Abstract not found

Despite technical advances over the past few years in the area of systems support for cooperative work there is still relatively little understanding of the organisation of collaborative activity in real world, technologically supported, work environments. Indeed, it has been suggested that the failure of various technological applications may derive from their relative insensitivity to ordinary work practice and situated conduct. In this paper we discuss the possibility of utilising recent developments within sociology, in particular the naturalistic analysis of organisational conduct and social interaction, as a basis for the design and development of tools and technologies to support collaborative work. Focussing on the Line Control Rooms in London Underground, a complex multimedia environment in transition, we begin to explicate the tacit work practices and procedures whereby personnel systematically communicate information to each other and coordinate a disparate collection of tasks and activities. The design implications of these empirical observations, both for Line Control Room and technologies to support cooperative work, are briefly discussed.

Despite technical advances in CSCW over the past few years we still have relatively little understanding of the organisation of collaborative activity in real world. technologically supported, work environments. Indeed, it has been suggested that the failure of various technological applications may derive from its relative insensitivity to ordinary work practice and situated conduct. In this paper we discuss the possibility of utilising recent developments within social science, and in particular the naturalistic analysis of organisational conduct and interpersonal communication, as a basis for the design and development of tools and technologies to support collaborative work. Focussing on the Line Control Rooms on London Underground, a complex multimedia environment in transition, we begin to explicate the informal work practices and procedures whereby personnel systematically communicate information and coordinate a disparate collection of tasks and activities. These empirical investigations form the foundation to the design of new tools to support collaborative work in Line Control Rooms; technologies which will be sensitive to the ordinary conduct and practical skills of organisational personnel in the London Underground.

Logical models of argument formalize commonsense reasoning while taking process and computation seriously. This survey discusses the main ideas which characterize different logical models of argument. It presents the formal features of a few main approaches to the modeling of argumentation. We trace the

A safety case should present a clear, comprehensive and defensible argument that a system is acceptably safe to operate within a particular context. However, many existing safety cases, in their attempt to manage potentially complex arguments, are poorly structured, presented and understood. This creates problems in developing and maintaining safety cases, and in capturing successful safety arguments for use on future projects. This thesis defines and demonstrates a coherent approach to the development, presentation, maintenance and reuse of the safety arguments within a safety case. This approach is based upon a graphical technique -- the Goal Structuring Notation (GSN) -- and has three strands. Firstly, a method for the use of GSN is defined together with an approach to supporting incremental safety case development. Secondly, the thesis presents a systematic process for the maintenance of a GSN-structured safety argument. Thirdly, the concept of `Safety Case Patterns' is defined as a means of supporting and promoting the reuse of successful safety arguments between safety cases. Examples of the approach are provided throughout. Evaluation of the approach is described through tool implementation, case studies, pilot projects and industrial project applications. Through these activities the approach has been shown to be both a valid and capable tool for safety case management.

Over the last decade, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) has emerged as an identifiable research area which focuses on the role of the computer in group work. CSCW is a generic term which combines the understanding of the nature of group working with the enabling technologies of computer networking, systems support and applications. This paper examines the classes of system which have emerged to support cooperative working. A framework for characterising and describing CSCW systems is presented and four major classes of cooperative system identified. Each of these classes of cooperative system are examined highlighting their general characteristics and applicability to CSCW. Contents 1. Introduction............................................................................. 2 2. A classification of CSCW systems ..................................................2 2.1 The classes of CSCW systems.................................................3 3. Message systems...................

The field of knowledge-based software engineering has been undergoing a shift in emphasis from automatic programming to human augmentation. We support this shift with an approach that embeds human-computer cooperative problem-solving tools into knowledge-based design environments that work in conjunction with human software designers in specific application domains. Domain orientation reduces the large conceptual distance between problem-domain semantics and software artifacts. Integrated environments support the coevolution of specification and construction while allowing designers to access relevant knowledge at each stage of a software development process. The access and development of knowledge is supported in a cycle of location, comprehension, and modification. Modification includes the evolution of the knowledge base and tools. A framework for building such tools and mechanisms is described and illustrated in terms of three systems: CATALOGEXPLORER, EXPLAINER, and MODIFIER. User...

Managing software requirements during their development can be a complex and difficult task. The requirements can be voluminous, complex, and changing. The analysts, who develop the requirements, can be numerous and changing. Determining the current state of requirements in such a dynamic development environment is challenging. We present techniques to manage requirements in such a dynamic environment. We define requirements management techniques which uncover, manage, and restructure requirements inconsistencies. Aspects of these techniques have been automated within a multi-user World Wide Web environment, called DEALSCRIBE. The techniques, and their support within DEALSCRIBE, are methodology neutral; they simply assume that requirements development is composed of discrete events and products which can be monitored. Requirements development is then managed by specifying development goals, monitoring for their failure, and applying corrective actions when the goals are not met. To sup...

This work analyzes the central role of interpretation in non-routine design. Based on this analysis, a theory of computer support for interpretation in cooperative design is constructed. The theory is grounded in studies of design and interpretation. It is illustrated by mechanisms provided by a software substrate for computer-based design environments, applied to a sample task of lunar habitat design. Computer support of

Research in design rationale support must confront the fundamental questions of what kinds of design rationale information should be captured, and how rationales can be used to support engineering practice. This paper examines the kinds of information used in design rationale explanations, relating them to the kinds of computational services that can be provided. Implications for the design of software tools for design rationale support are given. The analysis predicts that the "record and replay" paradigm of structured note-taking tools (electronic notebooks, deliberation notes, decision histories) may be inadequate to the task. Instead, we argue for a generative approach in which design rationale explanations are constructed, in response to information requests, from background knowledge and information captured during design. Support services based on the generative paradigm, such as design dependency management and rationale by demonstration, will require more formal integration ...