Jacob P. Ukelson

Improving application development productivity by using ITS

Abstract Perhaps the key problem in application development today is the need to increase the productivity of development organizations. This paper identifies the main factors affecting application development productivity, and then describes a new application development environment (called ITS, which stands for Interactive Transaction System) that is aimed at, among other things, addressing these factors. A unique feature of ITS is the support of multiple, rule-based user interface styles, which has the implication of allowing multiple applications to run in the same style and the same application to run in multiple styles. The results of four case studies of developers using ITS to implement serious applications are summarized, with emphasis upon the effects of ITS on development productivity. These results demonstrate that ITS (a) greatly enhances application development productivity, and (b) provides a mechanism for creating applications that can lead to improved end-user productivity and that of their work organizations. These studies can also serve as a model for how to do human factors work within very advanced technological projects—ones where the preoccupation of necessity first centers on establishing technical feasibility.

Case study: using ITS style tools to implement IBM's CUA-2 user interface style

In an empirical case study of software tools, two participants used the ITS style designers language to implement a general purpose, executable, rule‐based user interface style. This language allows style designers to select, combine and modify rule prototypes in order to construct a rule‐based user interface style. The participants implemented the entire IBM CUA‐2 user interface style, plus nine additional human‐computer interaction techniques, in 5–7 person‐weeks. This is impressive productivity. Typically the time to complete a single CUA‐2 application is measured in person‐years, not person‐weeks. The style implemented here is reusable by any ITS‐implemented application. The achievement reported here shows that about half the work of all ITS‐implemented CUA‐2 applications has been completed in a few person‐weeks. This result demonstrates the power and productivity of the ITS approach and tools. The results of this case study showed that key ‘ready‐mades’ (e.g. named attribute groups) provided in the style designers toolkit could be used intact, which is important for importing or exporting interaction techniques from one style to another style. The results generalize to other computer‐literate designers who may want to use these tools to create other user interface styles.

Using ITS to create an insurance industry application: a joint case study

In a joint case study, IBM and Continental Insurance evaluated the use of a new software development environment (called ITS) to implement a portion of an important Continental Insurance underwriting application. IBM and Continentals data-processing management jointly concluded that ITS (a) is fairly easy to learn and use; (b) substantially reduces application development time; (c) is capable of doing a range of Continental applications; and (d) produces applications that are easier to maintain over the years as usage patterns, insurance laws, and evolving technology require that these applications be changed.

User navigation in computer applications

An abstract model of keyboard navigation that is based on real-world requirements is described. The importance of keyboard navigation is discussed, and the current approaches to keyboard navigation are reviewed. Several requirements for a successful model of keyboard navigation, including that keyboard navigation and direct manipulation must coexist in the same application, are described. Examples of successful use of the proposed approach to keyboard navigation in application development are presented. >