HCC: Small: Collaborative Research: Cognitive Approaches to Distributed Software Requirements Engineering

这项研究试图揭示信息系统需求如何演变以及如何跨项目环境管理的解释和原则。它将列举项目设计工作流和实践，以确定工件和过程分布的不同形式如何影响需求工程目标和项目成功。目前还没有严格的、基于理论的方法来理解和解释需求的大规模分布，尽管有证据表明它是成功的。需求工程方法处理空间和社会分布，并在较小程度上处理结构和时间分布。最重要的是，总的来说，这些问题的组合还没有得到考虑。因此，我们不能说哪种实践配置最适合于实现指定的开发目标，比如缩短上市时间，或者提高软件质量和客户满意度。需要新的理论模型和实证研究来理解分布对不断变化的需求的影响。该项目将(1)进行实地研究和民族志研究；(2)通过扎根理论和比较方法分析工作程序；(3)构建数据分析、模型构建和模型分析工具；(4)通过模拟和目标分析分析模型。它将应用由四种分布形式（社会的、空间的、结构的和时间的）和四种需求任务（发现、规范、协商、监视）组成的分布式需求框架，并结合分布式认知理论来分析软件项目中的需求知识演变。此外，它将设计新的工具来帮助获取、建模和分析分布式需求工作流。该研究旨在对大型设计项目中新兴现实的关键见解，这些项目代表了经济增长和新形式的产业组织的驱动因素之一。然而，许多软件组织受到方法和工具因素的限制，这些因素没有认识到需求工程日益增加的挑战。这项研究强调了设计师学习管理输入和约束的多样性的方式，并试图理解未来增强基于软件的开放式创新的过程。

This research seeks to uncover explanations and principles about how requirements for information systems evolve and how they are managed across project contexts. It will enumerate project design workflows and practices to determine how different forms of artifact and process distribution affect requirements engineering goals and project success. Currently there are no rigorous, theory-based approaches to understanding and explaining large-scale distribution of requirements, though there is evidence of its success. Requirements engineering approaches address spatial and social distribution, and to a lesser extent, structural and temporal distribution. Most importantly, the combination of these issues, in total, has not been considered. Consequently, we cannot say which configuration of practices is best suited to achieve specified development goals, such as reduced time to market, or increased software quality and customer satisfaction. New theoretical models and empirical research are needed to understand the effects of distribution on evolving requirements.The project will (1) conduct field studies and ethnography, (2) analyze work procedures via grounded theory and comparative methods, (3) construct tools for data analysis, model building, and model analysis, and (4) analyze models via simulations and goal analyses. It will apply a distributed requirements framework consisting of four forms of distribution (social, spatial, structural, and temporal) and four requirements tasks (discovery, specification, negotiation, monitoring) in conjunction with the theory of distributed cognition to analyze requirements knowledge evolution in software projects. Additionally, it will design new tools that help acquire, model, and analyze distributed requirements workflows. The research aims to develop critical insights on emerging realities in large-scale design projects, which represent one of the drivers for economic growth and new forms of industrial organization. Yet, many software organizations are constrained by methodological and tool factors that do not recognize the increased challenges for requirements engineering. This research highlights the ways in which designers learn to manage the diversity of inputs and constraints, and seeks to understand processes that enhance software-based open innovation in the future.