Roadmapper : a Tool for Supporting Communication in Software Product Roadmapping

Software product roadmaps are practical tools that provide direction for product development. Software product roadmapping combines the reasoning why something is done with what should be done, often in the form of items to be delivered when constructing a software product. Successful roadmapping activities require collaboration from multiple stakeholder groups, such as business, development and management. However, aligning company goals, business strategy and development efforts is far from trivial. To this end, we conducted an action research study investigating how information exchange should be supported in software product roadmapping. As our results, we contribute the open-sourced Roadmapper tool and provide insights on how information exchange should be supported in software product roadmapping. Roadmapper supports information exchange in software product roadmapping by allowing different parties to clarify their views and making them understandable to other stakeholders, facilitating the discussion when they meet. Thus, Roadmapper visualises a common situational picture of software product development and acts as a group memory - helping to remember what the other stakeholders think about the matter.Peer reviewe

The application of procedural content generation in video game design

Video games have started to become a daily part of our lives. In 2015 the Entertainment Software Association reported that 155 million Americans play video games and 42 percent of those play video games regularly, spending at least three hours per week playing. In 2015 the American video game industry generated $22.41 billion in revenue. (Entertainment Software Association [ESA], 2015.) As the demand of content in video games continues to rise, the amount of resources used by game studios is increasing to meet the demand. The scaling of manual content creation in video games is becoming a problem and automatic content creation has been suggested to increase scalability (Iosup, 2011.) Procedural content generation tries to solve this problem by programmatically creating varying and personalised content on demand. Procedural content generation is intended to create content automatically in video games, or help in the creation process of content. The applications of procedural content generation in game design and development ranges from integrated solutions that automatically generate content, to pure inspiration and tool applications. (Togelius, Yannakakis, Stanley, & Browne, 2011.) Smith, Gan, Othenin-Girard and Whitehead (2011) have also proposed that video games can be procedural content generation-based, which creates new playable experiences through extensive usage of procedural content generation. This means that a completely new type of games is possible, with game mechanics built around content generation. Traditionally procedural content generation has been used in single sub-categories of game design, such as map generation to increase replayability. The problem with procedural content generation is that the content might not always be desirable or enjoyable. If the content generated is not for example playable at all, it is considered as a catastrophic failure. Catastrophic failures are one of the reasons why procedural content generation isn’t more widely used in commercial game development, as it may render the game impossible to complete. (Zafar & Mujtaba, 2012.) The usage of procedural content generation in video games is still not a very well researched subject, even though it has been used for a long time. This means that potential applications of PCG in the gaming industry might not have been all realized yet. (Togelius et al., 2011.) Hendrikx, Meijer, Van Der Velden, & Iosup (2013) released a comprehensive survey on procedural content generation and found that the related literature is distributed over multiple disciplines and co-evolves with multiple different areas in science. According to Yannakakis and Togelius (2014) PCG is an active research area and is heavily influenced by other AI research areas. Besides player modelling, PCG was found to be research area that affected the player’s gameplay experience the most. Even though procedural content generation has raised significant research interest in recent years, it has not been yet fully adopted to the practise of game design and should be contextualized to a more design centric perspective. (Khaled, Nelson, & Barr, 2013.) According to Smith (2014) it is essential that both the AI researchers and game designers have a common vocabulary when discussing procedural content generation systems. The focus of this thesis is to study PCG and its relation to game design. This thesis tries to answer the questions what is Procedural Content Generation and how Procedural Content Generation is used in game design. The research method selected is a literature review, where no new empiric knowledge is created. When referring to PCG and its related methods, the context is limited to video games. The in-depth study of different procedural methods, such as Perlin noise and L-systems, is left out of this study. The structure of this thesis is built on studying PCG and then exploring its application on video game design. The second chapter defines procedural content generation, search based procedural content generation, experience driven procedural content generation and the terminology related to them. The third chapter continues on the second chapter and explains why and how procedural content generation is used in game design. Finally discussion about the topic is presented with the conclusions

Improving video game designer workflow in procedural content generation-based game design:a design science approach

The time and money spent on video games are rapidly increasing, as the annual U.S game industry consumer spending has reached 23.5 billion dollars. The cost of producing video game content has grown in accordance with the consumer demand. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been suggested as a way to scale production costs with the demand. In addition to lowering content production costs, AI enables the creation of new forms of gameplay that are not possible with the current toolbox of the industry. The utilization of AI in game design is currently difficult, as it requires both theoretical knowledge and practical expertise. This thesis improved game designer workflow in PCG-based game design by explicating the necessary theoretical frameworks and practical steps needed to adopt AI-based practices in game design. Game designer workflow in PCG-based game design was improved by utilizing the design science research method (DSR). The constructed artefact was determined to be a method in accordance with the DSR knowledge contribution framework, and it was evaluated by using the Quick & Simple strategy from the FEDS framework. The risks related to artefact construction were assessed in accordance with the RMF4DSR framework. The metrics used to measure the performance of the artefact were determined by employing the GQM framework. Finally, the proposed method was evaluated by following it in constructing a simple PCG-based game with an accompanying AI system. The evaluation was performed by utilizing the FEDS framework in an artificial setting. After gathering and analysing the data from the artefact construction and evaluation, the method was modified to address its shortcomings. The produced design method is the main contribution of this thesis. The proposed method lowers the threshold for adopting PCG-based game design practices, and it helps designers, developers, and researchers by creating concrete and actionable steps to follow. The necessary theoretical frameworks and decision points are presented in a single method that demystifies the process of designing PCG-based games. Additional theoretical knowledge has been contributed by studying the topic from a practical perspective and extracting requirements from an actual design process. The method can be used as a practical cookbook for PCG-based projects and as a theoretical base for further studies on PCG-based game design. Future research tasks include evaluating the proposed method in an organizational context with real users. An organizational context also warrants means to managing risks in PCG-based game design projects. Finally, generator evaluation and explicit guidance on generator control are important future research topics

Synchronizing game and AI design in PCG-based game prototypes

Abstract Procedural content generation (PCG)-based game design aims to reach a new way of playing games by focusing gameplay around algorithmic game content generation. However, positioning interaction with PCG systems and generated content to the center of player experience poses design challenges for both game design and AI design. In order to create the wanted affordances, rich contextual information is required to make informed decisions on the generated content. While previous research has presented excellent developments on PCG’s possibilities, further considering context and affordances in the early stages of prototyping may aid designers reach these possibilities in a more consistent manner. This study is set to discuss how context, affordances and the game’s overall design can be considered during the prototyping process of PCG-based games. Misaligned game context and affordances can result in deeply rooted design issues that may later manifest as subpar gameplay experiences and increased development effort. These emergent issues are examined through a post-mortem case study to produce an extended PCG-based design process, featuring actionable steps, that takes context, affordances, and the game’s overall design into account through meaningful play

Information needs and presentation in agile software development

Context: Agile software companies applying the DevOps approach require collaboration and information sharing between practitioners in various roles to produce value. Adopting new development practices affects how practitioners collaborate, requiring companies to form a closer connection between business strategy and software development. However, the types of information management, sales, and development needed to plan, evaluate features, and reconcile their expectations with each other need to be clarified. Objective: To support practitioners in collaborating and realizing changes to their practices, we investigated what information is needed and how it should be represented to support different stakeholders in their tasks. Compared to earlier research, we adopted a holistic approach – by including practitioners throughout the development process – to better understand the information needs from a broader viewpoint. Method: We conducted six workshops and 12 semi-structured interviews at three Finnish small and medium-sized enterprises from different software domains. Thematic analysis was used to identify information-related issues and information and visualization needs for daily tasks. Three themes were constructed as the result of our analysis. Results: Visual information representation catalyzes stakeholder discussion, and supporting information exchange between stakeholder groups is vital for efficient collaboration in software product development. Additionally, user-centric data collection practices are needed to understand how software products are used and to support practitioners’ daily information needs. We also found that a passive way of representing information, such as a dashboard that would disturb practitioners only when attention is needed, was preferred for daily information needs. Conclusion: The software engineering community should consider reviewing the information needs of practitioners from a more holistic view to better understand how tooling support can benefit information exchange between stakeholder groups when making product development decisions and how those tools should be built to accommodate different stakeholder views.Peer reviewe

Digital Twins About Humans - Design Objectives From Three Projects

Abstract Digital twin (DT) emerges as a key concept of the Industry 4.0 paradigm and beyond. However, the current literature lacks focus on humans and human activities as a part of complex system DTs. Acknowledging human aspects in DTs can enhance work performance, well-being, motivation, and personal development of professionals. This study examines emerging requirements for human digital twins (HDTs) in three use cases of industry–academia collaboration on complex systems. The results draw together the overall design problem and four design objectives for HDTs. We propose to combine the machine and human-related aspects of DTs and highlight the need for virtual-to-virtual interoperability between HDTs and machines alike. Furthermore, we outline differences between humans and machines regarding digital twinning by addressing human activities and knowledge-based behavior on systems. Design of HDTs requires understanding of individual professional characteristics, such as skills and information preferences, together with twinning between the physical and digital machine entities and interactions between the human and machine DTs. As the field moves toward including humans as a part of the DT concept, incorporating HDTs in complex systems emerges as an increasingly significant issue

Information needs and presentation in agile software development

Abstract Context: Agile software companies applying the DevOps approach require collaboration and information sharing between practitioners in various roles to produce value. Adopting new development practices affects how practitioners collaborate, requiring companies to form a closer connection between business strategy and software development. However, the types of information management, sales, and development needed to plan, evaluate features, and reconcile their expectations with each other need to be clarified. Objective: To support practitioners in collaborating and realizing changes to their practices, we investigated what information is needed and how it should be represented to support different stakeholders in their tasks. Compared to earlier research, we adopted a holistic approach – by including practitioners throughout the development process – to better understand the information needs from a broader viewpoint. Method: We conducted six workshops and 12 semi-structured interviews at three Finnish small and medium-sized enterprises from different software domains. Thematic analysis was used to identify information-related issues and information and visualization needs for daily tasks. Three themes were constructed as the result of our analysis. Results: Visual information representation catalyzes stakeholder discussion, and supporting information exchange between stakeholder groups is vital for efficient collaboration in software product development. Additionally, user-centric data collection practices are needed to understand how software products are used and to support practitioners’ daily information needs. We also found that a passive way of representing information, such as a dashboard that would disturb practitioners only when attention is needed, was preferred for daily information needs. Conclusion: The software engineering community should consider reviewing the information needs of practitioners from a more holistic view to better understand how tooling support can benefit information exchange between stakeholder groups when making product development decisions and how those tools should be built to accommodate different stakeholder views

Towards stakeholder specific visualization of learning paths in software engineering teaching

Abstract In software engineering and other technology related teaching educators increasingly integrate defacto online tools into coursework. However, the impact of using these tools is not clearly understood. To this end, this research project will provide a visual dashboard with extensive and stakeholderspecific visualizations to serve the diverse needs of different stakeholders, e.g., teachers, teaching assistants, administrative personnel and students. This paper reports the results of our initial analysis of what kind of views teachers want to take to their courses and what kind of information teachers see as valuable visualizations on learners’ progress. We conducted 17 semi-structured interviews in two universities. The interviews were thematically analysed, giving as results three key themes. The results give a good starting point to create a visual course dashboard. Our study takes a step towards supporting various stakeholders in learning environments through visual means. While the input data, metrics and visualizations are based on the tools used in software engineering courses, we see that several results can be applied to other contexts

Roadmapper:a tool for supporting communication in software product roadmapping

Abstract Software product roadmaps are practical tools that provide direction for product development. Software product roadmapping combines the reasoning why something is done with what should be done, often in the form of items to be delivered when constructing a software product. Successful roadmapping activities require collaboration from multiple stakeholder groups, such as business, development and management. However, aligning company goals, business strategy and development efforts is far from trivial. To this end, we conducted an action research study investigating how information exchange should be supported in software product roadmapping. As our results, we contribute the open-sourced Roadmapper tool and provide insights on how information exchange should be supported in software product roadmapping. Roadmapper supports information exchange in software product roadmapping by allowing different parties to clarify their views and making them understandable to other stakeholders, facilitating the discussion when they meet. Thus, Roadmapper visualises a common situational picture of software product development and acts as a group memory — helping to remember what the other stakeholders think about the matter