Language Quality in Information Systems Development – Analyzing the Emergence of Requirements in Natural Language Processes

A central challenge in information systems development (ISD) is the question how meaningful and coherent requirements can be developed as a consensual result of the interaction between analysts and clients. As language-based communication is the main venue for the system‟s conceptualization, we assume that the understanding of how requirements emerge on the micro level of interaction is of critical importance. We claim that the quality of the communication between the different stakeholders depends on the ability to manage the question of how people deal with language in practice and reach consensus in the concrete ISD process. Therefore, in this paper we adapt the concept of quality to the question of how a common language is built in the ISD process. After defining a set of reasonable language quality dimensions, we apply our results to concrete observation cases from an ISD project and obtain insight beneficial to researchers and practitioners alike

What do we know about successful software project factors

This dissertation discusses how different practitioners define project success and success factors for software projects and products. The motivation for this work is to identify the way software practitioners’ value and define project success. This can have implications for both practitioner motivation and software development productivity. Accordingly, in this work, we are interested in the various perceptions of the term “success” for different software practitioners and researchers. To get this information we performed a systematic mapping of the recent year’s software development literature trying to identify stakeholders’ perceptions about the success of a project and also possible differences among the views of the various stakeholders of a project. Some common terms related to project success (success project; software project success factors) were considered in formulating the search strings. The results were limited to twenty-two selected peer-reviewed conferences, papers/journal articles, published between 2003 and 2012

ASSESSING LANGUAGE QUALITY IN THE INFORMATION SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT PROCESS – A THEORETICAL APPROACH AND ITS APPLICATION

The necessary knowledge transfer and communication between project members is identified as a relevant issue in information systems development (ISD). Nevertheless, the impact of linguistic communication on ISD and requirements specification in its processual nature is still an open issue. In our research, we claim that effectiveness of ISD depends on the ability to manage how people deal with language in practice and reach a shared understanding. We propose the concept of language quality as a suitable means for analyzing the emergence of concise and meaningful requirements in ISD. By applying the thereby developed language quality dimensions on a real project, we were able to obtain practice-grounded propositions for practitioners to consider and for researchers to further evaluate the consequences of different actions on the interaction and communication processes for this particular field

Information Systems Development as a Social Process: A Structurational Model

Prior research has shown that social interactions are important in order to understand the phenomena involved in information systems development. However, most traditional research largely ignores these issues. DeSanctis and Poole (1994) made an important contribution to the study of social dynamics in information systems research with their Adaptive Structuration Theory (AST). Although the concepts have found broad acceptance for the study of information technology (IT) uses and effects, AST has not been widely used for studying the process of designing IT artifacts and developing information systems. In this paper we transfer AST to studying information systems development as a social process. We build on Markus and Silver\u27s (2008) redefinition of AST’s core concepts ‘structural features’ and ‘spirit’ as technical objects, functional affordances, and symbolic expressions, and we extend them with relational concepts for agents and activities that we derive from social construction of technology (SCOT) studies. The result is an AST-based model that describes the information systems development process. We illustrate and discuss how researchers might use these concepts to generate hypotheses in studies of information systems development processes

Scaling up an end-user dependability framework for spreadsheets

The WYSIWYT (What You See is What You Test) methodology applies formal analysis and testing techniques to the spreadsheet paradigm. So far the methodology has been applied to a research spreadsheet prototype, Forms/3. However, this prototype lacks the mathematical libraries, referential functions, ranges, and macros of commercial spreadsheets like Excel and Lotus 1-2-3. Study subjects are also accustomed to the grid-like interface of commercial spreadsheet packages and many spreadsheets of interest are available in the Excel file format. This project addresses these areas by implementing WYSIWYT in Microsoft Excel and Gnumeric

Scaling up an end-user dependability framework for spreadsheets

The WYSIWYT (What You See is What You Test) methodology applies formal analysis and testing techniques to the spreadsheet paradigm. So far the methodology has been applied to a research spreadsheet prototype, Forms/3. However, this prototype lacks the mathematical libraries, referential functions, ranges, and macros of commercial spreadsheets like Excel and Lotus 1-2-3. Study subjects are also accustomed to the grid-like interface of commercial spreadsheet packages and many spreadsheets of interest are available in the Excel file format. This project addresses these areas by implementing WYSIWYT in Microsoft Excel and Gnumeric

Schätzwerterfüllung in Softwareentwicklungsprojekten

Effort estimates are of utmost economic importance in software development projects. Estimates bridge the gap between managers and the invisible and almost artistic domain of developers. They give a means to managers to track and control projects. Consequently, numerous estimation approaches have been developed over the past decades, starting with Allan Albrecht's Function Point Analysis in the late 1970s. However, this work neither tries to develop just another estimation approach, nor focuses on improving accuracy of existing techniques. Instead of characterizing software development as a technological problem, this work understands software development as a sociological challenge. Consequently, this work focuses on the question, what happens when developers are confronted with estimates representing the major instrument of management control? Do estimates influence developers, or are they unaffected? Is it irrational to expect that developers start to communicate and discuss estimates, conform to them, work strategically, hide progress or delay? This study shows that it is inappropriate to assume an independency of estimated and actual development effort. A theory is developed and tested, that explains how developers and managers influence the relationship between estimated and actual development effort. The theory therefore elaborates the phenomenon of estimation fulfillment.Schätzwerte in Softwareentwicklungsprojekten sind von besonderer ökonomischer Wichtigkeit. Sie überbrücken die Lücke zwischen Projektleitern und der unsichtbaren und beinahe künstlerischen Domäne der Entwickler. Sie stellen ein Instrument dar, welches erlaubt, Projekte zu verfolgen und zu kontrollieren. Daher wurden in den vergangenen vier Jahrzehnten diverse Schätzverfahren entwickelt, beginnend mit der "Function Point" Analyse von Allan Albrecht. Diese Arbeit versucht allerdings weder ein neues Schätzverfahren zu entwickeln noch bestehende Verfahren zu verbessern. Anstatt Softwareentwicklung als technologisches Problem zu charakterisieren, wird in dieser Arbeit eine soziologische Perspektive genutzt. Dementsprechend fokussiert diese Arbeit die Frage, was passiert, wenn Entwickler mit Schätzwerten konfrontiert werden, die das wichtigste Kontrollinstrument des Managements darstellen? Lassen sich Entwickler von diesen Werten beeinflussen oder bleiben sie davon unberührt? Wäre es irrational, zu erwarten, dass Entwickler Schätzwerte kommunizieren, diese diskutieren, sich diesen anpassen, strategisch arbeiten sowie Verzögerungen verschleiern? Die vorliegende Studie zeigt, dass die Unabhängigkeitsannahme von Schätzwerten und tatsächlichem Entwicklungsaufwand unbegründet ist. Es wird eine Theorie entwickelt, welche erklärt, wie Entwickler und Projektleiter die Beziehung von Schätzungen und Aufwand beeinflussen und dass das Phänomen der Schätzwerterfüllung auftreten kann

Foundations of Empirical Software Engineering: The Legacy of Victor R. Basili

This book captures the main scientific contributions of Victor R. Basili, who has significantly shaped the field of empirical software engineering from its very start. He was the first to claim that software engineering needed to follow the model of other physical sciences and develop an experimental paradigm. By working on this postulate, he developed concepts that today are well known and widely used, including the Goal-Question-Metric method, the Quality-Improvement paradigm, and the Experience Factory. He is one of the few software pioneers who can aver that their research results are not just scientifically acclaimed but are also used as industry standards. On the occasion of his 65th birthday, celebrated with a symposium in his honor at the International Conference on Software Engineering in St. Louis, MO, USA in May 2005, Barry Boehm, Hans Dieter Rombach, and Marvin V. Zelkowitz, each a long-time collaborator of Victor R. Basili, selected the 20 most important research papers of their friend, and arranged these according to subject field. They then invited renowned researchers to write topical introductions. The result is this commented collection of timeless cornerstones of software engineering, hitherto available only in scattered publications