Abstractions for Software Architecture and Tools to Support Them
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering - Special issue on software architecture
Designing the design process: exploiting opportunistic thoughts
Human-Computer Interaction
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A deductive approach to design has served the era of evolutionary changes well. However, many recent design projects are requiring more of an evolutionary jump. These projects demand more resources and more learning over large collaborating organizations to produce results. This paper will discuss elements such as large scale collaboration, flexibility, and shared understanding among designers in the context of a design process for complex physical systems. It is proposed that these qualities can be achieved through the use of a well conceived computer framework which implements several tools and techniques used in the software development industry. These techniques include the use of logical abstractions, distributed revision control, service oriented architectures, and Unit testing. These particular techniques have been extracted as key features that enable developers to successfully produce products while working collaboratively across organizational and cultural barriers. It is believed that this combination of tools will enhance the design process of physical systems by addressing the deficiencies required by new projects that call for evolutionary jumps and by creating learning opportunities for designers which could benefit the whole in terms of problem definition and solution development.