Accessing numeric data via flags and tags: A final report on a real world experiment

An experiment is reported which: extended the concepts of data flagging and tagging to the aerospace scientific and technical literature; generated experience with the assignment of data summaries and data terms by documentation specialists; and obtained real world assessments of data summaries and data terms in information products and services. Inclusion of data summaries and data terms improved users' understanding of referenced documents from a subject perspective as well as from a data perspective; furthermore, a radical shift in document ordering behavior occurred during the experiment toward proportionately more requests for data-summarized items

Boundary Objects and their Use in Agile Systems Engineering

Agile methods are increasingly introduced in automotive companies in the attempt to become more efficient and flexible in the system development. The adoption of agile practices influences communication between stakeholders, but also makes companies rethink the management of artifacts and documentation like requirements, safety compliance documents, and architecture models. Practitioners aim to reduce irrelevant documentation, but face a lack of guidance to determine what artifacts are needed and how they should be managed. This paper presents artifacts, challenges, guidelines, and practices for the continuous management of systems engineering artifacts in automotive based on a theoretical and empirical understanding of the topic. In collaboration with 53 practitioners from six automotive companies, we conducted a design-science study involving interviews, a questionnaire, focus groups, and practical data analysis of a systems engineering tool. The guidelines suggest the distinction between artifacts that are shared among different actors in a company (boundary objects) and those that are used within a team (locally relevant artifacts). We propose an analysis approach to identify boundary objects and three practices to manage systems engineering artifacts in industry

A Study of Documentation for Software Architecture

Documentation is an important mechanism for disseminating software architecture knowledge. Software project teams can employ vastly different formats for documenting software architecture, from unstructured narratives to standardized documents. We explored to what extent this documentation format may matter to newcomers joining a software project and attempting to understand its architecture. We conducted a controlled questionnaire-based study wherein we asked 65 participants to answer software architecture understanding questions using one of two randomly-assigned documentation formats: narrative essays, and structured documents. We analyzed the factors associated with answer quality using a Bayesian ordered categorical regression and observed no significant association between the format of architecture documentation and performance on architecture understanding tasks. Instead, prior exposure to the source code of the system was the dominant factor associated with answer quality. We also observed that answers to questions that require applying and creating activities were statistically significantly associated with the use of the system's source code to answer the question, whereas the document format or level of familiarity with the system were not. Subjective sentiment about the documentation format was comparable: Although more participants agreed that the structured document was easier to navigate and use for writing code, this relation was not statistically significant. We conclude that, in the limited experimental context studied, our results contradict the hypothesis that the format of architectural documentation matters. We surface two more important factors related to effective use of software architecture documentation: prior familiarity with the source code, and the type of architectural information sought.Comment: accepted to EMSE

Comprehension, Use Cases and Requirements

Within requirements engineering it is generally accepted that in writing specifications (or indeed any requirements phase document), one attempts to produce an artefact which will be simple to comprehend for the user. That is, whether the document is intended for customers to validate requirements, or engineers to understand what the design must deliver, comprehension is an important goal for the author. Indeed, advice on producing ‘readable’ or ‘understandable’ documents is often included in courses on requirements engineering. However, few researchers, particularly within the software engineering domain, have attempted either to define or to understand the nature of comprehension and it’s implications for guidance on the production of quality requirements. In contrast, this paper examines thoroughly the nature of textual comprehension, drawing heavily from research in discourse process, and suggests some implications for requirements (and other) software documentation. In essence, we find that the guidance on writing requirements, often prevalent within software engineering, may be based upon assumptions which are an oversimplification of the nature of comprehension. Furthermore, that these assumptions may lead to rules which detract from the quality of the requirements document and, thus, the understanding gained by the reader. Finally the paper suggests lessons learned which may be useful in formulating future guidance for the production of requirements documentation

The Untruthful Source: Writings, official and reform documentation 1900 - 1930

Ash’s article, ‘The untruthful source: Prisoner’s writings, official and reform documentation, 1900–1930’, published following her 2009 book on prison dress, questions how myths arose about the history of prisoners’ clothing in Britain in the first half of the 20th century. Ash shows that, although there was little critical writing about prisoners’ clothing in this period, the inmates’ own writing and archival documentation provide us with the means to achieve a new understanding of the political encounters played out in courtrooms. Ash’s research material included interwar Home Office circulars that announced the abolition of ‘broad arrow’ prison uniforms in 1920 and responses of prison governors that reveal their continuance after this date. Other key reform documents consulted by the author included those of Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Fenner Brockway’s 1922 Prison System Enquiry Committee Report, later published as English Prisons Under Local Government, which proposed radical prison reforms including the abolition of prison dress as criminal stigmatisation, and inmate testimonials of the continuance of the broad arrow uniform. The article demonstrates the difficulty for design historians investigating prison dress in establishing the truth about specific penal reform dates and practices on the basis of official government documents alone. Ash argues that the publications of penal reformers and the prison writings of inmates at the time also need to be read, in order to establish the clothing prisoners actually wore in confinement. Ash first presented this research as a paper to the 2009 Design History Society annual conference hosted by the theorising Visual Art and Design (tVAD) Research Group, School of Creative Arts, University of Hertfordshire. It was then selected to be peer reviewed and published in the University of Hertfordshire Working Papers on Design web-based journal

Pedagogical Documentation and Legislative Framework of Early Childhood Education and Care in Croatia

The importance and value of pedagogical documentation in the Republic of Croatia is emphasized by the National Curriculum for Early and Preschool Education (OG 01/15). However, in practice there is a different understanding of it, which is a reflection of the theory and practice divide. The divide is perpetuated by other acts and regulations that govern different segments of the educational system. This paper seeks to define pedagogical documentation in the light of the contemporary paradigm of early and preschool education and presents the content of current acts, standards and regulations regarding the definition of pedagogical documentation in relation to the National Curriculum. Although the harmonization of content around the definition of basic concepts does not guarantee their understanding and application in practice, it provides the same starting point needed for systematic quality change. Given that these are basic documents that regulate the work of educational institutions and have direct implications on quality, their compliance with each other and with modern theory is necessary

Technology and resources use by university teachers

International audienceIn this paper we introduce the study of the use of resources by mathematics teachers at university. The available resources evolve, in particular concerning Open Educational Resources offered on the Internet. Studying the consequences of these evolutions for the teaching and learning practices requires to introduce a comprehensive concept of resource. A resource for the teacher is defined here as anything likely to resource the teacher's practice: technologies, but also traditional textbooks on paper, or even discussions with colleagues. Teachers look for resources, transform them: we call this the documentation work of a teacher. Along this work, teachers develop documents, which associate resources and professional knowledge. The structured set of all these documents, developed along the years by a teacher is called his/her documentation system. Understanding the evolutions resulting from the use of different kinds of resources requires to study the teachers' documentation systems. We set up a study of these systems in the context of a university in France, investigating the work of six teachers with different profiles for their teaching in the first and second year of university with scientific students

Consolidated List of Requirements

This document is a consolidated catalogue of requirements for the Electronic Health Care Record (EHCR) and Electronic Health Care Record Architecture (EHCRA), gleaned largely from work done in the EU Framework III and IV programmes and CEN, but also including input from other sources including world-wide standardisation initiatives. The document brings together the relevant work done into a classified inventory of requirements to inform the on-going standardisation process as well as act as a guide to future implementation of EHCRA-based systems. It is meant as a contribution both to understanding of the standard and to the work that is being considered to improve the standard. Major features include the classification into issues affecting the Health Care Record, the EHCR, EHCR processing, EHCR interchange and the sharing of health care information and EHCR systems. The principal information sources are described briefly. It is offered as documentation that is complementary to the four documents of the ENV 13606 Parts I-IV produced by CEN Pts 26,27,28,29. The requirements identified and classified in this deliverable are referenced in other deliverables