Enabling Multi-Stakeholder Cooperative Modelling in Automotive Software Development and Implications for Model Driven Software Development

One of the motivations for a model driven approach to software development is to increase the involvement for a range of stakeholders in the requirements phases. This inevitably leads to a greater diversity of roles being involved in the production of models, and one of the issues with such diversity is that of providing models which are both accessible and appropriate for the phenomena being modelled. Indeed, such accessibility issues are a clear focus of this workshop. However, a related issue when producing models across multiple parties,often at dierent sites, or even dierent organisations is the management of such model artefacts. In particular, different parties may wish to experiment with model choices. For example, this idea of prototypingprocesses by experimenting with variants of models is one which has been used for many years by business process modellers, in order to highlight the impact of change, and thus improve alignment of process and supporting software specications. The problem often occurs when such variants needed to be merged, for example, to be used within a shared repository. This papers reports upon experiences and ndings of this merging problem as evaluated at Bosch Automotive. At Bosch we have dierent sites where modellers will make changes to shared models, and these models will subsequently require merging into a common repository. Currently, this work has concentrated on one type of diagram, the class diagram. However, it seems clear that the issue of how best to merge models where collaborative multi-party working takes places is one which has a significant potential impact upon the entire model driven process, and, given the diversity of stakeholders, could be particularly problematic for the requirements phase. In fact, class diagrams can also be used for information or data models created in the system analysis step. Hence, we believe that the lessons learned from this work will be valuable in tackling the realities of a commercially viable model driven process

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

Shame Now: Ruth Leys Diagnoses the New Queer Shame Culture

From Guilt to Shame: Auschwitz and After by Ruth Leys. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007. Pp. 216. $25.95 paper.

A Study of the Self-Determination of High School Students in a Blended Learning Environment and Meeting the Goals for 21st Century Student Outcomes

The 21st century has ushered Generation Z into every educational setting. Their expectations for how, where, and how fast they learn are as diverse their world views. With the use of electronic, mobile learning devices increasing each year, there is a noted deficiency in research to provide insight into how this computer-based learning is impacting students in high schools. In this investigation, a self-paced, internet-based instructional program is utilized by students in a brick-and-mortar location with a certified teacher as well as anywhere the student has an internet connection and a computer device. An internet based, five-part Likert scale survey was used to collect quantitative data for all five of the research questions in the study. Statistical analysis included paired-sample t-test and z-score calculations to determine the results of the hypothesis tests. A qualitative survey component was employed to further analyze two of the five research questions. The quantitative analysis indicates self-determination in a blended learning environment is greater than in the traditional learning environment with respect to competence only. Qualitative response analysis supported the quantitative data analysis for two of the research questions. Therefore, this indicated a positive perception from students in the blended learning environment for the respective areas. The qualitative responses supported the quantitative results and provided a more authentic, holistic perspective of the respective components of the research study. The researcher recommends that practitioners in blended learning environments make a concerted effort to build awareness and develop and cultivate the noncognitive traits and soft skills that are the foundation of 21st century skills higher education that businesses and industry expect students and perspective employees to possess

Introduction

This special issue grew out of the event Honoring Eve: A Symposium celebrating the Work of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, which was held on 31 october 2009 at Boston University (BU), about six months after Sedgwick passed away on 12 April. More than two hundred people came to the symposium from all over the United States and as far away as Spain and Israel. they were not just academics, but artists, musicians, writers, and many others who had been touched by Sedgwick\u27s work. Within BU, faculty members from across the university prepared for the symposium by assigning Sedgwick\u27s work in courses whose diversity testifies to the breadth of her influence: from Family Trouble: Contesting Kinship In Theory And Literature to Japanese Popular Culture to Buddhism in America and the New Testament Seminar on Gender and Christian Origins. In honor of Sedgwick\u27s commitment to pedagogy and activism, in the week before the event we also held two workshops at which faculty members and one hundred undergraduates gathered to discuss her essay How to Bring Your Kids up Gay. Although this essay was written before many of these students were born, Sedgwick\u27s fiery insistence that the existence of gay people be understood not just as a fact to be tolerated but as a positive desideratum, a needed condition of life remains just as powerful as when she wrote it in 1991

Sōseki great and small: notes on “Sōseki’s Diversity”

The English original of the Introduction to a "mini-special issue" on Soseki of the Japanese journal Bungaku 文学, Nov.-Dec. 2014

Introduction: Honoring Eve: a special issue on the work of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick

This special issue grew out of the event "Honoring Eve: A Symposium celebrating the Work of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick," which was held on October 31, 2009 at Boston University (BU), about six months after Sedgwick passed away on April 12, 2009. More than two hundred people came to the symposium from all over the United States and as far away as Spain and Israel. they were not just academics, but artists, musicians, writers, and many others who had been touched by Sedgwick's work. Within BU, faculty members from across the university prepared for the symposium by assigning Sedgwick's work in courses whose diversity testifies to the breadth of her influence: from "Family Trouble: Contesting Kinship In Theory And Literature" to "Japanese Popular Culture" to "Buddhism in America" and the "New Testament Seminar on Gender and Christian Origins." In honor of Sedgwick's commitment to pedagogy and activism, in the week before the event we also held two workshops at which faculty members and one hundred undergraduates gathered to discuss her essay "How to Bring Your Kids up Gay." Although this essay was written before many of these students were born, Sedgwick's fiery insistence that the existence of gay people be understood not just as a fact to be tolerated but as a "positive desideratum, a needed condition of life" remains just as powerful as when she wrote it in 1991