A framework for intention-driven requirements engineering of innovative software products

Requirements engineering is highly challenging particularly when designing innovative software products. This is so because there are no corresponding products, ultimate needs of actors are difficult to capture, the products may have unforeseeable impacts on the actors’ behavior, and it is hard to find out how value-added and competitive the product actually is. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for intention-driven requirements engineering of innovative software products, which combines technological, social and business viewpoints. We illustrate its use with a short example related to the domain of web mapping services and augmented reality. peerReviewed

A Quantitative Method for Localizing User Interface Problems: The D-TEO Method

A large array of evaluation methods have been propo sed to identify Website usability problems. In log-based evaluation, inform ation about the performance of users is collected and stored into log files, and used to find problems and deficiencies in Web page designs. Most methods require the programming and modeling of large task models, which are cumbersome processes for evaluato rs. Also, because much statistical data is collected onto log files, recognizing which Web pages require deeper usability analysis is difficult. This paper suggests a novel quantitative method, called the D-TEO, for locating problematic Web pages. This semiautoma ted method explores the decomposition of interacti…

Towards an Ontology for Information Systems Development—A Contextual Approach

This chapter presents an ISD ontology, which aims to provide an integrated conceptualization of ISD through anchoring it upon a contextual approach. The ISD ontology is composed of concepts, relationships, and constraints referring to purposes, actors, actions, and objects of ISD. It is presented as a vocabulary with explicit definitions and in meta models in a UML-based ontology representation language. We believe that although not complete the ISD ontology can promote the achievement of a shared understanding of contextual aspects in ISD. It can be used to analyze and compare existing frameworks and meta models and as a groundwork for engineering new ISD methods, and parts thereof. IGI PU…

Business architecture development at public administration - Insights from government EA method engineering project in Finland

Governments worldwide are concerned for efficient production of services to customers. To improve quality of services and to make service production more efficient, information and communication technology (ICT) is largely exploited in public administration (PA). Succeeding in this exploitation calls for large-scale planning which embraces issues from strategic to technological level. In this planning the notion of enterprise architecture (EA) is commonly applied. One of the sub-architectures of EA is business architecture (BA). BA planning is challenging in PA due to a large number of stakeholders, a wide set of customers, and solid and hierarchical structures of organizations. To support …

Contextual Method Integration

An Integrated Framework for Meta Modeling

Meta modeling is an essential means to systematize, formalize, standardize, integrate, analyze and compare models, techniques, methods and tools. Numerous fields, such as databases, software engineering, software architectures, semantic web, computer-aided tools and method engineering, have benefited from it. The importance of meta modeling is ever increasing along with the emergence of novel approaches, architectures, techniques and languages based on UML and MDA. This paper presents a framework to integrate and compare divergent conceptions of meta modeling in databases, software engineering, and information systems development. The framework is applied to analyze and compare conceptions …

ITKA111 Oliosuuntautunut analyysi ja suunnittelu

An ontological framework and a methodical skeleton for method engineering : a contextual approach

Tietojärjestelmien suunnittelumenetelmiä kehitetään ja sovitetaan usein intuitiivisesti ja improvisoiden. Vaarana on, että näin syntyy vaikeasti ymmärrettäviä, tehottomasti sovitettavia ja huonosti soveltuvia suunnittelumenetelmiä. Improvisoivalle menetelmäkehitykselle on usein ominaista myös suurempi resurssitarve. Syynä tälle tilanteelle on se, että menetelmäkehitykseltä puuttuu kunnollinen menetelmätuki. Kirjallisuudessa on kyllä esitetty laaja kirjo menetelmäkehityksen strategioita, lähestymistapoja ja tekniikoita, mutta nämä tarjoavat vain osaratkaisuja. Kokonaisvaltaista menetelmätukea ei ole tarjolla. Ehdotetuilta ratkaisuilta puuttuu usein myös laaja-alainen ja teoreettinen käsitepe…

User Psychology in Interaction Design: The Role of Design Ontologies

In the various forms of interaction design, it is essential to analyze, understand, and predict human behavior. This is equally true with devices such as information systems that are meant to interact with people. The importance of these problems has inspired scientists to develop numerous approaches to investigate and explicate human actions. However, they have mainly been characterized by intuitive and folk psychological approaches to the human mentality in interaction. To improve the scientific foundations of design, we present here a psychology-based approach to collecting user knowledge, as well as a related design practice. The former can be called user psychology and the latter the a…

EA as a tool in change and coherency management - A case of a local government

In order to lead a local government towards its politically set strategic objectives, the vision of the overall status quo, as well as of the desired target state of the complex multi-agent system have to be clear. To encounter the challenges of the change management in merging six former local governments into one, in forming a new NPM related operation model, in planning and leading strategic political objectives, and in order to leverage on the information usability produced in everyday governance practices, a Government Enterprise Architecture (GEA) method has been adopted in the city of Kouvola in Finland. The study is a case study by action research adopting the Finnish GEA method in …

A Context-Based Enterprise Ontology

The main purpose of an enterprise ontology is to promote the common understanding between people across enterprises, as well as to serve as a communication medium between people and applications, and between different applications. This paper outlines a top-level ontology, called the context-based enterprise ontology, which aims to advance the understanding of the nature, purposes and meanings of things in enterprises with providing basic concepts for conceiving, structuring and representing things within contexts and/or as contexts. The ontology is based on the contextual approach according to which a context involves seven domains: purpose, actor, action, object, facility, location, and t…

Government Enterprise Architecture Grid Adaptation in Finland

In government, support for strategic political steering, administrative and cross-sectoral development, and integration of processes and systems can be sought out of enterprise architecture (EA) planning. To facilitate this, a proper EA method covering essential government levels is needed. A constructive case study has been carried out to create an adaptation model of Finnish government EA (GEA) grid. The study builds on general principles of method adaptation and observations about GEA method engineering and its pilot adaptations in Finnish State Administration. The model presents systematic guidelines for situational GEA grid adaptation and reuse in Finnish State administration. The mode…

How Are Agile Methods and Practices Deployed in Video Game Development? A Survey into Finnish Game Studios

Agile methods and practices are largely deployed in software engineering. Game development shares many features that have given rise to the emergence of agility in software engineering. There is, however, a lack of understanding of the extent to which agile methods and practices are actually deployed in video game development and with which impacts. This paper reports on a survey into Finnish game studios. It shows that Scrum and, to a lesser degree, XP and Kanban are frequently used in the game studios. The most positive impacts of agility concern communication, quality of video games, and finding fun and implementable features earlier.

OntoFrame

A large number of strategies, approaches, meta models, techniques and procedures have been suggested to support method engineering (ME). Most of these artifacts, here called the ME artifacts, have been constructed, in an inductive manner, synthesizing ME practice and existing ISD methods without any theory-driven conceptual foundation. Also those ME artifacts which have some conceptual groundwork have been anchored on foundations that only partly cover ME. This chapter presents an ontological framework, called OntoFrame, which can be used as a coherent conceptual foundation for the construction, analysis and comparison of ME artifacts. Due to its largeness, the authors here describe its mod…

Enterprise Architecture Descriptions for Enhancing Local Government Transformation and Coherency Management

Local governments cover multiple service sectors and are typically organized into diversified, deeply hierarchical organizations. Public services offered are tangible, mostly non-IT-critical, and heavily dependent on human resources. Information management is mainly manual in strategy and management processes. In this case study of a large Finnish local government organization, enterprise architecture (EA) is proposed as a tool for improving the coherency of the local government and its alignment to IT and other resources. We ask, what kind of EA descriptions local government agencies need for coherency management, and how to organize them. We apply action design research principles at the …

Conceptual evaluation of methods for engineering situational ISD methods

In the past decades a large variety of techniques and methods have been introduced for software engineering (SE) and information system development (ISD). Despite this plurality, there is a need in organizations and projects to customize methods that match with their specific needs. Method engineering (ME) is the process by which a situational method is developed, customized and configured. ME work has appeared to be difficult and burdensome to carry out in practice. One reason for this is a lack of adequate methodical support. In this article, we profile and evaluate conceptually, using a contextual framework as a basis, seven comprehensive ME artifacts (i.e. techniques, procedures and met…

A Comparative Analysis of Agile Maturity Models

Agility has increased in popularity in software development. It is believed to reduce time to market, improve product quality, and increase customer value. After some years from adoption, organizations start questioning how they are doing in the application of agile values, principles, and practices. Have they really obtained the benefits the agile approach promises? How could they improve their agile processes? For these kinds of situations, several agile maturity models have been suggested. This chapter makes a comparative analysis of eight agile maturity models, based on criteria such as purpose, domain, conceptual and theoretical backgrounds, approach, structure, use, and validation. We…

A Quantitative Method for Localizing User Interface Problems : The D-Teo Method

A large array of evaluation methods have been proposed to identify Website usability problems. In log-based evaluation, information about the performance of users is collected and stored into log files, and used to find problems and deficiencies in Web page designs. Most methods require the programming and modeling of large task models, which are cumbersome processes for evaluators. Also, because much statistical data is collected onto log files, recognizing which Web pages require deeper usability analysis is difficult. This paper suggests a novel quantitative method, called the D-TEO, for locating problematic Web pages. This semiautomated method explores the decomposition of interaction t…