Alignment of requirements and services with user feedback

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.It is widely acknowledged that software reuse reduces the cost and effort of software development. Over the years many solutions have emerged that propose methodologies to support software reusability. Service oriented software engineering (SOSE) advocates software reuse while aiming to achieve better alignment of software solutions to business requirements. Service orientation has evolved from Object Oriented Analysis and Design (OOAD) and Component Based Software Development (CBSD), the major difference being that reusable artefacts are in the form of services rather than objects or packaged components. Although SOSE is considered a new architectural style of software development that addresses some of the shortcomings of previous approaches, it has also inherited some of the challenges of CBSD, and OOAD, in particular in the requirements engineering process. In Service Oriented Requirements Engineering (SORE) an analyst has an additional challenging task of aligning requirements and services to select the optimally matched service from an increasingly large set of available online services. Much of the existing empirical research in SORE has focused mainly on the technical aspects while the human related issues are yet to be fully explored and addressed. The lack of empirical evidence to investigate the human related issues in SORE provides the overall motivation for the research covered in this thesis. User involvement in software development has been the focus of significant research and has been intuitively and axiomatically accepted to play a positive role in users’ satisfaction thus leading to system success. More recently, past users’ feedback, reviews and comments from online sources are considered a form of user involvement. These offer valuable information to assist analysts in increasing their knowledge for making more informed decision for service selection. In service oriented paradigm the full extent of the benefits of this form of user involvement has not been empirically investigated. This thesis addresses three important high level research goals: (1) to investigate and identify the most important challenges of SORE, (2) to design an innovative and flexible method to address the top challenge of SORE, focusing specifically on the important relationship between user involvement and system success, and (3) to evaluate the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed method in an empirical study. This thesis presents research conducted in three parts for achieving each of the stated goals respectively: problem analysis, solution analysis and implementation analysis. For problem analysis a mixed method approach is used, i.e. literature review, quantitative online survey, and qualitative industrial interview study. For solution analysis a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) is conducted to analyse the existing empirical studies about the relationship between user involvement and system success. Inspired by the results of this SLR, I designed the ARISE (Alignment of RequIrement and SErvices) method, following Situational Method Engineering to make it flexible for adoption in various project contexts. The ARISE method aims to exploit the benefits of experiences of past users for service selection. For implementation analysis, the ARISE method was instantiated in a case study with real life data with two objectives in mind: (1) validation of the effectiveness of ARISE in overcoming the challenges of alignment, and (2) improvement and refinement of the ARISE method. Analysis of the results of this validation revealed the need for automated tool support for the ARISE method. This automation is achieved through the design and implementation of software tools created for supporting the analysts in service selection. The systematic and mixed method research approach of the problem analysis phase identified that alignment of requirements and services was the top challenge for practitioners in SORE. It also increased our understanding of why this alignment is considered the most challenging task. The findings of the SLR confirmed that the effective user involvement in software development in general, and in requirements engineering in particular could lead to system success. In SORE, the past users of services can be involved through their feedback and sentiments about the services from online sources. These concepts were the basis for the design of the ARISE method. The results of the case study complemented by the experimentation with the automated tools revealed that past users’ feedback and sentiments are indeed valuable sources of information that can assist analysts in overcoming the challenges of alignment between requirements and services thus making a more informed decision in service selection

A requirements engineering framework for integrated systems development for the construction industry

Computer Integrated Construction (CIC) systems are computer environments through which collaborative working can be undertaken. Although many CIC systems have been developed to demonstrate the communication and collaboration within the construction projects, the uptake of CICs by the industry is still inadequate. This is mainly due to the fact that research methodologies of the CIC development projects are incomplete to bridge the technology transfer gap. Therefore, defining comprehensive methodologies for the development of these systems and their effective implementation on real construction projects is vital. Requirements Engineering (RE) can contribute to the effective uptake of these systems because it drives the systems development for the targeted audience. This paper proposes a requirements engineering approach for industry driven CIC systems development. While some CIC systems are investigated to build a broad and deep contextual knowledge in the area, the EU funded research project, DIVERCITY (Distributed Virtual Workspace for Enhancing Communication within the Construction Industry), is analysed as the main case study project because its requirements engineering approach has the potential to determine a framework for the adaptation of requirements engineering in order to contribute towards the uptake of CIC systems

Using mobile RE tools to give end-users their own voice

Researchers highlight end-user involvement in system design as an important concept for developing useful and usable solutions. However, end-user involvement in software engineering is still an open-ended topic. Novel paradigms such as service-oriented computing strengthen the need for more active end-user involvement in order to provide systems that are tailored to individual end-user needs. Our work is based on the fact that the majority of end-users are familiar with mobile devices and use an increasing number of mobile applications. A mobile tool enabling end-user led requirements elicitation could be just one of many applications installed on end-users' mobile devices. In this paper, we present a framework of end-user involvement in requirements elicitation which motivates our research. The main contribution of our research is a tool-supported requirements elicitation approach allowing end-users to document needs in situ. Furthermore, we present first evaluation results to highlight the feasibility of on-site end-user led requirements elicitation

Effective communication in requirements elicitation: A comparison of methodologies

The elicitation or communication of user requirements comprises an early and critical but highly error-prone stage in system development. Socially oriented methodologies provide more support for user involvement in design than the rigidity of more traditional methods, facilitating the degree of user-designer communication and the 'capture' of requirements. A more emergent and collaborative view of requirements elicitation and communication is required to encompass the user, contextual and organisational factors. From this accompanying literature in communication issues in requirements elicitation, a four-dimensional framework is outlined and used to appraise comparatively four different methodologies seeking to promote a closer working relationship between users and designers. The facilitation of communication between users and designers is subject to discussion of the ways in which communicative activities can be 'optimised' for successful requirements gathering, by making recommendations based on the four dimensions to provide fruitful considerations for system designers

The role of user requirements research in medical device development

Aims and Objectives: This research aims to suggest a concise framework to help in the better conceptualisation and integration of users in the medical device development (MDD) process. The current economic, political and social climate concerning the matter of healthcare delivery has resulted in the emergence of numerous users and user groups for whom the healthcare system has not previously catered for. These users have created ambiguity for the designers and manufacturers of medical devices as the boundaries between their needs and requirements have blurred, outdating current methods of MDD to meet consumer needs. Research Design and Methodology: The research methodology begins primarily with conducting a literature search on the theories relating to user requirements and medical device development. The paper outlines these findings through initially describing users and user involvement and relating them to medical devices. The cross-disciplinary nature of healthcare influenced the investigation into multiple disciplines including; IT, Ergonomics – particularly participatory research, Psychology and Design. These disciplines expose various methods and processes, which are useful to user requirements research. These methods were analysed for their compatibility, and then used to construct a conceptual framework for user involvement in MDD. Results: The research insinuates the true significance of user involvement and hence resulted in the formation of a conceptual framework to aid user involvement in the MDD process. The framework is produced by the amalgamation of relevant methods examined across the disciplines, in a complimentary fashion. Conclusion: The originality of this research lies in its use of a multidisciplinary approach. Previous research claiming multi-methods has dealt with combining two disciplines or methods at a time i.e. Computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) with participatory research (Scandurra et al, 2008) for the needs analysis of healthcare professionals only. Collaboration across disciplines has also been investigated (Johnson et al, 2005), but this was for the purpose of redesign rather than initial designs. This framework can help medical device designers to fully access all user requirements through more extensive collaboration right at the start. It reduces the risk of high costs involved in device rejection, usually associated with belated recognition of user needs in the design cycle

Benefits of and barriers to involving users in medical device technology development and evaluation

Objectives: This study investigated the benefits of, and barriers to user involvement in medical device technology development and evaluation. Methods: A structured review of published literature in peer-reviewed journals. Results: This review revealed that the main benefits of user involvement were an increased access to user needs, experiences and ideas; improvements in medical device designs and user interfaces; and an increase in the functionality, usability and quality of the devices. On the other hand, resource issues, particularly those of time and money were found the key impediments to involving users in the development and evaluation of medical device technologies. This study has categorised both the benefits and barriers to user involvement also. Conclusions: The involvement of users in MDTD&E requires resources, which are limited; however, it is essential from both users and manufacturers perspectives

Software development methods and usability: Perspectives from a survey in the software industry in Norway

This paper investigates the relationship between traditional software development methodologies and usability. The point of departure is the assumption that two important disciplines in software development, one of software development methods (SDMs) and one of usability work, are not integrated in industrial software projects. Building on previous research we investigate two questions; (1) Will software companies generally acknowledge the importance of usability, but not prioritise it in industrial projects? and (2) To what degree are software development methods and usability perceived by practitioners as being integrated? To this end a survey in the Norwegian IT industry was conducted. From a sample of 259 companies we received responses from 78 companies. In response to our first research question, our findings show that although there is a positive bias towards usability, the importance of usability testing is perceived to be much less than that of usability requirements. Given the strong time and cost pressures associated with the software industry, we believe that these results highlight that there is a gap between intention and reality. Regarding our second research question our survey revealed that companies perceive usability and software development methods to be integrated. This is in contrast to earlier research, which, somewhat pessimistically, has argued for the existence of two different cultures, one of software development and one of usability. The findings give hope for the future, in particular because the general use of system development methods are pragmatic and adaptable

The relevance of specific csfs for stakeholders during ERP implementation: an empirical study from Oman

The success of ERP systems implementation is affected by the extent to which stakeholders have been prepared for the project activities and its outcomes. Stakeholders’ preparation needs change as the ERP implementation lifecycle progresses and varies across stakeholder groups. Therefore a dynamic model is needed for such preparation. However such a model needs to reflect the relevance of different CSFs to different stakeholder groups at different stages of the ERP implementation life-cycle. This study examines empirical evidence from a survey conducted in Omani organisations to determine what these individual CSFs are and how they are distributed across the ERP implementation life-cycle for different stakeholder groups. The CSFs included in the survey were derived from a structured review of literature. Purposive sampling was used to select respondents representing different ERP stakeholders groups, all respondents had both experience and knowledge of ERP implementations. The survey data are analysed and the distribution of relevant CSFs across the ERP lifecycle for the different stakeholder groups are presente

Medical device technologies: Who is the user?

A myriad of medical devices deployed by many users play an essential role in healthcare, and they, and their users, need to be defined, classified and coded effectively. This study provides definitions of terms frequently employed to describe the users of medical device technologies (MDT) as well as a classification of such users. Devices are widely used, developed and assessed by many others than clinicians. Thus, users of medical devices need to be classified in various relevant ways, such as primary and secondary users; user groups such as healthcare professionals, patients, carers, persons with disabilities, those with special needs, as well as professionals allied with healthcare. Proper definition and classification of MDT users is particularly important for integrating the users’ perspectives in the process of MDT development and assessment, as well as in relation to the regulatory, health and safety, and insurance perspectives concerning MDT