Constraints vs. Creativity

The testing and measurement of software quality are concerns familiar to readers of the DACS Newsletter. Whether it be integrated approaches to metrics or cost-effective error prevention programs, the assurance of product quality has become essential in a time of shrinking resources and expanding tasking.

Quality problems stem from a failure to apply software engineering and human resources consistently and reliably to all phases of each development project. Key among the human resources is the professional creativity of analysts, programmers, and software engineers.

The introduction of Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools more than a decade ago was intended to improve productivity while increasing quality assurance. CASE tools, however, have not met expectations. Despite their complexity and sophistication, automated software development tools remain inflexible, sometimes thwarting professional creativity.

Enhancing creativity while ensuring necessary quality is the goal of a multi-year study currently under way at the Center for Science and Technology, Syracuse University, School of Information Studies, Ph.D. Program in Information Transfer. This study examines the behavioral and perceptual responses of CASE tool users to constraint management during automated software development. In this context, constraints are restrictions of user design and implementation options dictated by quality and performance concerns. The goal of the study is to identify and describe the types of constraints which may be relaxed, thereby enhancing professional creativity, without detracting unacceptably from product quality.

Treatment of the constraint management problem includes the mapping of tool developers' software process models, created in response to quality requirements, to the style preferences and cognitive, or human information processing, models of tool users. The study is founded upon material from the fields of Information Studies, Cognitive Psychology, Human Factors, Decision Sciences, and Software Engineering.

The study has included interviews with managers, supervisors, and programming team leaders at a Fortune 500 company which applies an integrated CASE tool in business systems development. In addition, tool developers at Kaman Sciences Corporation's (KSC) Rome, NY office have been interviewed. KSC is under contract to a DoD client to provide system development and support services.

The research design calls for the distribution of a detailed constraint management questionnaire to hundreds of CASE tool users across the U.S. and observation of a number of users at various sites to assess their perceptions of and behavior toward constraints implemented in CASE tools.

This study will address issues of process modeling and control, decision support and user guidance, CASE tool characteristics and selection, human-computer interaction, the impact of organizational culture, and cognition and user behavior in its examination of constraint management. Inquiries may be directed to: