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

我们现在正在进入一个软件开发的新阶段，数百万人不仅在使用软件，而且在很大程度上参与了软件的开发。现有的软件设计方法主要侧重于生产力驱动的系统，不足以应付由如此广泛和多样化的用户参与所遇到的定位使用和波动需求的出现。相反，需要一种新型的参与式软件系统，它的设计不会在部署时结束。对于参与式系统来说，成功取决于持续的用户参与，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、领域、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来解决基本的挑战，并指导软件开发人员设计这样的系统。基于对现有设计理论的评估以及对成功的参与式软件系统的系统分析，本研究将从一个部分明确的元设计框架开始，该框架建立在元设计系统可以由播种、进化增长和再播种（SER）过程模型支持的假设之上。PI将识别和关联参与软件系统的技术和社会特征，支持用户协同参与解决他们自己的问题的设计。确定的特征将用于指导展望与发现协作实验室（EDC）的未来发展，该实验室将被实际用户用于解决不同设计领域的复杂现实问题。这项工作将与一个与公共交通有关的具体的重大多年城市规划项目相结合，为此利益相关者之间已经形成了初步合作。在最初的元设计框架的指导下，仔细而系统地评估设计决策对现实世界问题解决情况的影响，这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述一个设计空间，定义一个设计过程，并为创建参与式软件系统确定一套评估标准。更广泛的影响：随着软件系统越来越多地融入我们的日常生活，并重塑人们交互、协作、工作和思考的方式，软件系统的需求已经变得更加个性化，并且在使用过程中不断变化。本研究将为参与式软件系统的设计创造科学基础，这种系统在任何时间点都没有固定的需求，需要用户的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，这对设计科学的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”。许多将参与研究活动的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.