An Exploratory Study of Forces and Frictions affecting Large-Scale Model-Driven Development

In this paper, we investigate model-driven engineering, reporting on an exploratory case-study conducted at a large automotive company. The study consisted of interviews with 20 engineers and managers working in different roles. We found that, in the context of a large organization, contextual forces dominate the cognitive issues of using model-driven technology. The four forces we identified that are likely independent of the particular abstractions chosen as the basis of software development are the need for diffing in software product lines, the needs for problem-specific languages and types, the need for live modeling in exploratory activities, and the need for point-to-point traceability between artifacts. We also identified triggers of accidental complexity, which we refer to as points of friction introduced by languages and tools. Examples of the friction points identified are insufficient support for model diffing, point-to-point traceability, and model changes at runtime.Comment: To appear in proceedings of MODELS 2012, LNCS Springe

The relevance of model-driven engineering thirty years from now

International audienceAlthough model-driven engineering (MDE) is now an established approach for developing complex software systems, it has not been universally adopted by the software industry. In order to better understand the reasons for this, as well as to identify future opportunities for MDE, we carried out a week-long design thinking experiment with 15 MDE experts. Participants were facilitated to identify the biggest problems with current MDE technologies, to identify grand challenges for society in the near future, and to identify ways that MDE could help to address these challenges. The outcome is a reflection of the current strengths of MDE, an outlook of the most pressing challenges for society at large over the next three decades, and an analysis of key future MDE research opportunities

Interventions to Improve Inpatients’ Sleep Quality in the Intensive Care Unit and Acute Ward Settings: A Qualitative Literature Review

Background: Sleep is essential for the physical and psychological restoration of inpatients, and lack of sleep results in sleep deprivation and poor sleep quality, with potentially harmful consequences. Aim: To summarise sleep-promoting interventions in the Intensive care unit (ICU) and acute ward setting. Method and results: Six databases were searched to obtain studies for review and eight studies were selected, appraised, analysed and produced two themes: sleep-disturbing factors and sleep-promoting strategies. Sleep-disturbing factors included environmental factors (such as light and noise), illness-related factors (such as pain, anxiety and discomfort), clinical care and diagnostics. Sleep-promoting strategies included using pharmacological aids (medication) and non-pharmacological aids (reducing noise and disturbances, eye masks, earplugs and educational and behavioural changes). Conclusion: The literature review showed that both ICU and acute ward settings affect patients' sleep and both use similar strategies to improve this. Nevertheless, noise and sleep disturbances remain the most critical sleep-inhibiting factors in both settings. The review recommended future research should focus on behavioural changes among health professionals to reduce noise and improve patients' sleep

Measuring the Effectiveness of Constructivist and Behaviourist Assignments in CS102

Ye

Assessing the State-of-Practice of Model-Based Engineering in the Embedded Systems Domain

Model-Based Engineering (MBE) aims at increasing the effectiveness of engineering by using models as key artifacts in the development process. While empirical studies on the use and the effects of MBE in industry exist, there is only little work targeting the embedded systems domain. We contribute to the body of knowledge with a study on the use and the assessment of MBE in that particular domain. We collected quantitative data from 112 subjects, mostly professionals working with MBE, with the goal to assess the current State of Practice and the challenges the embedded systems domain is facing. Our main findings are that MBE is used by a majority of all participants in the embedded systems domain, mainly for simulation, code generation, and documentation. Reported positive effects of MBE are higher quality and improved reusability. Main shortcomings are interoperability difficulties between MBE tools, high training effort for developers and usability issues

Analyzing the Effect of the Collaborative Interactions on Performance of Requirements Validation

[Context] Requirements validation is critical in the pursuit of quality software. It usually demands the collaboration of multiple stakeholders with different perspectives. [Question] Our community has reported scarce experimental studies on the role of collaborative interaction in requirements validation. The goal of this study is to explore the effect of collaborative interactions on the performance of requirements validation. [Principal ideas] We performed a quasi-experiment involving 118 bachelor students to act analysts, and 40 volunteering students from the Social Sciences department to act clients. The requirements were specified using UML activity diagrams. The overall performance is measured in terms of efficiency (missing requirements correctly identified in a time interval), and effectiveness (degree to which the validation yielded the correct result). Moreover, we measured also subjects’ satisfaction on collaboration (questionnaire). [Contribution] We found that the teams composed exclusively of analysts showed better efficiency and effectiveness than mixed teams (client and analysts). However, for certain types of requirements, the mixed teams’ efficiency was superior. Also, the degree of satisfaction was higher among the clients than among the analysts. We end up with identifying future research topics