Requirements modelling questionnaire

V1

Participant information

1. Qualifications in computing or information technology related field:

2. Other qualifications:

3. Number of years experience as a computing professional or researcher:

4. Number of years experience as a software engineer:

5. Number of years experience in agent, role, or goal modelling:

6. Number of years experience using i-star:

7. Number of years experience using ROADMAP models:

8. Other relevant experience:

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Objectives and task overview

The objectives of this questionnaire are to assess how different modelling notations, i-star andROADMAP, capture high-level stakeholder requirements.

As part of this questionnaire, you will be given two sets of models, and asked to answer specificquestions about the information contained in each of the models.

After this, you will be presented to two alternative designs from two problem areas, and askedto subjectively evaluate which design captures the types of concepts that we are interested inmodelling.

Task 1

Figure 1 in the appendix presents a model of a system for scheduling meetings.

From these models, answer the following questions:

1. Consider a scenario of automatically scheduling a meeting. According to the model, what isthe first task/goal that should be performed, and who should do it?

2. According to the model, which actor/role must attend the meeting for the meeting objectivesto be met?

3. Which steps must be completed to automatically schedule a meeting?

4. Of the steps to automatically schedule a meeting, which steps need to be undertaken by thehuman roles: Meeting initiator and Meeting participant?

5. According to the models, if you wanted to schedule a meeting quickly and easily, would youuse the automated scheduler or manually schedule this?

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Task 2

Figure 2 in the appendix presents a model of a socio-technical system for patient care.

From these models, answer the following questions:

1. For a patient, what is the most important property of patient-centred care?

2. Who is responsible for executing the treatment plan?

3. What are the reason(s) that a patient would want a regulator to audit the healthcare providers?

4. What is a downside to provider-centred care?

5. What are the responsibilities of a healthcare provider?

6. A Healthcare provider software agent is a software program that assists the healthcare providerto design a treatment plan. Before the healthcare provider can consider the patient data, whatdoes the Healthcare provider software agent have to do?

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Task 3

Compare Figures 3 and 4. They represent the Instagram mobile application (a social network ded-icated to picture sharing) using two notations. We will refer to these notations as i-star (Figure 3)and ROADMAP (Figure 4).

From these models and those from the previous tasks, answer the following questions:

1. Which notation do you find easier to understand?

� i-star Much Easier

� i-star Easier

� Neutral

� ROADMAP Easier

� ROADMAP Much Easier

Reason(s):

2. Would you be confident making modifications to i-star models such as those in Figures 1(meeting scheduler) and 3 (Instagram)?

� Not at all confident

� Quite unconfident

� Neutral

� Quite confident

� Very confident

Reason(s):

3. Would you be confident making modifications to ROADMAP models such as those in Figures2 (patient care) and 4 (Instagram)?

� Not at all confident

� Quite unconfident

� Neutral

� Quite confident

� Very confident

Reason(s):

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4. Do you think that one type of model captures more information than the other?

� i-star captures much more information

� i-star captures a bit more information

� Both capture the same information

� ROADMAP captures a bit more information

� ROADMAP captures much more information

Reason(s):

5. To represent dependencies between concepts, i-star models use an explicit dependency rela-tionship, while ROADMAP models use explicit hierarchy (sub-goals). Which approach doyou prefer?

� Strongly Prefer i-star’s dependency approach

� Prefer i-star’s dependency approach

� Neutral

� Prefer ROADMAP’s hierarchy approach

� Strongly Prefer ROADMAP’s hierarchy approach

Reason(s):

6. One aim of our research is to capture the emotional desires of people using systems. Whichnotation best captures the emotional nature of using Instagram?

� Strongly Prefer i-star

� Prefer i-star

� Neutral

� Prefer ROADMAP

� Strongly Prefer ROADMAP

Reason(s):

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Protocol

1. 1 minute intro on ROADMAP

• The parallelograms represent functionality. For example, a functionality could be to“Report a car accident”.

• The clouds represent qualities or conditions that the functionality should have. For ex-ample, a quality goal of the “Report a car accident” could be to do it “Quick”. Therefore,a phone call would be a valid method of achieving it.

• The hearts represent the emotional needs of the people involved (typically the one nextto the heart). For example, a driver wants to feel “Reassured” that everything will bealright when they report an accident. Then an automatic telephone system with pre-recorded messages will not be as good as having a human operator directly communicatewith the person.

• The spades represent negative emotions that may affect the functionality or negativeemotions that the functionality acts against. For example, while calling to report anaccident, the driver may feel “worried” and “in shock”.

• The stick figures represent people or software agents involved in the fulfilment of thegoal. For example, in the case of reporting an accident, there would be at least twopeople participating, the driver and the operator at the other end of the phone line.

• The lines linking parallelograms represent hierarchical relations. Typically functionali-ties placed below others refine or give more detail about them. For example, report a caraccident can be decomposed in the functionalities of “call insurance company”, “proveidentity” and “give details of accident”.

2. 2 minute intro on i-star

• The ovals represent goals in the system. For example, “Get a PhD”.

• The hexagons represent tasks that contribute to the achievement of a goal. For example,a task to get a PhD is to “Write a thesis”.

• The rectangles represent resources important in the fulfilment of the goal. For example,a resource to get a PhD is (most likely) a “Computer”.

• The blobs represent conditions to be fulfilled while trying to achieve the goals of thesystem. For example, “Finishing within 3.5 years” could be a condition associated tothe goal of getting a PhD.

• The lines with a crossing stroke at the end represent a decomposition of a main elementinto different ones. For example, the task of writing a thesis, can be decomposed into atask “Write chapters” and a soft-goal which is “Avoid plagiarism”.

• The arrows represent a means-end relationship. For example, two alternative waysof getting a PhD would be “Doing a PhD by thesis writing” or “Doing a PhD bypublications”.

• The arrows annotated with + and − symbols represent that something helps or hindersthe achievement of a soft-goal. For example, “Work routine” contributes positively tothe goal of getting a PhD, whereas “Intensive procrastination” hinders the achievementof the same goal.

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• The circles represent actors in the system and the broken boundaries around them rep-resent their area of influence. For example, “PhD student” would be an actor in thesystem and getting a PhD would be inside its boundaries. The task of “Assessing a PhDthesis” would be part of the boundaries of the actor “PhD examiner”.

• The symbol “D” labelling a line indicates dependencies. The wide part of the symbolpoints towards the goal, task, resource or softgoal that has to wait for something elsebeing done or being available. The narrow part of the symbol points towards the goal,task, resource or softgoal that needs to be solved before the dependency is solved. Forexample, the task of assessing a PhD thesis cannot commence until the resource “PhDthesis” is available. Similarly the goal of getting a PhD cannot commence until the goalof “Get a postgrad degree” is achieved.

3. Time participant when completing each Task 1 and 2

4. Let the participant work by their own means, only provide help to clarify issues with notation(i.e. the information above) during the assessment

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Figure 1: A model of a meeting scheduler system

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Figure 2: A model of a patient care system

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Figure 3: A model of the Instagram application using i-star

Figure 4: A model of the Instagram application using ROADMAP

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