1,720,986 research outputs found
Introducing Motivations in Design Pattern Representation
No full textDesign pattern formalization is aimed at encouraging the use of design patterns during the design phase. In literature many approaches focuses on providing solutions with a graphical notation and complementary text, typically composed by a static and a dynamic definitions. The weak point it the flexibility to customize the generic solution to the specific context of use. This paper proposes a criterion to motivate design pattern selection and reuse. Designer is supported with a fine-grained technique for balancing pattern and problem forces in order to choose among alternative implementations
A goal-oriented approach for representing and using design patterns
No full textDesign patterns are known as proven solutions to recurring design problems. The role of pattern documentation format is to transfer experience thus making pattern employment a viable technique. This research line proposes a goal-oriented pattern documentation that highlights decision-relevant information. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, it presents a semi-structural visual notation that visualizes context, forces, alternative solutions and consequences in a compact format. Second, it introduces a systematic reuse process, in which the use of goal-oriented patterns aids the practitioner in selecting and customizing design patterns. An empirical study has been conducted the results of which supports the hypothesis that the goal-oriented format provides benefits for the practitioner. The experiment revealed a trend in which solutions better address requirements when the subjects are equipped with the new pattern documentation
A possible approach to the development of robotic multi-agent systems
No full textThe design of a an agent system for robotics is a problem that involves aspects coming from many different disciplines (robotics, artificial intelligence, computer vision, software engineering). The most difficult part of it, often consists in producing and tuning the algorithms that incorporates the robot behavior (planning, obstacle avoidance,. . . ) and abilities (vision, manipulation, navigation,. . . ). Frequently, the reuse of these parts is left to a copy and paste procedure from previous applications to the new one. In so doing many problems could arise. We propose a comprehensive approach for multi-agent systems oriented to robotics applications that uses a complete design methodology supported by a specific design tools and a pattern repository that interacting each other and with the designer allow the production of a coherent design that easily incorporates patterns coming from previously experienced features and automatically produces a large part of the final code © 2003 IEEE
From PASSI to agile PASSI: Tailoring a design process to meet new needs
No full textFrom several years we are developing robotic multiagent systems according to well defined design methodologies. These methodologies evolved over time because of the changes in the operating environments (robotic hardware and software platforms) and specific missions accomplished by our robots. In the last four years we used PASSI (Process for Agent Societies Specification and Implementation) obtaining good results but, the growing experience and day by day accelerating changes in requirements suggested us to find a new and more versatile approach. In this context we developed the Agile PASSI methodology discussed in this paper; it is an agile process built up capitalizing all the experiences done with PASSI and its supporting tools some of which have been adapted and reused in the new process. © 2004 IEEE
Ahab’s legs in scenario-based requirements validation: An experiment to study communication mistakes
No full textThe correct identification of requirements is a crucial step for the implementation of a satisfactory software system. In the validation of \edit{requirements with scenarios}, a straightforward communication is central to obtain a good participation from stakeholders. Technical specifications are translated into scenarios to make them concrete and easy to understand for non-technical users, and contextual details are added to encourage user engagement.
However, additional contextual details (Ahab's Legs) could generate a negative impact on the requirements' validation by leading to proliferating comments that are not pertinent to session objective. The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of Ahab's Leg to scenario-based requirement validation sessions. We conducted a controlled experiment with human participants and measured the pertinence of the comments formulated by participants when discussing the requirements. The results of our experiment suggest that the potentially negative impact of Ahab's Leg can be effectively controlled by the analyst
Managing the transition from contextual inquiry to design by coupling semi-formal and HCI methods
No full textWe present the approach we developed to manage the transition from contextual inquiry to design by coupling HCI and semi-formal requirement engineering methods
Ahab's leg dilemma: on the design of a controlled experiment
No full textTo meet stakeholder non-technical background, requirements are often presented
by analysts in terms of scenarios. While translating requirements into
scenarios, details and over-specifications (called Ahab's Legs) need to be added
to make requirements concrete and understandable to stakeholders. Despite the
expected benefits that they should convey, Ahab's Legs could disturb the
requirement validation session. They can, in fact, distract the attention of
stakeholders. Valuable discussion time may be wasted when focusing on irrelevant
details rather than on the actually relevant ones.
In the present paper, we address the Ahab's Leg dilemma and its potential
impact on requirement validation sessions. We discuss how to measure the
distraction due to Ahab's Legs and what are the possible approaches an analyst
can adopt to limit it. Moreover, we present the design of a controlled
experiment devoted to measure the impact of Ahab's Legs on requirement
validation sessions. In particular, the experiment is meant to (1) estimate
the magnitude of the distracting effect, and to (2) assess one of the most
promising way to alleviate their negative effect, i.e. by making stakeholder
aware of the Ahab's Legs before the validation session
Building and Browsing Tropos Models: The AVI Design.
No full textThis paper proposes the use of the HCI paradigm and techniques to support software system designers in building and browsing visual models during the development of complex distributed systems. In particular, we adopt Usability Evaluation Methods (UEMs) to analyse the first version of the interface of TAOM4E, the tool supporting the Tropos Agent-Oriented methodology. Using the results of this usability study, we collect different requirements to design an Advanced Visual Interface (AVI) of TAOM4E taking into account requirements of supporting software designers during Tropos models design process browsing
Ahab's Leg: Exploring the Issues of Communicating Semi-Formal Requirements to the Final Users
No full textIn this paper, we present our experience in using narrative scenarios as a tool to communicate and validate semi-formal requirements with the stakeholders in a large software project. The process of translating the semi-formal language of Tropos into the narrative form of scenarios is introduced and some
unintended implications of this process are discussed. In particular, we define the notion of Ahab’s leg to describe the necessity to introduce new constraints or features in a description when moving to a different representational language. Starting from the lessons learned with this specific case study, we derive
some general implications concerning the issue of requirement translation for validation tasks and we propose some methodological guidelines to address the Ahab’s leg dilemma
A model for automatic selection of IoT services in ambient assisted living for the elderly
No full textContext: Engineering Ambient Assisted Living applications for the elderly is challenging due to the diversity and rapid changes of both end users' needs and technological environment equipment.
Objective: Assistive applications can be provided as combinations of functionalities provided by IoT devices. With the pervasive availability of functionally equivalent IoT devices, they should be selected according to the specific deployment context in terms of user needs and conditions, device availability, and regulations when the operative context dynamic conditions can be set. Such selection is the objective of this work.
Methods: We rely on a conceptual framework for self-adaptation as the enabler for a run-time decision-making process. It allows for representing relations among IoT devices, the functionalities they deliver, and the different modalities these functionalities are provided with in terms of goals, devices, and norms. The framework is based on three fundamental principles: (1) high-level abstractions separating the expected functionality, how it can be delivered, and who is responsible for its delivery; (2) AAL applications as the run-time composition of atomic functionalities; (3) centrality of the user in the system.
Result: The Device-Goal-Norm framework is proposed to specify diagrams for different AAL applications, together with the semantics to transform these diagrams into run-time models. We also provide a running implementation of a run-time model based on the belief-desire-intention paradigm
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