Lucila Carvalho

Understanding the use of an electronic process guide

Abstract This paper presents a case study of the installation and use of an electronic process guide within a small-to-medium software development company. The purpose of the study is to better understand how software engineers use this technology so that it can be improved and better used to support software process improvement. In the study the EPG was used to guide new processes in a software improvement programme. The use of the EPG was studied over a period of 8 months with data collected through access logs, by questionnaires and by interviews. The results show that the improvement programme was successful in improving project documentation, project management and the companys relationship with its customers. The EPG contributed to the improvement programme by providing support for the creation of templates for key project documentation, assisting with project planning and estimation and providing a forum for discussion of process and work practices. The biggest improvements that could be made to the EPG would be to provide better navigation tools including a graphical overview of the process, provide tailoring facilities, include examples and experience and link to a project management tool.

Practical software process improvement - the IMPACT project

For many years now software process improvement (SPI) has been recognised as an effective way for companies to improve the quality of the software they produce and the productivity with which they work. Much work has gone into developing and selling improvement paradigms, assessment methods, modelling languages, tools and technologies. The challenge for -small-to-medium software development companies (SMEs) now is to find a way to apply these SPI technologies to realise their companys improvement goals. For SMEs the most pressing requirements for improvement paradigms are that they are not only effective but that they realise tangible results quickly, can be implemented incrementally and utilise the many existing process improvement technologies. The paper presents a framework for SPI that realises these needs. The framework is designed to utilise a range of improvement technologies and supports continuous and highly focused improvement over many projects, thus producing timely, cost-effective and tangible improvements for SMEs. The effectiveness of the framework is illustrated with its application in a small, Sydney-based, Web development company.

An exploratory study into the use of qualitative research methods in descriptive process modelling

Abstract The paper describes an exploratory study that investigated two descriptive software process models derived from the same process data using two different techniques. To set the context, the paper describes qualitative methods, particularly grounded theory and its techniques, and then explores the nature of the differences in the two models produced. It suggests ways in which constant comparison may contribute to the process-modelling task. As far as we are aware, it also serves as the first exploratory research on the application of this method in the software engineering process research domain. Based on data analysis using the technique of constant comparison often used in grounded theory research, a naive process modeller derived one of the models. An experienced process engineer relying heavily on experience and skill using an ad hoc approach derived the second model. The aim of the study was to explore differences in the models derived and to use this comparison as a basis for reflection on the method conventionally used in descriptive process modelling in contrast with the use of more formal qualitative analysis. The results show that (1) data analysis using the technique of constant comparison could be successfully applied to analyse process data, (2) the person with little experience in process modelling could produce a process model based on the data analysis using constant comparison and (3) the process model produced by the naive modeller was not equivalent to that produced by an experienced process engineer.

Processing and Visualizing Data in Complex Learning Environments

The ability to capture large amounts of data that describe the interactions of learners becomes useful when one has a framework in which to make sense of the processes of learning in complex learning environments. Through the analysis of such data, one is able to understand what is happening in these networks; however, deciding which elements will be of most interest in a specific learning context and how to process, visualize, and analyze large amounts of data requires the use of analytical tools that adequately support the phases of the research process. In this article, we discuss the selection, processing, visualization, and analysis of multiple elements of learning and learning environments and the links between them. We discuss, using the cases of two learning environments, how structure affects the behavior of learners and, in turn, how that behavior has the potential to affect learning. This approach will allow us to suggest possible ways of improving future designs of learning environments.

A process-centred experience repository for a small software organisation

This paper presents the design, implementation and evaluation of an experience repository in a small software organisation. The experience repository was developed and installed as part of an ongoing software process improvement effort and uses software process to structure experience and make it available for reuse. The experience repository is accessed through a web-based process guide with experiences related to particular tasks linked directly to the pages describing those tasks. This way experiences, including examples of documents, checklists or unstructured experiences such as anecdotes and lessons learnt can be easily entered and retrieved by users when required. This paper presents the design of the repository, the implementation and preliminary results regarding its acceptance and use.

Design for Pedagogy Patterns for E-Learning

This paper discusses a theory for the foundation of design for pedagogy based on the principles of pattern languages. We develop a pattern using a variation of the Alexandrian pattern structure to embed pedagogy at the core of the design of e-learning. A pattern dealing with the organization of an online discussion group based on the principles of constructivism and experiential learning is produced to illustrate the application of the theory.

An Evaluation of the Spearmint Approach to Software Process Modelling

Over the years the process modelling community has proposed many languages, methods and tools for capturing, analysing and managing software processes. It is important that as new approaches are proposed they are evaluated in real software process modelling projects so that users can tell which approaches they should consider using and researchers can decide which approaches warrant more investigation and development. This paper presents an evaluation of the Spearmint approach to software process modelling in two software process modelling projects. The evaluation identifies strengths and weaknesses of the approach and possible areas for improvement.

Artefacts and activities in the analysis of learning networks

This chapter draws on a programme of research into the architecture of learning networks. This research programme has been examining a number of diverse learning networks, to identify reusable design ideas. The analytic work has been structured around a distinction between elements of learning networks that can be designed (partially, or completely) and processes that are emergent. From a learning perspective, the emergent processes are most important: what network participants actually do, including what they think, feel and say, is what matters most. Everything that can be designed and set in place is merely to resource and guide their activity. Thus, activity mediates between outcomes and what can be designed. One cannot assume a direct relationship between (say) a specific digital tool and some desired outcomes. Rather, one needs to understand the kinds of connections that can exist between such tools/devices and participants’ activities. More generally: how is what participants actually do influenced by the qualities of the place in which they are working, and by the tools and other resources that come to hand? Neither networked learning, nor the broader field of educational technology, have well-developed theories or constructs to create analytical connections between activity and its physical setting. Our chapter draws upon our experiences of analysing learning networks to create some framing within which connecting constructs might be articulated. About the only theoretical construct that has become widely used in the field is that of “affordance”. It is a term that is also very widely critiqued and contested, in part because of deep conceptual ambiguities, but also because of lax usage. We draw upon some ideas from metaphysics to help frame the relationships between the physical world and human activity, to redeem the term “affordance” and to add some further terms that help identify other kinds of relations between activity and its physical setting. The point of this is actually quite practical. Without some analytical constructs that provide connections between things that can be designed and valued activities, designers cannot provide a rationale for what they do. They can copy ideas, set things in place, and proceed by trial and error. But they cannot apply principled knowledge to the solution of complex problems. They cannot design.

The synthesis approach to analysing educational design dataset: Application of three scaffolds to a learning by design task for postgraduate education students

The aims of the Synthesis and Scaffolding Project were to understand: the role of specific scaffolds in relation to the activity of learners, and the activity of learners during a collaborative design task from multiple perspectives, through the collection and analysis of multiple streams of data and the adoption of a synthesis approach to the research. The Synthesis Approach to Analysing Educational Design (SAAED) dataset is comprised of video, audio and image files, transcripts of the discourse, as well as copies of physical artefacts generated by three groups of three postgraduate education students during a 90-minute design session. The data were collected in January 2013. Each group was given a different scaffold related to the design process, the social interactions or the use of the tools available to the participants. Researchers interested in analysing the SAAED are required to sign a collaborator agreement to become part of the project team.

CmyView: Learning by Walking and Sharing Social Values

Networked learning practices are impacting the field of cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, with implications for the way in which places of cultural significance are understood, managed, documented, engaged with and studied. Our research explores the intersection between walking, photography, technology and learning, investigating how mobile devices can be used to foster community participation and assess social value within a networked framework for digital heritage. The chapter introduces CmyView, a mobile phone application and social media platform in development, with a design concept grounded on both digital heritage and networked learning perspectives. CmyView encourages people to collect and share their views by making images and audio recordings of personally meaningful sites they see while walking outdoors in the natural or built environment. Each person’s walking trajectory (along with their associated images and audio files) then becomes a traceable artefact, something potentially shareable with a community of fellow walkers. The aim of CmyView is to encourage networked heritage practices and community participation, as people learn by documenting their own and experiencing others’ social values of the built environment. Drawing on a framework for the analysis and design of productive learning networks, we analyse the educational design of CmyView arguing that the platform offers a space for democratic heritage education and interpretation, where participatory urban curatorship practices are nurtured. CmyView reframes social value as dynamic, fluid and located within communities, rather than fixed in a place. The chapter presents preliminary findings of the activity of a group of four undergraduate students at an Australian university, who used CmyView to explore the immediate surroundings of their campus, in an activity outside of their formal curriculum. Participants interacted with the platform, mapping, capturing, audio recording their impressions and sites of interest in their walks. In so doing, they created shareable trajectories, which were subsequently experienced by the same group of participants on a second walk. The chapter concludes with a discussion about the impact of our research for the design of mobile technologies that embrace participation and sharing, through a networked learning perspective. The chapter brings together concepts that sit at the intersection of previously separate fields, namely, digital heritage and networked learning, to find their synergies.