Software engineering activities at SEI (Software Engineering Institute)

Prototyping was shown to ease system specification and implementation, especially in the area of user interfaces. Other prototyping approaches do not allow for the evolution of the prototype into a production system or support maintenance after the system is fielded. A set of goals is presented for a modern user interface environment and Serpent, a prototype implementation that achieves these goals, is described

RICIS Software Engineering 90 Symposium: Aerospace Applications and Research Directions Proceedings

Papers presented at RICIS Software Engineering Symposium are compiled. The following subject areas are covered: synthesis - integrating product and process; Serpent - a user interface management system; prototyping distributed simulation networks; and software reuse

HYPERTEXT-BASED RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT FOR DSS

There is a need for integrated access to a wide range of information related to the development and use of DSS in organizations. This information comes in many forms, both formal and informal, and is highly interrelated. To handle this complex information base, we argue that a separate relationship management component should be added to the three traditional components of a DSS (namely, the database, user interface and model management systems). The role of the relationship management component is to relieve DSS application programs of the need to maintain and provide access to the complex set of relationships that can exist between elements in the application domain. We discuss the kinds of information and relationships that arise during the development and use of a DSS, outline the requirements for an independent subsystem to manage this information base, and propose the use of an extended hypertext software system, H+, to simultaneously handle relationship management and provide an interesting and useful interface to users.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Development of the web-based data-driven university information management system (UIMS) for inter-university council for east Africa

A Project Report Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Award the Degree of Master of Science in Embedded and Mobile Systems of the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and TechnologyA significant challenge faced by the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) is the lack of a common Higher Education Information System (HEIS) for the East African Community (EAC) to harmonize the region's education and training system. The system has to manage data about the academic program, universities, research, and human capital respectively developed in different modules. Both EAC's citizens and IUCEA need statistics regarding this information and complex questions these data may answer. Traditional high education management is not only costly but also ineffective. In this work, a web-based data driven University Information Management system (UIMS) for IUCEA is designed to effectively manage university information concerning the academic life cycle, assets, finance, and human resource. In addition, a university application portal to help high education institutions is provided to apply for being among all degrees awarding high education. This system is the second module of the East Africa Community High Education Information System (EAC HEIS); it has been developed using agile software development and web technology such as RESTful API, React, Django, and MySQL. UIMS for IUCEA will significantly impact the IUCEA's day-to-day operation and receive recognition from the surfer. It will improve the efficiency of many processes

Factors shaping the evolution of electronic documentation systems

The main goal is to prepare the space station technical and managerial structure for likely changes in the creation, capture, transfer, and utilization of knowledge. By anticipating advances, the design of Space Station Project (SSP) information systems can be tailored to facilitate a progression of increasingly sophisticated strategies as the space station evolves. Future generations of advanced information systems will use increases in power to deliver environmentally meaningful, contextually targeted, interconnected data (knowledge). The concept of a Knowledge Base Management System is emerging when the problem is focused on how information systems can perform such a conversion of raw data. Such a system would include traditional management functions for large space databases. Added artificial intelligence features might encompass co-existing knowledge representation schemes; effective control structures for deductive, plausible, and inductive reasoning; means for knowledge acquisition, refinement, and validation; explanation facilities; and dynamic human intervention. The major areas covered include: alternative knowledge representation approaches; advanced user interface capabilities; computer-supported cooperative work; the evolution of information system hardware; standardization, compatibility, and connectivity; and organizational impacts of information intensive environments

New direction in CAD tools

Chip and software development communities are concerned with the runaway pace of chip development and the monumental problems which can quickly accumulate and overwhelm those charged with the task of IC development. This 'weight' must be transferred from the shoulders of the human developers to the software tools which assimilate and control the defining data of the development process. This paper details many of the problems which are being resolved by reviewing the obstacles and resultant advancements which the industry has made. Specifically, it will describe many of the things which are being done in one company to provide this much-needed relief

Surface interaction : separating direct manipulation interfaces from their applications.

To promote both quality and economy in the production of applications and their interactive interfaces, it is desirable to delay their mutual binding. The later the binding, the more separable the interface from its application. An ideally separated interface can factor tasks from a range of applications, can provide a level of independence from hardware I/O devices, and can be responsive to end-user requirements. Current interface systems base their separation on two different abstractions. In linguistic architectures, for example User Interface Management Systems in the Seeheim model, the dialogue or syntax of interaction is abstracted in a separate notation. In agent architectures like Toolkits, interactive devices, at various levels of complexity, are abstracted into a class or call hierarchy. This Thesis identifies an essential feature of the popular notion of direct manipulation: directness requires that the same object be used both for output and input. In practice this compromises the separation of both dialogue and devices. In addition, dialogue cannot usefully be abstracted from its application functionality, while device abstraction reduces the designer's expressive control by binding presentation style to application semantics. This Thesis proposes an alternative separation, based on the abstraction of the medium of interaction, together with a dedicated user agent which allows direct manipulation of the medium. This interactive medium is called the surface. The Thesis proposes two new models for the surface, the first of which has been implemented as Presenter, the second of which is an ideal design permitting document quality interfaces. The major contribution of the Thesis is a precise specification of an architecture (UMA), whereby a separated surface can preserve directness without binding in application semantics, and at the same time an application can express its semantics on the surface without needing to manage all the details of interaction. Thus UMA partitions interaction into Surface Interaction, and deep interaction. Surface Interaction factors a large portion of the task of maintaining a highly manipulable interface, and brings the roles of user and application designer closer

HYPERTEXT-BASED RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT FOR DSS

There is a need for integrated access to a wide range of information related to the development and use of DSS in organizations. This information comes in many forms, both formal and informal, and is highly interrelated. To handle this complex information base, we argue that a separate relationship management component should be added to the three traditional components of a DSS (namely, the database, user interface and model management systems). The role of the relationship management component is to relieve DSS application programs of the need to maintain and provide access to the complex set of relationships that can exist between elements in the application domain. We discuss the kinds of information and relationships that arise during the development and use of a DSS, outline the requirements for an independent subsystem to manage this information base, and propose the use of an extended hypertext software system, H+, to simultaneously handle relationship management and provide an interesting and useful interface to users.Information Systems Working Papers Serie

Designing a mobile application interface to support mid-career professionals in creating better financial futures

South Africans borrow more and save less than other nations (Discovery Bank, 2018). One reason is a lack of financial knowledge. If a mobile application could guide individuals to modify their financial habits slightly by spending less and saving more, they could dramatically improve their financial future. When designing visualisation systems such as a mobile application interface, users' qualitative design feedback and quantitative usability evaluation are both important and complementary. The benefit of usability feedback in software development is undisputed. The importance of qualitative design feedback from users however, seems to be controversial in Science. Gathering users' qualitative design feedback, ahead of usability evaluation, can have a substantial impact on downstream development costs. The researcher used design as a tool for thinking (imagining new possibilities) and communicating (sharing ideas). The purpose was to clarify ways in which a mobile application interface could support users in making better financial decisions and creating better financial futures for themselves and consequently for society. A user centred design (UCD) approach was followed, emphasising design before development, with a strong focus on user involvement in all three phases, namely requirements gathering, design and evaluation. A primary client archetype for mid-career professionals was developed, split into two personas, Alan and Zoe, based on personality and self-rated motivational attributes which were used in an unconventional way to inspire two parallel, diverse designs. In early design stages, before an idea is well formed, producing multiple contrasting designs in parallel and qualitative design feedback from users is beneficial to establishing utility (solving the right problem), tapping into users' domain knowledge, improving the quality of the design and reducing fixation on one idea. Once the concept has been socialised and evolved sufficiently with users' input, converging on one final design and testing usability (solving the problem in the right way) become more important. This research offers two refinements of the UCD process guidelines for the benefit of researchers and practitioners