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Design Requirements Engineering: A Ten-Year Perspective pp 215–237Cite as

Designs Can Talk: A Case of Feedback for Design Evolution in Assistive Technology

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 14))

Abstract

Requirements engineers gain insights and make improvements on their requirements specifications, as they are applied in natural contexts. Software artifacts are particularly useful requirements instantiations because feedback can be obtained directly from software. Software talks to its designers about its requirements.

We illustrate requirements feedback with a case study in assistive technology (AT). A specialized emailing system was designed for cognitively impaired patients in an effort to decrease their social isolation, which often occurs after a brain injury. The patients continue to expand their email system usage, which is remarkable for AT. We attribute this unusual success to the feedback obtained directly from the software, through monitoring user goal models. Such monitoring has allowed the developers to understand and evolve their software to meet the changing user needs. It illustrates how an operational artifact, like software, can drive design evolution.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Computer Information Systems, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    William N. Robinson

  2. Computer Science, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA

    Stephen Fickas

Authors
  1. William N. Robinson
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  2. Stephen Fickas
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Kalle Lyytinen

  2. Loughborough University, UK

    Pericles Loucopoulos

  3. University of Toronto, ON, Canada

    John Mylopoulos

  4. Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Bill Robinson

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© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Robinson, W.N., Fickas, S. (2009). Designs Can Talk: A Case of Feedback for Design Evolution in Assistive Technology. In: Lyytinen, K., Loucopoulos, P., Mylopoulos, J., Robinson, B. (eds) Design Requirements Engineering: A Ten-Year Perspective. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 14. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-92966-6_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-92966-6_12

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-92965-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-92966-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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