Viewpoints and goals: towards an integrated approach

Dissertação de Mestrado em Engenharia InformáticaRequirements elicitation and analysis have been studied according to several approaches that differ mostly on their "orientation", in this case relying on goals or viewpoints. Goal-Oriented approaches such as KAOS rely on goals to direct their process of eliciting requirements: a goal is an objective the system under consideration should achieve and represents a system property that may reflect either a functional (e.g. a service provided by the system) or a non-functional (e.g. security, performance) requirement; its satisfaction may imply the participation of several agents and the resolution of possible obstacles that may arise. The KAOS approach offers an unambiguous method for requirement decomposition and may provide a set of heuristics to approaches where one does not exist. Viewpoint-Oriented approaches such as PREview focus on gathering information pertaining to the problem from several agents that may have different, often equally valid, and incomplete perspectives on the problem. These partial intakes reflect their different responsibilities, roles, goals, or interpretations of the information sources; hence the combination of the agent and its input on the system is called a viewpoint. PREview benefits from a particularly lightweight approach to requirements encapsulation, but fails to provide a set of heuristics for the process of identifying the system's requirements. Considering the issues identified in each approach, it is verifiable that both approaches are complementary: on the one hand, KAOS offers a set of requirements elicitation heuristics through goal decomposition; on the other hand, PREview is a lightweight approach to viewpoint oriented requirements engineering, tailored especially for integration, however lacks a more systematic mechanism to guide the requirements elicitation process. The objective of this dissertation is therefore to propose a hybrid approach that builds on the PREview approach and brings together the benefits of the KAOS approach. The result is synergetic where, for example, completion is better addressed by providing a set of heuristics for requirement elicitation

0028/2009 - Problemas na Elicitação de Requisitos: Uma visão de pesquisa/literatura

A primeira fase na engenharia de requisitos é a elicitação de requisitos, na qual as informações sobre as necessidades do cliente são adquiridas, sendo crucial e crítica e podendo comprometer todas as etapas subseqüentes do desenvolvimento. O presente relatório apresenta um levantamento dos problemas que ocorrem durante a elicitação de requisitos citados na literatura da área

Information systems failure: A business-led knowledge requirements framework for modelling business requirements

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Our work will be mainly concerned with improving the crucial first stage (the requirements stage) of any system development methodology in order to improve requirements. A framework has been developed, called "knowledge requirements framework (KRF)" to help customers and system developers bridge the knowledge and understanding gaps at the initial requirements stage of the Information Technology System (ITS) development process. Unclear business requirements, mismatch of knowledge and understanding are among the major factors that contributes to some ITS failures worldwide. The aim is to capture functional requirements at the initial stage of the system development process and to integrate systems and people use them in the development process. Multi-surveys are conducted, capture and highlight the criteria of initial requirements exactness and executability. Knowledge and understanding gaps, which occur in the development process, are described. These gaps constitute the problem at the invisible architecture in the initial requirements stage, as they expose mismatch of both knowledge and understanding problems (Requirements/Specifications). A notation to describe this framework is elaborated, novel techniques and tools for the construction and application of customer requirements in systems development are developed and used in KRF to facilitate bridging these gaps. The resulting prototype KRF is developed and used against some example problems in retail organisations, and so shown to be sufficient in principle of handling all the negotiation problems at the initial requirements stage, singly and in combination. Also, it is shown how KRF sub-process can be combined and used to elicit information and knowledge mining between both the customer and the system developer using human communication and interaction capture as an example. Systems these days are living systems, changeable, in business and the human factor in developing them cannot be excluded. It is further shown how these techniques and tools can be augmented with established methodologies rather than inventing new ones and to enable management to react as quickly as possible to global changing market conditions. This proposed framework is also evaluated and tested against the original criteria of initial requirements, exactness and executability

A methodology for the design of quality assurance functional model and information system

In spite of all advances in computer, technologies, information processing, automation technologies, manufacturing processes, and the push for integration across all functional areas toward a totally integrated and automated manufacturing system, the suggestion is that quality assurance which covers all quality-based functions in the product-life cycle is often overlooked. In spite of the important role of quality information systems in achieving high quality processes little published research in this area is found in the literature. Study of the available relevant literature and the collection of data from manufacturing industries confirm that different manufacturing situations require different quality assurance systems, and this is evident from the proliferation of differing QA systems found in industry. There are however some common features both universal/or within different classes of industries. Accordingly an 'ISO-9000 based generic structural model incorporating these common quality based functions and their associated information requirements has been developed. This research further investigates and verifies those factors which may affect the design of a QAIS as a guide for designing Quality Assurance Information Systems for manufacturing business organisations. Realising that knowledge-based systems can provide a support environment for designing QAIS, this research also considers and, develops a KB Decision System for Designing Quality Information Systems (DSDQAIS). The DSDQAIS recommends the structure of a QAIS, in the form of an IDEFO model, appropriate to specific company profiles input by the user. Since the available software' applications and development tools which support the sub-systems run on a personal computer, the prototype of this system has also been developed and tested on PC. Recommendations for the further development of the system are given

Cutting tool design knowledge capture ;reuse

Cutting tools play an important part in today's manufacturing industry. There is an ever-increasing pressure on the cutting tool design industry to produce better quality products in response to the needs of the automotive and aerospace industries. Add to this the increasing complexity of the machined product requiring the use of non-standard cutting tools. The consideration of this area of cutting tool design is in recognition of the importance of the information and knowledge requirements at the beginning and during the design process. It has been noticed that in the cutting tool industry that the knowledge provision lacks structure and organisation. Understanding the knowledge requirements of the designers would provide substantial benefits to the design process. Thus, this research explores the role and extent of special purpose cutting tool design knowledge. Literature review shows there is a lack of research examining the knowledge of designers within special purpose cutting tool design. The design of a special purpose-cutting tool is a knowledge intensive task. This thesis presents a novel methodology for Knowledge Elicitation called Knowledge = Expert - Novice (KEN). KEN is a methodology requiring active participation in the design task. It is demonstrated that KEN is suitable for the capture of cutting tool design knowledge. KEN is used to examine the nature and extent of special purpose cutting tool design. It is observed that KEN provides a structured approach to the Knowledge Elicitation from an expert. An in-depth investigation of the preliminary design stage has revealed the knowledge required by special purpose cutting tool designers. This thesis presents an ontology-based framework for cutting tool design knowledge representation following a functional, structural and behavioural methodology. The knowledge is represented by base-functions, ways of achievement and design considerations organised into functional hierarchies. The ontology is validated by domain experts rating the terms within the ontology and by cases. It is observed that the ontology is a complete representation of the cutting tool design knowledge. A viewpoint of design reuse is modelled to include a set of descriptor terms and captured domain knowledge. The viewpoint is mapped onto the ontology to provide a set of generic terms. The reuse viewpoint is then implemented onto Case-Based Reasoning software to search for past designs. The reuse viewpoint is then validated using a number of case studies and user trials. It is demonstrated that the reuse viewpoint is effective for the extraction of terms from design documentation, searching for and recalling past designs.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Impact of front line service delivery on customers of South African Police Services (SAPS) Pretoria Sunnyside Gauteng

Abstract: The main aim of this study was to deduce the effects of front line service delivery on customers of South African Police Service’s (SAPS) Pretoria Sunnyside Gauteng. The overall objective of this research was to analyse the role of service quality dimension for creating customer satisfaction and to find out the gaps between expectations and perceptions through the customer point of view. In so doing, cross-sectional data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire from a simple random sample of 96 customers. SPSS version 25 was used for descriptive statistics and estimation. The Servqual model was used to establish the customer’s perceptions against their expectations of service quality at the SAPS frontline service. This study is quantitative and therefore adopted the positivist paradigm. The data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire from a simple random sample of 96 customers. Pearson correlation and sample T-test were employed to test the relationship between service quality dimensions. The results show that in all five service quality dimensions: (tangible, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy) there was a negative quality gap. The result has revealed that customer’s perception of service quality at SAPS frontline service falls below their expectations, presenting a great challenge to the organisation. The significant differences between perception and expectation of customers in all five service quality dimensions were noted. Improvement is needed across all five service quality dimensions to improve service delivery. Therefore, the success of the SAPS, Service delivery was found to largely depend on the perceptions of customers. Six hypotheses were drawn out to explore the relationship that is assumed to exist between service dimensions for expectation and perception. The study concludes that service quality is relevant as it was shown that it affects customer satisfaction and perceptions. The study recommends, among other things, that SAPS should implement optimal quality assurance policies so that customers will be satisfied with all their services. Of equally critical, customers who consume SAPS services were advised to be keen to observe careful services which are offered by SAPS through active participation. The study also recommends future studies should examine the role of service quality program between parastatal and other government agencies using data from specific industries.M.Tech. (Operations Management

Software Product Line

The Software Product Line (SPL) is an emerging methodology for developing software products. Currently, there are two hot issues in the SPL: modelling and the analysis of the SPL. Variability modelling techniques have been developed to assist engineers in dealing with the complications of variability management. The principal goal of modelling variability techniques is to configure a successful software product by managing variability in domain-engineering. In other words, a good method for modelling variability is a prerequisite for a successful SPL. On the other hand, analysis of the SPL aids the extraction of useful information from the SPL and provides a control and planning strategy mechanism for engineers or experts. In addition, the analysis of the SPL provides a clear view for users. Moreover, it ensures the accuracy of the SPL. This book presents new techniques for modelling and new methods for SPL analysis

Cognition and the Engineering Design Requirement

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DXN058277 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Model-Based Engineering of Collaborative Embedded Systems

This Open Access book presents the results of the "Collaborative Embedded Systems" (CrESt) project, aimed at adapting and complementing the methodology underlying modeling techniques developed to cope with the challenges of the dynamic structures of collaborative embedded systems (CESs) based on the SPES development methodology. In order to manage the high complexity of the individual systems and the dynamically formed interaction structures at runtime, advanced and powerful development methods are required that extend the current state of the art in the development of embedded systems and cyber-physical systems. The methodological contributions of the project support the effective and efficient development of CESs in dynamic and uncertain contexts, with special emphasis on the reliability and variability of individual systems and the creation of networks of such systems at runtime. The project was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), and the case studies are therefore selected from areas that are highly relevant for Germany’s economy (automotive, industrial production, power generation, and robotics). It also supports the digitalization of complex and transformable industrial plants in the context of the German government's "Industry 4.0" initiative, and the project results provide a solid foundation for implementing the German government's high-tech strategy "Innovations for Germany" in the coming years