SoD-Team: A Meta-Design Framework for Participative Software Systems

我们现在正在进入软件开发的新阶段，数百万人不仅使用软件，而且在不同程度上参与其开发。 现有的软件设计方法，主要集中在生产力驱动的系统是不够的，以科普出现的情况下使用和波动的要求所遇到的这种广泛和多样化的用户参与。 相反，需要一种新的参与式软件系统，其设计并不止于部署之时。 对于参与式系统来说，成功取决于用户的持续参与，一个重要的目标是实现软件系统与其不断变化的使用环境、问题、域、用户和用户社区之间的“最佳匹配”。 在这个项目中，PI将开发一个元设计框架，以解决基本的挑战，并指导软件开发人员设计这样的系统。 接地现有的设计理论的评估，以及成功的参与式软件系统的系统分析，本研究将开始与一个部分阐明的元设计框架，建立在假设元设计的系统可以支持的播种，进化增长，和重新播种（SER）过程模型。 PI将识别并关联参与式软件系统的技术和社会特征，这些特征支持用户协作参与解决自己问题的设计。 所确定的特征将用于指导未来的发展的设想和发现合作实验室（EDC），这将是由真实的用户来解决复杂的现实世界中的问题，在不同的设计领域。 这项工作将与一个与公共交通有关的具体的重大多年期城市规划项目相结合，为此，利益攸关方之间已经形成了初步合作。 在初始元设计框架的指导下，对设计决策影响的仔细和系统的评估将反馈到元设计框架的细化中。 由此产生的元设计框架将描绘一个设计空间，定义一个设计过程，并确定一组用于创建参与式软件系统的评估标准。随着软件系统越来越多地融入我们的日常生活，并重塑人们互动、协作、工作和思考的方式，对软件系统的需求已经变得更加个体化，并且在其持续使用期间不断变化。 这项研究将为参与式软件系统的设计创造科学基础，这些系统在任何时候都没有固定的要求，并且需要用户参与和贡献作为系统的基本组成部分。 这项研究将有助于更好地理解技术和社会方面的复杂相互作用，这对设计科学这一具有挑战性的领域至关重要。 该项目将汇集来自设计理论、软件工程、人机交互和认知科学的研究人员，以深入了解如何让问题的所有者负责，并使他们独立于“高科技抄写员”。" 参与研究活动的许多本科生和研究生将作为他们经验的一部分接触到软件设计的新方法。

We are now entering a new phase for software development where millions of people are not only using software but also becoming involved in its development to widely varying degrees. Existing software design methodologies that focus primarily on productivity-driven systems are insufficient to cope with the emergence of situated uses and fluctuating requirements encountered by such wide and diversified user involvement. Rather, a new class of participative software systems is needed, the design of which does not end at the time of deployment. For participative systems success hinges on continued user participation, and an important goal is to achieve the "best fit" between the software system and its ever-changing context of use, problems, domains, users, and communities of users. In this project, the PI will develop a meta-design framework to address fundamental challenges and guide software developers in the design of such systems. Grounded in an assessment of existing design theories as well as the systematic analysis of successful participative software systems, this research will start with a partially articulated meta-design framework, founded on the assumption that meta-designed systems can be supported by the Seeding, Evolutionary Growth, and Reseeding (SER) process model. The PI will identify and correlate the technical and social characteristics of participative software systems that support users to collaboratively engage in the design of solutions to their own problems. The identified characteristics will be used to guide future development of the Envisionment and Discovery Collaboratory (EDC), which will be used by real users to solve complex real-world problems in different design domains. The work will be integrated with a specific major, multi-year urban planning project relating to public transportation, for which an initial collaboration among the stakeholders has already been formed. Careful and systematic assessment of design decision impacts, guided by the initial meta-design framework, on this real-world problem-solving situation will feed back into the refinement of the meta-design framework. The resulting meta-design framework will delineate a design space, define a design process, and identify a set of evaluation criteria for the creation of participative software systems.Broader Impacts: As software systems are being increasingly woven into our daily lives and reshape the way people interact, collaborate, work, and think, requirements for software systems have become more individually differentiated and continuously change during their ongoing use. This research will create the scientific foundation for the design of participative software systems that do not have fixed requirements at any point in time, and necessitate user participation and contribution as a fundamental part of the system. The research will contribute to a better understanding of the complicated interactions of technical and social aspects essential to this challenging domain of a science of design. The project will bring together researchers from design theory, software engineering, human-computer interaction, and cognitive science to gain insight into how to put owners of problems in charge and make them independent of "high-tech scribes." The many undergraduate and graduate students who will be involved in the research activities will as part of their experience be exposed to new approaches to software design.