From “folklore” to “living design memory”

ABSTRACT

We identify an important type of software design knowledge that we call community specific folklore and show problems with current approaches to managing it. We built a tool that serves as a living design memory for a large software development organization. The tool delivers knowledge to developers effectively and is embedded in organizational practice to ensure that the knowledge it contains evolves as necessary. This work illustrates important lessons in building knowledge management systems, integrating novel technology into organizational practice, and managing research-development partnerships.

REFERENCES

• 1: Bailin, S.C., Moore, J.M., Bentz, R., & Bewtra, M. 1990. KAPTUR: Knowledge Acquisition for Preservation of Tradeoffs and Underlying Rationale. Proc. 5th Annual Knowledge-Based Software Assistant Conference. (Syracuse, NY, Sept. 1990), pp. 95-104.
• 2: Barstow, D.R. 1979. An Experiment in Knowledge- Based Automatic Programming. Artificial Intelligence. 12(2): 73-119.
• 3: Alexander Borgida , Ronald J. Brachman , Deborah L. McGuinness , Lori Alperin Resnick, CLASSIC: a structural data model for objects, Proceedings of the 1989 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of data, p.58-67, June 1989, Portland, Oregon, United States
• 4: Brachman, R.J., McGuinness, D.L., Patel-Schneider, P.F., Resnick, L.A., & Borgida, A. 1990. Living with CLASSIC: When and How to Use a KL-ONE-Like Language, in Sowa, J., Ed. Formal Aspects of Semantic Networks. Morgan Kauffman.
• 5: Clancey, W. 1991. The Frame of Reference Problem in the Design of Intelligent Machines. In vanLehn, K., Ed. Architectures for Intelligence: The Twenty-Second Carnegie Symposium on Cognition. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
• 6: Colson, J.S. & Prell, E.M. 1992. Total Quality Management for a Large Software Project. A T& T Technical Journal. 71(3): 48-56.
• 7: Conklin, E.J. & Burgess Yakemovic, KC. 1991. A Process-Oriented Approach to Design Rationale. Human-Computer Interaction. 6 (3-4): 357-391.
• 8: Bill Curtis , Herb Krasner , Neil Iscoe, A field study of the software design process for large systems, Communications of the ACM, v.31 n.11, p.1268-1287, Nov. 1988 [doi>10.1145/50087.50089]
• 9: Pelle Ehn , Morten Kyng, Cardboard computers: mocking-it-up or hands-on the future, Design at work: cooperative design of computer systems, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Mahwah, NJ, 1992
• 10: Fischer, G., Grudin, J., Lemke, A.C., McCall, R., Ostwald, J., & Shipman, F. 1992. Supporting Indirect, Collaborative Design with Integrated Knowledge-Based Design Environments. To appear in Human-Computer Interaction. 7(3).
• 11: Fischer, G., Lemke, A.C., McCall, R., & Morch, A.I. 1991. Making Argumentation Serve Design. Human- Computer Interaction. 6 (3-4): 393-419.
• 12: David W. Franke, Deriving and Using Descriptions of Purpose, IEEE Expert: Intelligent Systems and Their Applications, v.6 n.2, p.41-47, April 1991 [doi>10.1109/64.79708]
• 13: Joan Greenbaum , Morten Kyng, Design at work: cooperative design of computer systems, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Mahwah, NJ, 1992
• 14: Greenbaum, J. & Kyng, M. 1991. Introduction: Situated Design. In {13}.
• 15: Jonathan Grudin, Why CSCW applications fail: problems in the design and evaluation of organization of organizational interfaces, Proceedings of the 1988 ACM conference on Computer-supported cooperative work, p.85-93, September 26-28, 1988, Portland, Oregon, United States [doi>10.1145/62266.62273]
• 16: Johnson, W.L., Feather, M.S., & Harris, D.H. 1991. The KBSA Requirements/Specification Facet: ARIES. Proc.s 6th Knowledge-Based Software Engineering Conference (Syracuse, NY. Sept. 1991), pp. 57-66.
• 17: Kunz, W., & Rittel, H. 1970. Issues as Elements of Information Systems. Working Paper 131. Center for Planning and Development Research. The University of California at Berkeley.
• 18: McDermott, J. 1982. RI: A Rule-Based Configurer of Computer Systems. Artificial Intelligence. 19: 39-88.
• 19: William Mark , Sherman Tyler , James McGuire , Jon Schlossberg, Commitment-Based Software Development, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, v.18 n.10, p.870-885, October 1992 [doi>10.1109/32.163604]
• 20: Ramesh, B. & Dhar, V. 1991. Representation and Maintenance of Process Knowledge for Large Scale Systems Development. Proc. 6th Annual Knowledge- Based Software Engineering Conference. Syracuse, NY. Sept. 1991), pp. 223-231.
• 21: Charles Rich , Richard C. Waters, The programmer's apprentice, ACM Press, New York, NY, 1990
• 22: Selfridge, P.G., Terveen, L.G., & Long, M.D. 1992. Managing Design Knowledge to Provide Assistance to Large-Scale Software Development. Proc. 7th Knowledge-Based Software Engineering Conference, (McLean, VA, Sept 1992).
• 23: Shortliffe, E.H. 1976. Computer-Based Medical Consultation: MYCIN. New York: American Elsevier.
• 24: Suchman, L.A. 1987. Plans and Situated Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• 25: Terveen, L.G. & Wroblewski, D.A. 1991. A Tool for Achieving Consensus in Knowledge Representation. AAAI-91.
• 26: Terry Winograd , Fernando Flores, Understanding computers and cognition, Ablex Publishing Corp., Norwood, NJ, 1986

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
      K.6.3 Software Management
          Subjects: Software development

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
      K.6.3 Software Management
          Subjects: Software maintenance

General Terms:
Design, Documentation, Management

Keywords:
knowledge representation, organizational design, organizational interfaces, software productivity