Stephen Viller

Ethnographically informed analysis for software engineers

It is increasingly recognized that human, social, and political factors have a significant impact on software systems design. To address this, ethnographic studies of work have been used to inform the systems design process, especially in cooperative work settings where systems support several users working together. Based on our experience of these studies, we have investigated the integration of social analysis into the systems design process by developing an integrated approach to social and object-oriented analysis. New methods are unlikely to be adopted in industry unless they can be integrated with existing practice. Our approach, called Coherence, addresses this issue by helping identify use cases, generating initial use case models, and by using the Unified Modelling Language (UML) to represent social aspects of work that may have an impact on the design of computer-based systems. Coherence is the fusion of two well-established strands of research on ethnographically informed design and viewpoint-oriented requirements engineering. This paper introduces Coherence, and focuses on the support provided for social analysis. We have identified three social viewpoints, namely a distributed coordination viewpoint, a plans and procedures viewpoint and an awareness of work viewpoint. Coherence is illustrated using a case study based on an air traffic control system.

Social analysis in the requirements engineering process: from ethnography to method

Over a number of years, we have been involved in investigations into using workplace observation to inform requirements for complex systems. This paper discusses how our work has evolved from ethnography with prototyping through presentation of ethnographic fieldwork, to developing a method for social analysis that has been derived from our experience of applying ethnographic techniques. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each of these approaches with a particular focus on our most recent work in developing the Coherence method. This method is based on a fusion of viewpoint-oriented and ethnographic approaches to requirements engineering and uses an industry-standard notation (UML) to represent knowledge of work. We use a common example of an air traffic control system to illustrate each approach.

Finding patterns in the fieldwork

This paper considers the potential of using patterns of cooperative interaction to support the development of general design principles drawn from a range of work settings. It reports on the development of patterns from ethnographic studies in a number of work environments. Our particular interest is in the possibilities surrounding the use of patterns as a means of organising, presenting and representing this growing corpus of ethnographic matertal and in the contribution this might make to CSCW design. In this paper we focus on outlining some of our experiences and difficulties in developing patterns from ethnographic studies and present some initial ideas towards the development of a pattern language to exploit the experience gained from a decade of field studies.

Requirements process improvement through the phased introduction of good practice

Current process improvement and maturity models pay little attention to requirements engineering. Typically, requirements engineering is considered to be a single activity in the overall development process. Even where this is not strictly the case, the requirements activities are not elaborated in sufficient detail to permit the derivation of an improvement plan. This is unfortunate because requirements engineering is increasingly recognized as a problem. Despite the regular improvement of techniques for eliciting, analysing, validating and managing requirements, even otherwise mature organizations repeatedly experience requirements problems. This paper describes a good practice-based approach to requirements engineering process improvement which aims to fill the gap left by existing process improvement methods. This distils practical information from over 60 requirements practices and provides a framework to help organizations identify their problem areas and deploy the practices most appropriate to their needs.

Patterns of home life: Informing design for domestic environments

This paper considers how we may provide support for the development of general design principles in domestic environments. In particular, we examine the potential for usingdesign patterns as a means of presenting ethnographic material and outlining design solutions. The paper reports on the development of an initial pattern language based on our studies of a number of domestic, environments and offers a general structure for presenting these patterns. Finally, we briefly reflect on our experiences of developing an on-line set of patterns for this class of environment.

Capturing the benefits of requirements engineering

Requirements management has a critical effect on an organizations development costs and software quality. The authors have developed a method that allows incremental, systematic improvement of requirements engineering and builds on existing SPI models and standards, filling in the gaps to improve schedules, budgets, and product quality.Requirements management has a critical effect on an organizations development costs and software quality. The authors have developed a method that allows incremental, systematic improvement of req...

Usability of a mobile, group communication prototype while rendezvousing

Mobile phones are increasingly being used collaboratively by social networks of users in spite of the fact that they are primarily designed to support single users and one-to-one communication. It is not well understood how services such as group SMS, SMS-based discussion lists and mobile instant messaging (IM) will be used by mobile groups in natural settings. Studying specific instances of common styles of in situ, group interaction may provide a way to see behavior patterns and typical interaction problems. We conducted a study of a mobile, group communication probe used during a rendezvousing activity in an urban environment. Usability problems relating to group usage, phone interface design and context were identified. Several major issues included: multitasking during message composition and reading; speed of text entry; excessive demand on visual attention; and ambiguity of intended recipients. We suggest that existing mobile device designs are overly-focused on individual users to the detriment of usability for mobile groups of users. We provide recommendations for the design of future mobile, group interfaces, used in similar situations to those explored here

Human factors in requirements engineering: A survey of human sciences literature relevant to the improvement of dependable systems development processes

Abstract Requirements engineering (RE) is an inherently social process, involving the contribution of individuals working in an organizational context. Further, failures in the RE process will potentially lead to systematic failures in the products that are produced as a result. Consequently, the RE process for dependable systems development should itself be considered as a dependable process, and therefore subject to greater scrutiny for vulnerabilities to error. Research on human error has typically focused on the work of individual actors from a cognitive perspective. This paper presents a survey which broadens the view on what contributes to human error by also examining work from the social and organizational literature. This review was conducted to inform efforts to improve the systems development process for dependable systems, and in particular their requirements engineering process

Building sensitising terms to understand free-play in open-ended interactive art environments

In this paper we introduce and discuss the nature of free-play in the context of three open-ended interactive art installation works. We observe the interaction work of situated free-play of the participants in these environments and, building on precedent work, devise a set of sensitising terms derived both from the literature and from what we observe from participants interacting there. These sensitising terms act as guides and are designed to be used by those who experience, evaluate or report on open-ended interactive art. That is, we propose these terms as a common-ground language to be used by participants communicating while in the art work to describe their experience, by researchers in the various stages of research process (observation, coding activity, analysis, reporting, and publication), and by inter-disciplinary researchers working across the fields of HCI and art. This work builds a foundation for understanding the relationship between free-play, open-ended environments, and interactive installations and contributes sensitising terms useful for the HCI community for discussion and analysis of open-ended interactive art works.

Announcing activity: design and evaluation of an intentionally enriched awareness service

ABSTRACT We introduce and explore the notion of “intentionally enriched awareness.” Intentional enrichment refers to the process of actively engaging users in the awareness process by enabling them to express intentions. We explore this concept designing and evaluating the AnyBiff system, which allows users to freely create, share, and use a variety of biff applications. Biffs are simple representation of predefined activities. Users can select biffs to indicate that they are engaged in an activity. AnyBiff was deployed in two different organizations as part of a user-centered design process. We report on the results of the trial, which allowed us to gain insights into the potential of the AnyBiff prototype and the underlying biff concept to implement intentionally enriched awareness. Our findings show that intentional disclosure mechanisms in the form of biffs were successfully used in both fields of application. Users actively engaged in the design of a large variety of biffs and explored many different uses of the concept. The study revealed a whole host of issues with regard to intentionally enriched awareness, which give valuable insight into the conception and design of future applications in this area.