需求变更影响分析模型及相关技术研究

需求是后续开发活动的基准，早期的一些研究者认为应该在需求完全确定之后再进行后续开发，Royce所提出的瀑布模型就是这种思想的一个体现。但是，实践经验告诉我们，不管前期的需求分析做的多么完美，需求还是会发生变更。一方面是因为需求本身很复杂，对它的分析、理解和描述是一个循序渐进的过程，不可能一蹴而就；另一方面由于用户期望和偏好的改变、市场环境的转变、使用环境的日益复杂、技术的革新等都会使得原有的软件系统无法满足各涉众的利益。因此，需求变更是软件开发中固有的规律，是不可避免和普遍存在的。 需求变更通常会导致需求间及需求与后续工作产品间的不一致。因此，频繁的需求变更会造成产品质量下降、进度延期、成本超支等问题。变更影响分析(Change Impact Analysis)通过分析变更对象及其相关工作产品间的关系来评估变更造成的影响，从而控制变更。现有方法多数是从软件维护的角度，对代码的变更影响进行分析，过于细节和技术化，不能对需求变更影响分析提供有力支持。即使针对需求变更的影响分析方法也只是基于形式化需求规约，通过分析需求间的关系来识别影响范围，并未考虑需求变更对后续工作产品造成的影响，同时形式化需求规约的应用困难也限制了该方法的实用性。此外，随着需求和工作产品的规模与复杂性日益增加，使得手工建立和维护需求间及需求与工作产品间关系面临着不小的难度。 基于以上分析，本文提出了针对自然语言需求规约的需求变更影响分析模型RCIAM (Requirement Change Impact Analysis Model)，围绕着如何自动识别和筛选需求间的关系——横向需求跟踪关系(Horizontal Requirement Traceability)、如何自动识别和筛选需求与工作产品间的关系——纵向需求跟踪关系(Vertical Requirement Traceability)、如何较全面的进行需求变更影响计算和决策三个问题展开了研究。 本文的主要贡献有： (1) 提出了需求变更影响分析模型RCIAM 本文对RCIAM进行了形式化定义。该模型不但提供了需求变更影响分析算法和对决策的支持，还提供了自动识别横向和纵向需求跟踪关系的方法。RCIAM主要包含数据处理和数据分析两个层次。数据处理层采用了文本处理(Text Processing)技术实现了横向和纵向需求跟踪关系的自动识别，为数据分析层提供需求跟踪关系数据；数据分析层基于需求跟踪关系数据，在产生需求变更申请(Change Request)时，进行量化影响计算，并提供决策支持。 (2) 提出了横向需求跟踪关系的识别与筛选方法 在对自然语言需求规约文档进行深入分析后，我们发现了两种与需求变更影响密切相关的关系类型，并从文本相似性的角度将它们定义为相似跟踪关系和引用跟踪关系。在将需求项拆分为需求片段的基础上，利用信息检索技术(Information Retrieval，IR)计算需求片段间的文本相似度，并设计了相应的算法对相似跟踪关系和引用跟踪关系进行自动识别。最后，提出了“变更影响跟踪”的规则来辅助对候选跟踪关系的人工筛选。 (3) 提出了纵向需求跟踪关系的识别与筛选方法 已有的研究多采用IR技术来自动建立需求与工作产品之间的跟踪关系，但是却存在着精度不理想的问题。我们从查全率(Recall)和查准率(Precision)的角度，分析了应用IR技术自动建立需求与代码跟踪关系的方法中产生的错误关系，发现了造成精度问题的根源所在。依据这一发现，基于现有方法，本文方法加入了相关反馈(Relvant Feedback)辅助识别和代码注释信息辅助识别等改进措施，并提供了人工筛选策略。 (4) 提出了需求变更影响分析计算与决策方法 本文通过矩阵运算说明了需求变更影响通过需求跟踪关系传播到其它需求和工作产品的过程，并设计了相应的需求变更影响分析算法。该算法考虑变更发生在不同阶段时对不同类型工作产品的影响，采用变更类型和关系强度两个因子加权计算影响值，并提出了根据影响值来进行变更决策的方法。 (5) 应用研究 结合中科方德公司Qone平台的开发，对以上工作进行了应用研究和性能分析。在Qone平台的需求管理工具版本1.0的开发中，首先采用本文方法对横向和纵向需求跟踪关系进行了自动识别，然后对开发期间发生的十次需求变更申请进行了影响分析和决策。在项目完成后，设计了实验对横向和纵向需求跟踪关系的识别进行了性能分析。结果表明，本文方法能够有效辅助进行需求变更影响分析。

一种支持多语言文本布局方向的文档处理模型

文档处理是文字处理的关键组成部分，针对多语言混合排版的需求，本文提出了基于“框”的支持不同方向的多语言文本布局的文档处理模型。该模型把时文本布局方向的处理封装在文档格式化模块中，将多文本布局方向的问题规约为文本布局方向为从左向右（水平）的文档格式化的问题，并设计了多文本布局方向文档格式化的递归算法。该模型可以很好支持包括我国民族文字蒙古文、维吾尔文、藏文在内的各种不同书写方向文字的文本布局。

Internet Fish

I have invented "Internet Fish," a novel class of resource-discovery tools designed to help users extract useful information from the Internet. Internet Fish (IFish) are semi-autonomous, persistent information brokers; users deploy individual IFish to gather and refine information related to a particular topic. An IFish will initiate research, continue to discover new sources of information, and keep tabs on new developments in that topic. As part of the information-gathering process the user interacts with his IFish to find out what it has learned, answer questions it has posed, and make suggestions for guidance. Internet Fish differ from other Internet resource discovery systems in that they are persistent, personal and dynamic. As part of the information-gathering process IFish conduct extended, long-term conversations with users as they explore. They incorporate deep structural knowledge of the organization and services of the net, and are also capable of on-the-fly reconfiguration, modification and expansion. Human users may dynamically change the IFish in response to changes in the environment, or IFish may initiate such changes itself. IFish maintain internal state, including models of its own structure, behavior, information environment and its user; these models permit an IFish to perform meta-level reasoning about its own structure. To facilitate rapid assembly of particular IFish I have created the Internet Fish Construction Kit. This system provides enabling technology for the entire class of Internet Fish tools; it facilitates both creation of new IFish as well as additions of new capabilities to existing ones. The Construction Kit includes a collection of encapsulated heuristic knowledge modules that may be combined in mix-and-match fashion to create a particular IFish; interfaces to new services written with the Construction Kit may be immediately added to "live" IFish. Using the Construction Kit I have created a demonstration IFish specialized for finding World-Wide Web documents related to a given group of documents. This "Finder" IFish includes heuristics that describe how to interact with the Web in general, explain how to take advantage of various public indexes and classification schemes, and provide a method for discovering similarity relationships among documents.

Tutorial TaxTools.

A ferramenta TaxTools foi desenvolvida pelo Laboratório de Inteligência Computacional (Labic) do Instituto de Ciência Matemática e de Computação (ICMC) da Universidade de São Paulo (USP), campus de São Carlos, SP, com o objetivo de auxiliar no processo de mineração de textos. Atualmente, ela tem sido mantida e evoluída pelo Laboratório de Inteligência Computacional (LabIC) da Embrapa Informática Agropecuária. Esse tutorial abrange apenas as opções disponíveis na TaxTools, que completam o processo de obtenção de uma taxonomia de tópicos (MOURA et al., 2008); como clusterização, cálculos de medidas intercluster e de joinability, métodos de podas, métodos de visualização de resultados e algumas opções auxiliares.

Eutils-search - manual do usuário.

O software Eutils-search tem por objetivo trazer do banco de dados PubMed informações sobre artigos relacionados a genes de um organismo específico, de acordo com as regras referentes à taxa de acesso impostas pelo site. As informações trazidas são, então, armazenadas localmente em um banco de dados para acesso rápido. Além disso, o software também gera documentos XML correspondentes às informações do organismo requisitado. O eutils-search é uma ferramenta de apoio ao desenvolvimento de aplicações de mineração de textos voltadas para os domínios de biotecnologia e biologia molecular, baseada em informações textuais obtidas do banco de dados PubMed. Este documento apresenta os pré-requisitos e a descrição dos parâmetros necessários para utilização do software, bem como uma descrição de alguns aspectos internos do software, para melhor entendimento do processo que ele automatiza, além de alguns exemplos e uso.

Systematic assessment of the training needs of health library staff

Urquhart, C., Spink, S., Thomas, R. & Durbin, J. (2005). Systematic assessment of the training needs of health library staff. Library and Information Research, 29(93), 35-42. Sponsorship: National Library for Health (NLH)

Training needs analysis of healthcare library staff, undertaken for South Yorkshire Workforce Development Confederation

Urquhart, C., Durbin, J. & Spink, S. (2004). Training needs analysis of healthcare library staff, undertaken for South Yorkshire Workforce Development Confederation. Aberystwyth: Department of Information Studies, University of Wales Aberystwyth. Sponsorship: South Yorkshire WDC (NHS)

Developing a toolkit for assessing the impact of health library services on patient care

Urquhart,C., Spink, S., Thomas, R. & Weightman, A. (2007). Developing a toolkit for assessing the impact of health library services on patient care. Report to LKDN (Libraries and Knowledge Development Network). Aberystwyth: Department of Information Studies, Aberystwyth University. Sponsorship: Libraries and Knowledge Development Network/ NHS

Making DSpace your own

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DSpace How-To Guide: Tips and tricks for managing common DSpace chores

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