AHCI RESEARCH GROUP
Publications
Papers published in international journals,
proceedings of conferences, workshops and books.
OUR RESEARCH
Scientific Publications
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You can use the tag cloud to select only the papers dealing with specific research topics.
You can expand the Abstract, Links and BibTex record for each paper.
2015
Sabatucci, Luca; Ceccato, Mariano; Marchetto, Alessandro; Susi, Angelo
Ahab's Legs in Scenario-Based Requirements Validation: An Experiment to Study Communication Mistakes Journal Article
In: Journal of Systems and Software, vol. 109, pp. 124–136, 2015.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: AAL for the Elderly, Controlled Experiment, Requirement Engineering, Requirement Validation
@article{sabatucciAhabLegsScenariobased2015,
title = {Ahab's Legs in Scenario-Based Requirements Validation: An Experiment to Study Communication Mistakes},
author = { Luca Sabatucci and Mariano Ceccato and Alessandro Marchetto and Angelo Susi},
doi = {10.1016/j.jss.2015.07.039},
year = {2015},
date = {2015-01-01},
journal = {Journal of Systems and Software},
volume = {109},
pages = {124--136},
abstract = {The correct identification of requirements is a crucial step for the implementation of a satisfactory software system. In the validation of requirements with scenarios, a straightforward communication is central to obtain a good participation from stakeholders. Technical specifications are translated into scenarios to make them concrete and easy to understand for non-technical users, and contextual details are added to encourage user engagement. However, additional contextual details (Ahab's legs) could generate a negative impact on the requirements' validation by leading to proliferating comments that are not pertinent to session objective. The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of Ahab's leg to scenario-based requirement validation sessions. We conducted a controlled experiment with human participants and measured the pertinence of the comments formulated by participants when discussing the requirements. The results of our experiment suggest that the potentially negative impact of Ahab's leg can be effectively controlled by the analyst.},
keywords = {AAL for the Elderly, Controlled Experiment, Requirement Engineering, Requirement Validation},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
The correct identification of requirements is a crucial step for the implementation of a satisfactory software system. In the validation of requirements with scenarios, a straightforward communication is central to obtain a good participation from stakeholders. Technical specifications are translated into scenarios to make them concrete and easy to understand for non-technical users, and contextual details are added to encourage user engagement. However, additional contextual details (Ahab's legs) could generate a negative impact on the requirements' validation by leading to proliferating comments that are not pertinent to session objective. The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of Ahab's leg to scenario-based requirement validation sessions. We conducted a controlled experiment with human participants and measured the pertinence of the comments formulated by participants when discussing the requirements. The results of our experiment suggest that the potentially negative impact of Ahab's leg can be effectively controlled by the analyst.
2012
Morales-Ramirez, Itzel; Vergne, Matthieu; Morandini, Mirko; Sabatucci, Luca; Perini, Anna; Susi, Angelo
Where Did the Requirements Come from? A Retrospective Case Study Proceedings Article
In: Advances in Conceptual Modeling: ER 2012 Workshops CMS, ECDM-NoCoDA, MoDIC, MORE-BI, RIGiM, SeCoGIS, WISM, Florence, Italy, October 15-18, 2012. Proceedings 31, pp. 185–194, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2012.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: AAL for the Elderly, Goal-Model, Requirement Engineering, Requirement Validation
@inproceedings{morales-ramirezWhereDidRequirements2012,
title = {Where Did the Requirements Come from? A Retrospective Case Study},
author = { Itzel {Morales-Ramirez} and Matthieu Vergne and Mirko Morandini and Luca Sabatucci and Anna Perini and Angelo Susi},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-642-33999-8_23},
year = {2012},
date = {2012-01-01},
booktitle = {Advances in Conceptual Modeling: ER 2012 Workshops CMS, ECDM-NoCoDA, MoDIC, MORE-BI, RIGiM, SeCoGIS, WISM, Florence, Italy, October 15-18, 2012. Proceedings 31},
pages = {185--194},
publisher = {Springer Berlin Heidelberg},
abstract = {Understanding complex organisations in terms of their stakeholders' goals, intentions and resources, is a necessary condition for the design of present day socio-technical systems. Goal-oriented approaches in requirements engineering provide concepts and techniques to support this analysis. A variety of goal-oriented modelling methods are available, together with guidelines for their application, as well as real case studies success stories. Our long term research objective is to derive useful suggestions for practitioners about which information sources are more promising for performing effective goal-oriented analysis and requirements elicitation of a complex domain, as well as about possible limits and pitfalls. As a first step towards this objective we perform a retrospective case study analysis of a project in the domain of ambient assisted-living residences for people affected by Alzheimer's. In this paper we describe the design of this study, present an analysis of the collected data, and discuss them against the proposed research questions, towards investigating the effectiveness of information sources for goal modelling and requirements elicitation in complex domains},
keywords = {AAL for the Elderly, Goal-Model, Requirement Engineering, Requirement Validation},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Understanding complex organisations in terms of their stakeholders' goals, intentions and resources, is a necessary condition for the design of present day socio-technical systems. Goal-oriented approaches in requirements engineering provide concepts and techniques to support this analysis. A variety of goal-oriented modelling methods are available, together with guidelines for their application, as well as real case studies success stories. Our long term research objective is to derive useful suggestions for practitioners about which information sources are more promising for performing effective goal-oriented analysis and requirements elicitation of a complex domain, as well as about possible limits and pitfalls. As a first step towards this objective we perform a retrospective case study analysis of a project in the domain of ambient assisted-living residences for people affected by Alzheimer's. In this paper we describe the design of this study, present an analysis of the collected data, and discuss them against the proposed research questions, towards investigating the effectiveness of information sources for goal modelling and requirements elicitation in complex domains
2011
Sabatucci, Luca; Ceccato, Mariano; Marchetto, Alessandro; Susi, Angelo
Ahab's Leg Dilemma: On the Design of a Controlled Experiment Proceedings Article
In: Workshop on Empirical Requirements Engineering (EmpiRE 2011), pp. 69–76, IEEE, 2011.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: AAL for the Elderly, Controlled Experiment, Requirement Validation
@inproceedings{sabatucciAhabLegDilemma2011,
title = {Ahab's Leg Dilemma: On the Design of a Controlled Experiment},
author = { Luca Sabatucci and Mariano Ceccato and Alessandro Marchetto and Angelo Susi},
doi = {10.1109/EmpiRE.2011.6046258},
year = {2011},
date = {2011-01-01},
booktitle = {Workshop on Empirical Requirements Engineering (EmpiRE 2011)},
pages = {69--76},
publisher = {IEEE},
abstract = {To meet stakeholder non-technical background, requirements are often presented by analysts in terms of scenarios. While translating requirements into scenarios, details and over-specifications (called Ahab's Legs) need to be added to make requirements concrete and understandable to stakeholders. Despite the expected benefits that they should convey, Ahab's Legs could disturb the requirement validation session. They can, in fact, distract the attention of stakeholders. Valuable discussion time may be wasted when focusing on irrelevant details rather than on the actually relevant ones. In the present paper, we address the Ahab's Leg dilemma and its potential impact on requirement validation sessions. We discuss how to measure the distraction due to Ahab's Legs and what are the possible approaches an analyst can adopt to limit it. Moreover, we present the design of a controlled experiment devoted to measure the impact of Ahab's Legs on requirement validation sessions. In particular, the experiment is meant to (1) estimate the magnitude of the distracting effect, and to (2) assess one of the most promising way to alleviate their negative effect, i.e. by making stakeholder aware of the Ahab's Legs before the validation session.},
keywords = {AAL for the Elderly, Controlled Experiment, Requirement Validation},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
To meet stakeholder non-technical background, requirements are often presented by analysts in terms of scenarios. While translating requirements into scenarios, details and over-specifications (called Ahab's Legs) need to be added to make requirements concrete and understandable to stakeholders. Despite the expected benefits that they should convey, Ahab's Legs could disturb the requirement validation session. They can, in fact, distract the attention of stakeholders. Valuable discussion time may be wasted when focusing on irrelevant details rather than on the actually relevant ones. In the present paper, we address the Ahab's Leg dilemma and its potential impact on requirement validation sessions. We discuss how to measure the distraction due to Ahab's Legs and what are the possible approaches an analyst can adopt to limit it. Moreover, we present the design of a controlled experiment devoted to measure the impact of Ahab's Legs on requirement validation sessions. In particular, the experiment is meant to (1) estimate the magnitude of the distracting effect, and to (2) assess one of the most promising way to alleviate their negative effect, i.e. by making stakeholder aware of the Ahab's Legs before the validation session.
2010
Leonardi, Chiara; Sabatucci, Luca; Susi, Angelo; Zancanaro, Massimo
Ahab's Leg: Exploring the Issues of Communicating Semi-Formal Requirements to the Final Users Proceedings Article
In: Advanced Information Systems Engineering: 22nd International Conference, CAiSE 2010, Hammamet, Tunisia, June 7-9, 2010. Proceedings 22, pp. 455–469, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2010.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Goal-Oriented Approach, Requirement Engineering, Requirement Validation, User-Centred Design
@inproceedings{leonardiAhabLegExploring2010,
title = {Ahab's Leg: Exploring the Issues of Communicating Semi-Formal Requirements to the Final Users},
author = { Chiara Leonardi and Luca Sabatucci and Angelo Susi and Massimo Zancanaro},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-642-13094-6_35},
year = {2010},
date = {2010-01-01},
booktitle = {Advanced Information Systems Engineering: 22nd International Conference, CAiSE 2010, Hammamet, Tunisia, June 7-9, 2010. Proceedings 22},
pages = {455--469},
publisher = {Springer Berlin Heidelberg},
abstract = {In this paper, we present our experience in using narrative scenarios as a tool to communicate and validate semi-formal requirements with the stake-holders in a large software project. The process of translating the semi-formal language of Tropos into the narrative form of scenarios is introduced and some unintended implications of this process are discussed. In particular, we define the notion of Ahab's leg to describe the necessity to introduce new constraints or features in a description when moving to a different representational language. Starting from the lessons learned with this specific case study, we derive some general implications concerning the issue of requirement translation for validation tasks and we propose some methodological guidelines to address the Ahab's leg dilemma.},
keywords = {Goal-Oriented Approach, Requirement Engineering, Requirement Validation, User-Centred Design},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
In this paper, we present our experience in using narrative scenarios as a tool to communicate and validate semi-formal requirements with the stake-holders in a large software project. The process of translating the semi-formal language of Tropos into the narrative form of scenarios is introduced and some unintended implications of this process are discussed. In particular, we define the notion of Ahab's leg to describe the necessity to introduce new constraints or features in a description when moving to a different representational language. Starting from the lessons learned with this specific case study, we derive some general implications concerning the issue of requirement translation for validation tasks and we propose some methodological guidelines to address the Ahab's leg dilemma.