Elspeth Golden

Examining task engagement in sensor-based statistical models of human interruptibility

The computer and communication systems that office workers currently use tend to interrupt at inappropriate times or unduly demand attention because they have no way to determine when an interruption is appropriate. Sensor?based statistical models of human interruptibility offer a potential solution to this problem. Prior work to examine such models has primarily reported results related to social engagement, but it seems that task engagement is also important. Using an approach developed in our prior work on sensor?based statistical models of human interruptibility, we examine task engagement by studying programmers working on a realistic programming task. After examining many potential sensors, we implement a system to log low?level input events in a development environment. We then automatically extract features from these low?level event logs and build a statistical model of interruptibility. By correctly identifying situations in which programmers are non?interruptible and minimizing cases where the model incorrectly estimates that a programmer is non?interruptible, we can support a reduction in costly interruptions while still allowing systems to convey notifications in a timely manner.

The value of a usability-supporting architectural pattern in software architecture design: a controlled experiment

Design patterns have been claimed to facilitate modification and improve understanding in software design. A controlled experiment was performed to assess the usefulness of portions of a usability-supporting architectural pattern (USAP) in modifying the design of software architectures to support a specific usability concern. Software engineering and information technology graduate students received different subsets of a USAP supporting cancellation functionality. They then studied a software architecture design and made modifications to add the ability to cancel commands. Results showed that participants who received a usability scenario, a list of general responsibilities, and a sample solution thought of significantly more key issues than participants who saw only the scenario. Implications for software development are that usability concerns can be included at architecture design time, and that USAPs can significantly help software architects to consider responsibilities inherent from usability concerns.

A responsibility-based pattern language for usability-supporting architectural patterns

Usability-supporting architectural patterns (USAPs) were developed as a way to explicitly connect the needs of architecturally-sensitive usability concerns to the design of software architecture. In laboratory studies, the Cancellation USAP was shown to significantly improve the quality of architecture designs for supporting the ability to cancel a long-running command, sparking interest from a large industrial organization to develop new USAPs and apply them to their product line architecture design. The challenges of delivering the architectural information contained in USAPs to practicing software architects led to the development of a pattern language for USAPs based on software responsibilities and a web-based tool for evaluating an architecture with respect to those patterns.

Quality vs. quantity: comparing evaluation methods in a usability-focused software architecture modification task

A controlled experiment was performed to assess the usefulness of portions of a usability-supporting architectural pattern (USAP) in modifying the design of software architectures to support a specific usability concern. Results showed that participants using a complete USAP produced modified designs of significantly higher quality than participants using only a usability scenario. Comparison of solution quality ratings with a quantitative measure of responsibilities considered in the solution showed positive correlation between the measures. Implications for software development are that usability concerns can be included at architecture design time, and that USAPs can significantly help software architects to produce better designs to address usability concerns. Implications for empirical software engineering are that validated quantitative measures of software architecture quality may potentially be substituted for costly and often elusive expert assessment.

Creating Meaningful Assessments for Professional Development Education in Software Architecture

Extensive instructional materials have been developed and used for courses in specific software architecture topics offered at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University, to support the instructional goals laid out by the creators of the SEIs professional education program and the designers of the individual courses. However, to date, these courses have lacked any assessment component, certification for the course being granted solely on attendance. For an assessment component to be meaningful, it must derive from and support these instructional goals, determine which goals must be assessed and how to assess them, and determine how best to assess whether those goals have been achieved through application of the instructional materials, lectures, and activities which are included in each two-day course. In order to ensure that the course assessments target the intended learning goals, we developed content for low-stakes assessment components grounded in education theory, combining current knowledge of educational psychology and the software engineering domain to create evaluations that will effectively determine whether participants in this course have learned what the curriculum developers and the instructors intend them to learn.