Metodología para el desarrollo de aplicaciones web ajustada al contexto de los Productos Mínimos Viables

El sector de las Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación ha sido identificado como un foco de desarrollo para la economía. Se impulsan iniciativas para la creación de negocios en este ramo, las cuales en su mayoría presentan limitaciones en recursos, experiencia y conocimiento. Es por ello que se hace necesaria una ejecución efectiva del proceso. Este artículo formula una metodología para el desarrollo de aplicaciones web como Producto Mínimo Viable (PMV), así como destaca el papel que desempeñar el Software Libre el cual, por sus características, puede soportar el proceso de manera efectiva

Metodología para el desarrollo de aplicaciones web ajustada al contexto de los Productos Mínimos Viables

El sector de las Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación ha sido identificado como un foco de desarrollo para la economía. Se impulsan iniciativas para la creación de negocios en este ramo, las cuales en su mayoría presentan limitaciones en recursos, experiencia y conocimiento. Es por ello que se hace necesaria una ejecución efectiva del proceso. Este artículo formula una metodología para el desarrollo de aplicaciones web como Producto Mínimo Viable (PMV), así como destaca el papel que desempeñar el Software Libre el cual, por sus características, puede soportar el proceso de manera efectiva

Estrategia híbrida basada en código y modelos para el desarrollo ágil de aplicaciones web

La metodología Mockup-Driven Development (MockupDD) propone utilizar prototipos de interfaz de usuario (usualmente conocidos como Mockups) como artefactos principales de elicitación de requerimientos y modelado en el contexto de un proceso Model-Driven Web Engineering (MDWE). Su proceso se basa en construir estos prototipos de manera obligatoria, temprana y de su posterior anotación al utilizar un microlenguaje de tags. MockupDD propone un enfoque ágil para MDWE, sin embargo, tratar conceptos del lenguaje para implementar requerimientos específicos sigue presentado las mismas dificultades que en los procesos MDWE convencionales: es necesario agregar nuevos elementos al metamodelo y modificar generadores de código. En esta tesis se presenta una estrategia (extensión de MockupDD) que propone agregar características al paradigma MDWE ortodoxo, en donde, cada concepto del lenguaje en lugar de ser inmutable será ejecutable por sí mismo, convirtiéndose en prototipos de implementaciones por defecto, que pueden modificarse según se requiera al utilizar codificación manual – a costas de sacrificar parte o la totalidad de su abstracción. Esto provocará cambios importantes en comparación con la versión de MockupDD original, al plantear una nueva arquitectura de semántica de tags y un alejamiento del paradigma MDWE puro en pos de mejorar la agilidad y la adaptabilidad.The Mockup - Driven Development (MockupDD) methodology proposes using user interface prototypes (usually known as Mockups) as key artifacts of requirements elicitation and modeling in the context of Model-Driven Web Engineering (MDWE ) process. Its process is based on building these prototypes early and their subsequent annotation using a microlanguage of tags. MockupDD proposes an agile approach for MDWE. However, in this methodology extending language concepts presents the same difficulties as in conventional MDWE processes: you need to add new elements to the metamodel and modify code generators. In this thesis proposes a strategy (an extension to MockupDD) that adds features to the orthodox MDWE paradigm. In this work, each concept of the language it is executable by itself instead of being immutable, thus becoming a prototype of a default implementation that can be modified as required using manual coding - at the expense of sacrificing some or all of its abstraction. This will cause major changes compared to the original version MockupDD, proposing a new architecture to specify tags semantics and a departure from the pure MDWE paradigm, towards improving agility and adaptability.Facultad de Informátic

Mockup-driven Fast-prototyping Methodology for Web Application Development

Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valle

Supporting creation and integration of videos into software specifications

Traditionelle Software-Spezifikationen sind größtenteils textbasiert. Text alleine ist aber neben all seinen Vorteilen ein sehr ineffektives Kommunikationsmittel in Bezug auf die Dokumentation. Text alleine ist oft nicht geeignet, um komplexe Inhalte und Interaktionen vollständig und verständlich darzustellen. Daraus ergeben sich Kommunikationsprobleme bezüglich der Anforderungen zwischen Kunden und Entwickler, was oft zum Scheitern eines Softwareprojekts oder dem Verfehlen der Ziele führt. Ein richtiges Verständnis und eine gute Übertragung der Anforderungen sind daher eine Voraussetzung für jedes erfolgreiche Softwareprojekt. Videos stellen im Gegensatz zu Text ein sehr effektives Kommunikationsmittel dar, und bieten durch ihre Eigenschaften eine gute Möglichkeit, komplexe und interaktive Inhalte und Informationen in einer für den Betrachter verständlichen Art und Weise darzustellen. Dadurch können sich die Kunden ein besseres Bild über das zukünftige System machen und somit besseres Feedback über die Anforderungen geben, was letztendlich zu einer besseren Umsetzung dieser durch die Entwickler führt. Allerdings ist die Produktion und Verwaltung von Videos sehr aufwendig, was dazu führt, dass Videos sich noch nicht im Bereich der Software-Spezifikation etablieren können, trotz aller Vorteile in Bezug auf die Übertragung von Inhalten und Informationen. Hinzu kommt noch, dass im Gegensatz zu vielen anderen Disziplinen, in denen Videos eingesetzt werden, in diesem Bereich keine Richtlinien und Empfehlungen existieren, die das Erstellen ergänzender Videos unterstützen. Die vorliegende Arbeit greift genau diesen Punkt auf und versucht, durch Entwicklung und Ausarbeitung von Richtlinien und Empfehlungen, Unterstützung bei der Erstellung von Videos aus Inhalten und Informationen einer bereits bestehenden Software-Spezifikation, anzubieten. Die entwickelten Richtlinien und Empfehlungen offerieren erstens Unterstützung bei der Auswahl geeigneter Video-darstellbarer Inhalte einer Software-Spezifikation und zweitens Hilfe bei der Auswahl geeigneter Videoarten zu den bereits ausgewählten Video-darstellbaren Inhalten. Weitere Richtlinien und Empfehlungen vollenden die Unterstützung während der gesamten Videoerstellung.Traditional software specifications are mostly based on text. However, despite all of its advantages, text by itself is an ineffective medium for communication. In many cases text alone is not appropriate for a clear and understandable presentation of complex contents, resulting in communication problems regarding the requirements between the customer and developer. This is the reason why software projects often fail or miss their target. Thus, correct comprehension and good coverage of the requirements are a prerequisite for any successful software project. Unlike text, videos present a very effective medium for communication. Due to their characteristics they offer the possibility to display complex, interactive contents and information in an understandable way. Thereby the customers can get a better view of the future system, which enables them to provide better feedback regarding the realization of the requirements to the developer. However, production and maintenance of videos is very time consuming. This is the reason why videos could not establish themselves in the field of software specifications, despite their advantages regarding coverage of contents and information. Additionally, guidelines and recommendations supporting the creation of subsidiary videos do not exist in this field. This work picks up at that point. It tries to offer support for the preparation of videos with contents and information of existing software specifications. To achieve this, guidelines and recommendations were developed. The final guidelines and recommendations firstly offer support for the choice of appropriate video-presentable contents of a software specification and secondly for the choice of appropriate video types for the already selected video-presentable contents. Further guidelines and recommendations accomplish the support during the entire video preparation

Auto-generation of rich Internet applications from visual mock-ups

Capturing and communicating software requirements accurately and quickly is a challenging activity. This needs expertise of people with unique skills. Traditionally this challenge has been compounded by assigning specialist roles for requirements gathering and analysis, design, and implementations. These multiple roles have resulted in information loss mainly due to miscommunication between requirement specialists, designers and implementers. Large enterprises have managed the information loss by using document centric approaches, leading to delays and cost escalations. But documentation centric and multiple role approaches are not suitable for Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) because they are vulnerable to market competitions. Moreover, SMEs require effective online applications to provide their service. Hence the motivation for carrying out this research is to explore the possibilities of empowering requirement specialists such as Business Analysts’ (BAs) to take on additional responsibilities of designers and implementers to generate web applications. In addition, SME owners and BAs can communicate better if they perceive the application requirements using a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) approach. Hence, this research explores the design and development of mock-up-based auto-generating tool to develop SME applications. A tool that auto-generates an application from a mock-up should have the capacity to extract the essential implementation details from the mock-up. Hence a visual mock-up language was created by extending existing research on meta-models of UIs for a class of popular modern web-based business applications called Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). The popularity of RIAs is due to their distinctive client-side processing power with desktop application like responsiveness and look and feel. The mock-ups drawn with the mock-up language should have sufficient level of details to auto-generate RIAs. To support this, the mock-up language includes constructs for specifying a RIA’s mock-up in terms of layouts and the widgets within them. In addition, the language uses annotations on the mock-up to specify the behaviour of the system. In such an approach the only additional effort required of a Business Analyst is to specify the requirements in terms of a mock-up of the expected interfaces of the SME application. Apart from the mock-up language, a tool was designed and developed to auto-generate the desired application from the mock-up. The tool is powered by algorithms to derive the database structure and the client-side and server-side components required for the auto-generated application. The validation of the mock-up language and auto-generating tool was performed by BAs to demonstrate its usability. The measurement and evaluation results indicate that the mock-up language and the auto-generator can be used successfully to help BAs in the development of SME application and thereby reduce delays, errors and cost overruns. The important contributions of this research are: (i) the design of a mock-up language that makes it easy to capture the structure and behaviour of SME web applications. (ii) algorithms for automatic derivation of the expected database schema from a visual mock-up. (iii) algorithms for automatic derivation of the client and server-side application logic. (iv) application of an existing measurement and evaluation process for the usability testing of the mock-up language and the auto-generated application. This research followed the Design Science Research (DSR) method for Information System to guide the IS design and to capture the knowledge created during the design process. DSR is a research method useful in solving wicked problems requiring innovative solutions for incomplete, contradictory or changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. This research opens new ways of thinking about web application development for future research. Specifically, mock-ups with few easy to understand annotations can be used as powerful active artifacts to capture the structure and behaviour of applications not just of small but also large enterprises. Auto-generating tools can then create fully functional and usable applications holistically from such mock-ups, thereby reducing delays and cost overruns during software engineering