This post concludes the series that explains my research in this subject, and points towards how the research can be used in engineering and business, and how it can be furthered by others. This explains what was achieved in provision of modeling and decision support systems that could automate user-computer translation, and interact with users such as engineers to help them model problems and make appropriate decisions.
To make this research into modeling for engineering practical for a wide range of computer literate non-programmers, sustained further research is needed in the areas of visualisation, interaction, modeling, end user programming, and transformation as well as the links between these areas.
The need is for a methodology for creation of systems to enable more collaborative approaches to modeling by domain expert end users. This combined with visualisation would allow engineers to model problems accurately. This can be made possible by provision of systems that may not fulfil all of the requirements of the domain experts because this would be difficult or impossible, but instead allows the domain experts, e.g. engineers to customise this themselves and help build the system they need and that could be changed as required. Alternatives to the current approach to software development are required. Modeling languages can be used as an interface to an end user programming environment. Transformation from a model building environment to program code was investigated.
Even if programming is made easier, only a proportion of people would actually be interested or capable of doing this. But there is still an advantage to colleagues such as people in the same team or department as an end user programmer, even if they are not undertaking programming themselves. Then all in the team have much closer access to someone, the end user programmer, who understands their, and the team's tasks, requirements, and projects. This closes the gap between those producing software systems, and those who require the software. This also makes it easier to iterate through solutions and solve problems more quickly and collaboratively.
Experienced programmers can build a modeling environment that can then be used by non programmers to create models or solve other software problems. This was achieved for the DATUM (Design Analysis Tool for Unit-cost Modelling) project with Rolls-Royce, and the modelling environment created was used by their engineers. Collaboration, simulation and modeling have been investigated to determine the requirements for future research in modeling of problems.
This should allow translation from a model based representation of software to the actual software. This can involve semi automatically producing software for a Semantic website from visual representations of the problem. The core of this modeling infrastructure is automated generation of models created with World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards based languages, and the visualization of information represented in such W3C standard ways.
This research investigated alternative approaches to software development, which give users greater involvement, and can actually be used in combination. This partially automates the process of software creation via a collaborative process and equation tree that maps the problem structure, and user interface creation by providing a means to manage a diagrammatic and/or tree based representation.
1 comment:
People need to be able to access the method both in paper format and on-screen, depending on personal preference and context. All formats must be consistent versions as this is seen as prime importance as unless models are easy for users to use they will not use them.
Authors need to be able to create and maintain methods without undue workload and technical tools knowledge. The new method we have produced in a very short timescale is published and maintained using WorkPad, which provides the method’s components as a series of booklets and associated web pages.
One size does not fit all and so you need to allow tailoring of the method and procedures by end users. The method covers any type of programme or project (internal, customer, merger, building, software etc). Tailoring is not however a recipe for anarchy and needs to be controlled. Well managed, controlled and visible tailoring actually builds the company knowledge base and leads to continuous business improvement.
Just as the method itself needs to be tailored in order to make it relevant and usable in all circumstances, additional methodologies are required in order to build “handbooks” of how to undertake commonly repeated project or work types where a constrained, formal “Process” is inappropriate and inflexible for the need.
Some samples of this are on www.demoprocessmaster.com/main.html and a few videos are on www.processmaster.com
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