Process-centred software engineering environments (PSEE) [Garg96] are acknowledged tools to help in planning, managing and executing today’s software projects. Their support is mainly focused on the coordination of the different activities within a project following a defined development process, i.e. focused on project coordination. That is why the support for the individual participating agent in performing tasks (which have been assigned to him) is mainly restricted to provide access to input products for a task and to tools to create defined output products.
Main tasks for a software project are the creation of a project plan and the enactment of this project plan in order to deliver certain software products. Planning and enactment tasks require access to multiple information related to the current project context. If no direct access can be supported, e.g., in the form of defined input products for a task, agents are confronted with issues to identify and find suitable information. This information can be distributed, heterogeneous, unstable (i.e. being prone to changes), hard to find, and the retrieval task can disturb the current workflow as it is commonly not a defined part of the development workflow. Even if suitable information does exist agents are not always aware of the existence and where to find it. The big issue of reusing experience [Basili91] in form of documented descriptions becomes obsolete if agents do not know that they exist and how to integrate it.
Another main stream which has been adopted from the field of artificial intelligence to the field of software development is knowledge management (KM) [Wiig93]. Different concepts in software development use its foundations to build knowledge bases like organisational memories (OM) [Ungson91], experience factories (EF) with experience bases (EB) [Basili94], case-based reasoning systems (CBR) [Althoff98] and derive concepts for learning software organisations (LSO). They encompass mechanisms which help to capture and make information and knowledge accessible and (re)usable. [...]
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1 Motivation
1.2 Aims and scope of this work
1.3 Structure of the document
1.4 Recommended background
2. Information needs within software projects
2.1 The nature of information needs
2.2 Scenarios with inherent information needs
2.3 Problems with required information
2.4 Changing the common process of information retrieval
2.4.1 The integration of information retrieval into workflows
2.4.2 Information needs defined as workflow
2.5 Requirements for a support concept
3. MILOS as a process-centred SEE
3.1 Purpose of MILOS
3.2 MILOS system components
3.2.1 Process modelling
3.2.2 Project planning
3.2.3 Project enactment
4. A concept for context-specific knowledge delivery within a PSEE
4.1 A representation for information needs
4.1.1 Information needs as objects
4.1.2 Information sources as objects
4.2 Project planning and enactment based on enriched process models
4.3 A non-invasive but active knowledge delivery
4.3.1 Workflow-integrated support
4.3.2 Non-invasive but active support
4.3.3 A context-specific, and structured set of INOs
4.3.4 The execution of an INO
4.3.5 Updating strategies related to INOs
4.3.6 Comprehensive knowledge delivery support
4.4 A learning concept for information need specifications
4.4.1 Posting of information needs as questions
4.4.2 Rating of retrieved information
4.4.3 Building and refining an attribute concept
4.5 Open concept issues
4.6 Concept overview
5. The realization of context-specific knowledge delivery within MILOS
5.1 Persistent modelling of INOs and ISOs
5.1.1 The INO Manager
5.1.2 The ISO Manager
5.2 How to use persistent INOs for project planning and workflow enactment
5.2.1 The information assistant
5.3 Learning concepts within MILOS for INO refinement
5.4 The extended MILOS system architecture
5.5 Comments on the current implementation
5.5.1 Current limitations of the implementation
5.5.2 MILOS specific concept extensions
6. Example scenario for knowledge delivery support
6.1 Support within an example project
7. Related work
7.1 The KnowMore WFMS prototype
7.2 Support of business processes by an OM
7.3 Support for design processes using CBR
8. Summary
8.1 Summary
8.2 Outlook
9. References
Objectives and Topics
This thesis aims to develop and implement a concept for context-specific knowledge delivery within Process-Centred Software Engineering Environments (PSEEs) like MILOS. The core objective is to improve the efficiency and quality of software development by actively and non-invasively providing project participants with the right information at the right time, based on the specific project context.
- Persistent and generic modelling of information needs within software process models.
- Workflow-integrated knowledge delivery support triggered by project context.
- Implementation of an 'Information Assistant' within the MILOS PSEE to automate retrieval and presentation.
- Organizational learning through a feedback loop for refining information need specifications.
- Evaluation of the concept through practical software engineering scenarios.
Excerpt from the Book
4.1.1 Information needs as objects
As mentioned above, an object representing an information need within a PSEE should be a process model object, should be workflow-oriented by specifying when it is usable, and needs to be able to refer to a current project context via attributes. From chapter 2 we further know that different information needs require different information from different information sources to satisfy an agent having this information need. Thus it is not only required to specify the information need but to specify from which information source it can possibly be satisfied.
To capture all this in an information need object we defined the following information need object attributes which are explained in the following:
• representation,
• supported roles,
• information category,
• precondition,
• information source, and
• query representation.
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: Outlines the motivation for knowledge management in software engineering and defines the research scope within the MILOS project.
2. Information needs within software projects: Analyzes the nature and challenges of information retrieval in software development and establishes requirements for a support concept.
3. MILOS as a process-centred SEE: Provides an overview of the MILOS system, its components, and the terminology relevant to the developed concepts.
4. A concept for context-specific knowledge delivery within a PSEE: Details the conceptual framework, including the object-oriented representation of information needs and sources, and the learning methodology.
5. The realization of context-specific knowledge delivery within MILOS: Describes the prototypical implementation of the concepts, focusing on the INO Manager and Information Assistant.
6. Example scenario for knowledge delivery support: Illustrates the practical application of the implemented system through a demo software project.
7. Related work: Compares the proposed approach with existing knowledge management and process support systems like KnowMore and CBR-based tools.
8. Summary: Concludes the thesis by summarizing the contributions and providing an outlook on future improvements and research directions.
Keywords
Software Engineering, PSEE, MILOS, Knowledge Management, Knowledge Delivery, Information Retrieval, Process Modelling, Context-Specific Support, Workflow Integration, Organisational Learning, Information Need Object (INO), Information Source Object (ISO), Workflow, Project Planning, Experience Base.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this work?
The work focuses on integrating context-specific knowledge delivery into Process-Centred Software Engineering Environments (PSEEs) to support agents during development and planning tasks.
What are the central thematic fields?
The central themes are software process modelling, knowledge management, information retrieval, and workflow integration within software projects.
What is the main goal of the research?
The goal is to provide developers and project managers with relevant information automatically based on their current project context, thereby reducing search effort and improving quality.
Which scientific method is utilized?
The research follows an engineering approach: analyzing requirements, designing an object-oriented conceptual framework (INOs and ISOs), implementing a prototype within the MILOS system, and evaluating it through an example scenario.
What is covered in the main section?
The main section covers the conceptualization of information need objects, the system architecture of the MILOS Information Assistant, and the learning mechanisms to refine information support over time.
Which keywords characterize this work?
The core keywords include Software Engineering, PSEE, MILOS, Knowledge Delivery, and Process Modelling.
How does the 'Information Assistant' determine when to provide support?
The assistant analyzes the current work context, such as the agent's role and the specific task status, to determine if relevant information need objects are applicable.
What is the purpose of the 'learning loop' mentioned in the thesis?
The learning loop allows agents to post unresolved information needs as questions, which are then captured as 'partly specified' objects to be refined by process modellers for future use.
How does this concept differ from static document management systems?
Unlike static systems, this concept uses dynamic, context-aware queries that can retrieve up-to-date information from heterogeneous sources based on the specific project state.
- Quote paper
- Arne Könnecker (Author), 2000, Extending a process-centred SEE by context-specific knowlegde delivery, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/52493
