 research outputs found
Focal points for a more user-centred agile development
The integration of user-centred design and Agile development is becoming increasingly common in companies and appears promising. However it may also present some critical points, or communication breakdowns, such as a variable interpretation of user involvement, a mismatch in the value of documentation and a misalignment in iterations. We refine these themes, emerging from both literature and previous fieldwork, by analysing a case study performed in an IT company that adopts both software engineering approaches, and we further extend the framework with a new theme related to task ownership. We argue that communication breakdowns can become focal points to drive action and decision for establishing an organisational context acknowledging the value of user involvement: to this end, we suggest the adoption of design thinking and the active engagement of the customer in embracing its values
Inoculating an agile company with user-centred design: an empirical study
We present an empirical study on facilitating the adoption of user-centred design (UCD) in small Agile companies. To this end, we introduced a curated set of qualitative design practices in an Agile organisation, engaging developers in a lightweight series of workshops. Our results suggest that the approach followed enhanced internal communication and promoted a concrete shift towards a more user-centred perspective. However, the presence of a predominant non-Agile customer seems to have limited potential benefits. © The Author(s) 2017
From front-end to back-end and everything in-between: work practice in game development
This paper addresses a paucity in the literature of studies of actual game development. It presents the initial findings from a questionnaire addressed to game development companies together with an ethnographic case study that drills into how resources are actually used and how the workflow and coordination are actually accomplished. It finds a number of challenges that can be seen to confront the development of new game authoring tools, centred around the intensely co-present character of design-related interaction and collaboration in this domain. These findings are used to articulate a range of potential requirements
Distributed development of large-scale distributed systems: the case of the particle physics grid
Developing a Grid within High Energy Physics for the Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator is characterised as a highly collaborative, distributed and dynamic systems development effort. This research examines the way this distributed Grid is developed, deployed and provided as a service to the thousands of physicists analysing data from the Large Hadron Collider. The particle physics community has always been at the forefront of computing with a tradition of working in large distributed collaborations, therefore providing a "distinctive" case of distributed systems development practice. The focus of concern is the collaborative systems development practices employed by particle physicists in their attempt to develop a usable Grid.
The research aims to offer lessons and practical recommendations to those involved in globally distributed systems development and to inform the information systems development literature. Global software development presents unaddressed challenges to organisations and it is argued that there is an urgent need for new systems development practices and strategies to be created that can facilitate and embrace the rapid changes of the environment and the complexities involved in such projects. The contribution of the study, therefore, is a framework of guidance towards engendering what the author defines as "Hybrid Experimental Agile Distributed Systems Development Communities" revealing a set of dynamic collaborative practices for those organisational contexts engaged in distributed systems development. The framework will allow them to reflect on their own practice and perhaps foster a similarly dynamic flexible community in order to manage their global software development effort.
The research is in the form of an interpretative qualitative exploratory case study, which draws upon Activity Theory, and frames the Grid's distributed development activity as a complex overarching networked activity system influenced by the context, the community's tools, rules, norms, culture, history, past experiences, shared visions and collaborative way of working. Tensions and contradictions throughout the development of this Grid are explored and surfaced, with the research focusing on how these are resolved in order for the activity system to achieve stability. Such stability leads to the construction of new knowledge and learning and the formation of new systems development practices. In studying this, practices are considered as an emergent property linked to improvisation, bricolage and dynamic competences that unfold as large-scale projects evolve
From front-end to back-end and everything in-between: work practice in game development
This paper addresses a paucity in the literature of studies of actual game development. It presents the initial findings from a questionnaire addressed to game development companies together with an ethnographic case study that drills into how resources are actually used and how the workflow and coordination are actually accomplished. It finds a number of challenges that can be seen to confront the development of new game authoring tools, centred around the intensely co-present character of design-related interaction and collaboration in this domain. These findings are used to articulate a range of potential requirements
A systematic mapping study of HCI practice research
Human–computer interaction (HCI) practice has emerged as a research domain in the HCI field and is growing. The need to transfer HCI practices to the industry began significantly with the works of Nielsen on usability engineering. To date, methods and techniques for designing, evaluating, and implementing interactive systems for human use have continued to emerge. It is, therefore, justified to conduct a systematic mapping study to determine the landscape of HCI practice research. A Systematic Mapping Study method was used to map 142 studies according to research type, topic, and contribution. These were then analyzed to determine an overview of HCI practice research. The objective was to analyze studies on HCI practice and present prominent issues that characterize the HCI practice research landscape. Second, to identify pressing challenges regarding HCI practices in software/systems development companies. The results show that HCI practice research has steadily increased since 2012. The majority of the studies explored focused on evaluation research that largely contributed to the evaluation methods or processes. Most of the studies were on design tools and techniques, design methods and contexts, design work and organizational culture, and collaboration and team communication. Interviews, case studies, and survey methods have been prominently used as research methods. HCI techniques are mostly used during the initial phase of development and during evaluation. HCI practice challenges in companies are mostly process-related and on performance of usability and user experience activities. The major challenge seems to be to find a way to collect and incorporate user feedback in a timely manner, especially in agile processes. There are areas identified in this study as needing more research
Towards a Task Driven Approach Enabling Continuous User Requirements Engineering
Abstract. The digital transformation of traditional workflows challenges small and medium-sized and industrial enterprises likewise. Interactive systems have to be built to assist the people within their daily tasks as suitable as possible. Existing software engineering methods seems to be unsufficient because they don't consider end users in terms of active involvement during the development process and thus lack in the quality of the resulting product. In addition, digital transformation is an ongoing process and needs user participation as well as a continuous requirements refinement. Therefore, this paper describes an iterative task-driven approach to enable an incremental development based on a sustainable model that is continuously improved due to user reviews on runnable parts of the user interface
Innovative configurable and collaborative approach to automation systems engineering for automotive powertrain assembly
Presently the automotive industry is facing enormous pressure due to global
competition and ever changing legislative, economic and customer demands. Both,
agility and reconfiguration are widely recognised as important attributes for
manufacturing systems to satisfy the needs of competitive global markets. To facilitate
and accommodate unforeseen business changes within the automotive industry, a new
proactive methodology is urgently required for the design, build, assembly and
reconfiguration of automation systems. There is also need for the promotion of new
technologies and engineering methods to enable true engineering concurrency between
product and process development. Virtual construction and testing of new automation
systems prior to build is now identified as a crucial requirement to enable system
verification and to allow the investigation of design alternatives prior to building and
testing physical systems. The main focus of this research was to design and develop
reconfigurable assembly systems within the powertrain sector of the automotive
industry by capturing and modelling relevant business and engineering processes.
This research has proposed and developed a more process-efficient and robust
automation system design, build and implementation approach via new engineering
services and a standard library of reusable mechanisms. Existing research at
Loughborough had created the basic technology for a component based approach to
automation. However, no research had been previously undertaken on the application of
this approach in a user engineering and business context. The objective of this research
was therefore to utilise this prototype method and associated engineering tools and to
devise novel business and engineering processes to enable the component-based
approach to be applied in industry. This new approach has been named Configurable
and Collaborative Automation Systems (CO AS). In particular this new research has
studied the implications of migration to a COAS approach in terms of I) necessary
changes to the end-users business processes, 2) potential to improve the robustness of
the resultant system and 3) potential for improved efficiency and greater collaboration
across the supply chain... cont'
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