Lemai Nguyen

Managing the requirements engineering process

AbstractProcess management is a crucial issue in developing information or computer systems. Theories of software development process management suggest that the process should be supported and managed based on what the process really is. However, our learning from an action research study reveals that the requirements engineering (RE) process differs significantly from that which the current literature tends to describe. The process is not a systematic, smooth and incremental evolution of the requirements model, but involves occasional simplification and restructuring of the requirements model. This revised understanding of the RE process suggests a new challenge to both the academic and industrial communities, demanding new process management approaches. In this paper, we present our understanding of the RE process and its implications for process management.

Supporting and monitoring the creativity of IS personnel during the requirements engineering process

The early stages of the RE process involve developing understanding of a problem situation, the problem domain, and the requirements for achieving improvements in the problem situation. How requirements engineers work to develop this understanding is poorly understood. The findings from several field studies of the RE process show that the process is creative and opportunistic, involving adaptive and responsive exploration of the problem space. The question of how to support and monitor the process remains. We have approached this problem by examining the complexity of the requirements models in a number of laboratory based studies. By recording the RE process using a design rationale notation and analysing the complexity of the requirements models, we have traced the oscillations in complexity throughout the process, we have called this the catastrophe-cycle of the requirements modelling process. We discuss the usefulness of design rationale in supporting and monitoring the RE process, examine the implications of this research for managing the creative and insight-driven RE process, and highlight areas for future research.

USING DESIGN EXPLANATION WITHIN THE FORMAL OBJECT-ORIENTED METHOD

This paper reports the results of an action research project which studied the benefits of documenting the evolution, and the rationale for the evolution, of a requirements specification. The benefits which design explanation offers designers (as documented in the literature) suggested an investigation with a view to understanding the potential contribution of the IBIS (Issue-Based Information System) approach. The paper reports an investigation into the use of ad hoc design explanation, in which design decisions were documented as they were made using the IBIS notation. This study finds both strengths and weaknesses in the approach. It reveals ways in which IBIS might be used more effectively and leads us to suggest a further study into the complementary use of ad hoc and post hoc design explanation approaches.

Collaborative creativity in requirements engineering: Analysis and practical advice

Requirements engineering (RE) often entails interdisciplinary groups of people working together to find novel and valuable solutions to a complex design problem. In such situations RE requires creativity in a form where interactions among stakeholders are particularly important: collaborative creativity. However, few studies have explicitly concentrated on understanding collaborative creativity in RE, resulting in limited advice for practitioners on how to support this aspect of RE. This paper provides a framework of factors characterising collaborative creative processes in RE. These factors enable a systematic investigation of the collaboratively creative nature of RE. They can potentially guide practitioners when facilitating RE efforts, and also provide researchers with ideas on where to focus when developing methods and tools for RE.

Essential and incidental complexity in requirements models

A deep understanding of the complexity of the requirements model and its dynamics is critical in improving requirements engineering process management. Findings from an action research study an insightful explanation of how the complexity of the requirements model evolves over time. We argue that there are two different types of complexity of the model: the essential and incidental complexities. The essential complexity represents the inherent understanding of the problem space while the incidental complexity arises from the poor fit between the structure of the model and the structure of the world which the model aims to represent. We present a pattern for the dynamics of changes in the complexity of the requirements model. The evolution of the requirements model involves both the growth of the essential complexity throughout the discovery of the problem space and the growth and shrinkage of the incidental complexity, as the model undergoes a large number of changes. The new understanding of the complexity of the requirements model and its dynamics draws new directions for future research and forms a basis for a new approach to process management.

Creative problem solving in digital space using visual analytics

Interactive visual analytics has a unique process of creative design.Data visualization tools can foster personal and collective creativity.Narratives and metaphors enhance communication of analytic insights.Creative visual analytics supports exploration of big and messy data sets.Human intuition is needed in business decision-making and problem-solving. This article presents a framework for understanding and explaining digital creativity within the growing area of interactive visual analytics. Through the study of extant literature, existing software products, and our own development experience, various aspects of digital creativity are explored in the context of interactive visual analytics and its application to decision-making and problem-solving.The proposed framework explores and fuses a number of models of individual, social, and domain creativity. It explains the challenges of the analyst navigating through rapidly growing and ubiquitous digital data with an objective to explore it, discover its meanings and associations, as well as solve problems and arrive at effective business decisions. As a creative process, interactive visual analytics differs from other forms of digital creativity, as it utilizes analytic models, relies on the analysts mental imagery and involves an iterative process of generation and evaluation of ideas in digital media, as well as planning, execution, and refinement of the associated actions. This process is also characterized as collaborative and social by nature as it comprises of analysts from data, problem, and visual domains, who share ideas and actions during analytic activities.We conclude by suggesting that interactive data visualization may provide opportunities for lay people to creatively engage with data analytics to explore the vast data resources that are freely available and in so doing, gain and communicate insights which may have the potential to impact their private lives and the world at large.

Promoting and Supporting Requirements Engineering Creativity

Requirements Engineering (RE) is a commencing phase in the systems development life cycle and concerned with understanding and specifying the customers requirements. RE has been recognized as a complex cognitive problem solving process which takes place in an unstructured and poorly understood problem .context. A recent understanding describes the RE process as inherently creative, involving cycles of incremental building followed by insight-driven econceptualization .of the problem space. This chapter relates this new understanding to various creative process models described in the creativity and psychology of problem solving literature. A review of current attempts to support problem solving in RE using various design rationale approaches suggests., that their common major wealmess lies in the lack of support for the creative and insight-driven problem solving process in RE. In addressing this weakness, the chapter suggests a new approach to promoting and supporting RE creativity using design rationale. The suggested approach involves the ad hoc recording of rationale to support the creative exploration complemented by a post hoc conceptual characterization of the problem space to support insight driven reconceptualization.

Using ANT to uncover the full potential of an intelligent operational planning and support tool (IOPST) for acute healthcare contexts

Based on initial pre-clinical data and results from focus group studies, proof of concept for an intelligent operational planning and support tool (IOPST) for nursing in acute healthcare contexts has been demonstrated. However, moving from a simulated context to a large scale clinical trial brings potential challenges associated with the many complexities and multiple people-technology interactions. To enable an in depth and rich analysis of such a context, it is the contention of this paper that incorporating an Actor-Network Theory (ANT) lens to facilitate analysis will be a prudent option as discussed below.

Using Technology Solutions to Streamline Healthcare Processes for Nursing: The Case of an Intelligent Operational Planning Support Tool (IOPST) Solution

Identifying the value stream relating to healthcare processes primarily focuses around diagnosing and treating patients coupled with removing waste. This is now becoming a key priority for many healthcare organisations globally, yet remains an area that is significantly under researched especially with regard to nursing. Lean thinking, as a method to redesign processes in order to improve outcomes has been used with success especially in the manufacturing sector, and now, given the importance of identifying and creating value in healthcare processes, is becoming of increasing interest within various healthcare contexts. In this chapter, we discuss how lean thinking as a management approach, with focuses on operational aspects, can be used to facilitate effective and efficient nursing care. We illustrate with the example of an Intelligent Operational Planning Support Tool (IOPST) solution.

Information systems and healthcare XXVIII : the information needs of family carers in collaborative healthcare

While the important role of family carers has been increasingly recognized in healthcare service provision, particularly for patients with acute or chronic illnesses, the family carer’s information needs have not been well understood or adequately supported by health information systems. In this study, we explore the information needs of a family carer by analyzing the extensive online diary of a Vietnamese family carer supporting his wife, who was a lung cancer patient. The study provides a deep understanding of the information needs of the family carer and suggests a four-stage information journey model including identification, searching, interpretation and information sharing, and collaboration. A number of themes emerge from the study including the key role of the carer, information filtering by the carer, information sharing and collaboration, and the influence of Vietnamese culture. The paper concludes with a discussion of the requirements for health information systems that meet the needs of family carers.