Methods and Tools for Information Systems Development ...

Proceedings of the 29th Annual Hawaii International Conferenceon SystemSciences- 1996

Methods and Tools for Information Systems Development Introduction to Minitrack Alan R. Hevner

Richard C. Linger

Department of Information Systems University of South Florida Tampa, FL 33620

Software Engineering Institute Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15213

It is no exaggeration to say that modem society is totally and irreversibly dependent on information systems in virtually every area of human enterprise. Information systems are a core enabling technology in sectors such as business, manufacturing, communications, education, health care, and government, to name just a few. This growing dependence brings fresh demands for more efficient and timely development of ever more complex systems that must be complete and correct, and that must be capable of evolution to meet changing requirements.

In the first session, we group three papers on information systems modeling and the effectiveness of modeling methods. First, Mike Morris, Cheri Speier, and Jeff Hoffer report on an empirical study comparing individual performance and workload differences between the use of object-oriented methods and more traditional procedural methods of system development. The research analyzes both novice and experienced systems analysts using both procedural and object-oriented techniques. The results demonstrate a higher subjective mental workload when using object-oriented concepts. The implications of the study are discussed and future research directions are proposed. The second paper by Birgitte Krogh, Sean Levy, Allen Dutoit, and Eswaran Subrahmanian argues that object-oriented methods are limited by reliance on class-based modeling approaches. While classbased modeling provides a means for managing system complexity, it fails to capture essential ‘real-world’ detail. The authors propose a combination of class-based and prototypebased approaches for controlling complexity while capturing enough detail for system evolution. The third paper by Anne Seltveit continues the modeling theme with an innovative approach for reducing systemic complexity. The concept of viewspecs is proposed to support the need to adopt multiple perspectives when developing large and complex information systems. Detailed examples demonstrate the use of viewspecs for developing specifications for new systems and for reengineering specifications of existing systems.

In response to these needs, research and development in information systems has continued to explore and evaluate paradigms that promise greater effectiveness, for example, in such areas as domain-specific architectures and reuse technologies. Methods and tools for information systems development continue to benefit from this work through incorporation of more effective ideas and efficient processes for all development tasks. This work is diverse and requires research in many disciplines of interest to this minitrack. We solicited and received research papers in many areas: . l l l l

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Software requirements definition and validation Domain-specific modeling and architectures Software reuse strategies and techniques CASE tool integration and life cycle support Cleanroom software engineering methods and tools Software process modeling and assessment Software metrics and measurement Software risk analysis and management Reengineering and reverse engineering Empirical studies of tool and method effectiveness Formal methods for systems development Interoperability techniques and standards Definition and evolution of product families

After a thorough process of review and evaluation, six papers will be presented in this year’s Methods and Tools for Information Systems Development minitrack. These papers will be presented in two sessions.

The second session brings together papers on methods and tools for software testing, requirements engineering, and software reusability. Tom Vagoun presents a new approach to increase the effectiveness of software testing by effectively partitioning the input domain. The partitioning is done based upon how user functions interact with system state variables. Simulation studies demonstrate the advantages of the approach. Next, the SaGa tool for requirements engineering is presented by Ed Lewis. This tool supports the generation of system scenarios that can be refined into a system specification. Sample results from the tool’s use on actual projects are presented. The final paper by Anestis Toptsis and Lan Jin develops two methods of applying relevance feedback components. in me retrieval of reusable software Experimental results on two real software libraries verify the effectiveness of the methods.

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Proceedings of the 1996 Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS-29) 1060-3425/96 $10.00 © 1996 IEEE