Improving active participation during enterprise operations modeling with an extended story-card-method and participative modeling software

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the need for process automation, using agile software development practices. However, when agile methods are used in scaled contexts, many software development efforts fail, mainly due to lacking requirements engineering practices. When business-oriented software needs to be developed within a scaled context, the story-card method (SCM), developed as part of a previous study, assists in structuring emerging software requirements within a taxonomy that represents enterprise operation. The SCM helps agile team members to develop a common understanding about enterprise operation when they construct the enterprise operation taxonomy. Digital participatory enterprise modeling (PEM) may increase collaboration and understanding among team members, especially when team members are geographically dispersed, when they co-model their understanding of enterprise operations. Using design science research to further evolve the existing SCM, we identified two concerns regarding the existing SCM: (1) The modeling software did not encourage active participation during modeling, and (2) Low quality of the resulting cooperation structure diagram (CSD) that is used to derive an enterprise operation taxonomy, i.e., the need to further extend the existing SCM. As main contribution of this article, we addressed previous deficiencies of the SCM, developing an extended SCM (eSCM), based on principles and guidelines that would encourage online participation during PEM, also providing a comprehensive case to demonstrate the eSCM. As a second contribution, we used survey-feedback from research participants, as well as activity tracking to evaluate whether the modeling tool encouraged active PEM. Our third contribution is to evaluate the quality of the resulting CSDs with suggestions for future improvement.

Usability of Virtual Tools for Participatory Enterprise Modelling

“…If knowledge is already available to solve an identified problem, this knowledge can be applied by following routine design, which does not constitute DSR [12]. The survey used in the eSCM study [6], as well as UEMs such as standardised usability questionnaires, were already available, and therefore served as a starting point to evaluate the usability and functionality of MURAL.…”

“…The research method is summarised in Figure 1. In this article we build on research initiated by the eSCM study [6]. The similarities and differences are elaborated on in section 3.…”

“…However, during Covid-19 [5], people were forced to reduce significantly their physical interactions, which led to the embracing of online tools instead. In a study by [6], referred to as 'the eSCM study' in this article, participation during EM was investigated, and an extended story-card method (eSCM) was used to facilitate remote co-modelling. Objectives in the eSCM study included (1) selecting an online modelling tool that encourages PEM; and (2) evaluating whether the selected tool encourages PEM in the specific EM context.…”

“…Feedback received from the eSCM study's participants included MURAL usability concerns as well as feature deficiencies that impacted the functionality during PEM [6]. As a result, limited measuring of the tool's ease-of-modelling and usability was reported, and a usability assessment of MURAL to provide additional confidence about the general usability of the tool was recommended.…”

Modelos de Elicitación de Requisitos Basados en Metodologías Ágiles: Una Revisión Sistemática de la Literatura

“…Estas contribuciones demuestran la amplitud y la sofisticación de los esfuerzos para mejorar la práctica de la ER en el ámbito ágil. (Alrezaamiri et al, 2019;Casillo et al, 2022;De Vries & Opperman, 2023;Dingsøyr et al, 2018;Franch et 2023;Hafeez et al, 2021;Hess et al, 2019;Jia et al, 2019;Kudo et al, 2023;Liebel & Knauss, 2023;Medeiros et al, 2020;Mihelič et al, 2023;Noel et al, 2018;Nowroozi et al, 2020;Rojas & Macías, 2019;Salleh & Nohuddin, 2019;Schon et al, 2020;Younas et al, 2020)…”