Context for goal-level product line derivation

Product line engineering aims at developing a family of products and facilitating the derivation of product variants from it. Context can be a main factor in determining what products to derive. Yet, there is gap in incorporating context with variability models. We advocate that, in the first place, variability originates from human intentions and choices even before software systems are constructed, and context influences variability at this intentional level before the functional one. Thus, we propose to analyze variability at an early phase of analysis adopting the intentional ontology of goal models, and studying how context can influence such variability. Below we present a classification of variation points on goal models, analyze their relation with context, and show the process of constructing and maintaining the models. Our approach is illustrated with an example of a smarthome for people with dementia problems. 1

Digital Motivation, Digital Addiction and Responsibility Requirements - Keynote

Digital media can utilise game and behaviour change mechanisms to enrich engagement and user experience and increase their retention. Such mechanisms can also be used within the business software so that performance and quality of work are enhanced, e.g. gamification. While the positive side of these advances is recognised, there is little acknowledgement about their potential adverse effects on well-being. With recent research showing evidence of some digital media usage patterns being problematic and meeting the criteria of behavioural addiction, questions on the ethics, practices and responsibility of software companies are on the rise. Unlike alcohol, digital media can be designed to sense and react to problematic usage styles. This invited talk discusses why and how the software engineering community would need to take part in designing for conscious and informed technology usag

Location-based variability for mobile information systems

Advances in size, power, and ubiquity of computing technology, sensors, and communication technology made possible the development of so-called mobile or nomadic information systems. A mobile information system has the potential to autonomously change its behaviour according to different location settings. Variability of location and system behaviour is a central feature of such new generation of information systems. This paper stresses the importance of modeling and analyzing variability of location as a basis for variability of software. We describe graphical and formal techniques to model location information, show their usage in conjunction with the goal-oriented framework i*/Tropos, and propose three analysis techniques on location-based goal models

Location-based software modeling and analysis: Tropos-based approach

Abstract. The continuous growth of interest in mobile applications makes the concept of location essential to design and develop software systems. Location-based software is supposed to be able to monitor the surrounding location and choose accordingly the most appropriate behavior. In this paper, we propose a novel conceptual framework to model and analyze location-based software. We mainly focus on the social facets of locations adopting concepts such as actor, resource, and location-based behavior. Our approach is based on Tropos methodology and allows the analyst to elicit and model software requirements according to the different locations where the software will operate. We propose an extension of Tropos modeling and adapt its process to suit well with the development of location-based software. The proposed framework also includes automated analysis techniques to reason about the relation between location and location-based software.

Location-based Modeling and Analysis: Tropos-based Approach

The continuous growth of interest in mobile applications makes the concept of location essential to design and develop software systems. Location-based software is supposed to be able to monitor the location and choose accordingly the most appropriate behavior. In this paper, we propose a novel conceptual framework to model and analyze location-based software. We mainly focus on the social facets of locations adopting concepts such as social actor, resource, and location-based behavior. Our approach is based on Tropos methodology and allows the analyst to elicit and model software requirements according to the different locations where the software will operate. We propose an extension of Tropos modeling and adapt its process to suit well with the development of location-based software. The proposed framework also includes automated analysis techniques to reason about the relation between location and location-based behavior

Goal-based self-contextualization

Abstract. System self-contextualizability is the system ability to autonomously adapt its behavior to the uncontrollable relevant context to keep its objectives satisfied. Self-contextualizable system must have alternative behaviors each fitting to a set of contexts. We propose to start considering context at the level of requirements engineering, adopting Tropos goal model to express requirements and complementing it with our proposed context analysis. We define variation points on goal model where a context-based decision might need to be taken, and propose constructs to analyze context. While goal analysis provides constructs to hierarchically analyze goals and discover alternative sets of tasks to be executed to satisfy a goal, our proposed context analysis provides constructs to hierarchically analyze context and discover alternative sets of facts to be monitored to verify a context.

Modeling and analyzing variability for mobile information systems

Abstract. Advances in size, power, and ubiquity of computing, sensors, and communication technology made possible the development of mobile or nomadic information systems. Variability of location and system behavior is a central issue in mobile information systems, where behavior of software has to change and re-adapt to the different location settings. This paper concerns modeling and analysis of the complementary relation between software and location variability. We use graphical and formal location modeling techniques, show how to elicit and use location model in conjunction with Tropos goal-oriented framework, and introduce automated analysis on the location-based models.

Persuasive and Culture-aware Feedback Acquisition

User feedback is an important factor to improve software quality. For example, it can provide information on missing features and clarify user trends and preferences for future improvement. However, gathering user’s feedback is not an easy process since the majority of users lack motivation and interest in providing feedback, especially in a constant and frequent style. In addition, stud- ies have noted that the cultural differences among users also play a role in affect- ing their motivations to feedback acquisition. In this paper, we empirically inves- tigate the role of culture in affecting users’ perception and motivations to give feedback. Our study identifies some key differences between Western and Mid- dle Eastern users on what motivate them to provide feedback and what could have an influence on the quality of the feedback they give. This also makes the case for the need to design a persuasive and culture-aware feedback acquisition