Communicating the variability of a software-product family to customers

Variability is a central concept in software product family development. Variability empowers constructive reuse and facilitates the derivation of different, customer specific products from the product family. If many customer specific requirements can be realised by exploiting the product family variability, the reuse achieved is obviously high. If not, the reuse is low. It is thus important that the variability of the product family is adequately considered when eliciting requirements from the customer. In this paper we sketch the challenges for requirements engineering for product family applications. More precisely we elaborate on the need to communicate the variability of the product family to the customer. We differentiate between variability aspects which are essential for the customer and aspects which are more related to the technical realisation and need thus not be communicated to the customer. Motivated by the successful usage of use cases in single product development we propose use cases as communication medium for the product family variability. We discuss and illustrate which customer relevant variability aspects can be represented with use cases, and for which aspects use cases are not suitable. Moreover we propose extensions to use case diagrams to support an intuitive representation of customer relevant variability aspects.Received: 14 October 2002, Accepted: 8 January 2003, This work was partially funded by the CAFÉ project From Concept to Application in System Family Engineering; Eureka ! 2023 Programme, ITEA Project ip00004 (BMBF, Förderkennzeichen 01 IS 002 C) and the state Nord-Rhein-Westfalia. This paper is a significant extension of the paper Modellierung der Variabilität einer Produktfamilie, [15].     

Communicating Science to the Public:

This paper is based on a speech given by the author to the Library Information Exchange Forum of St. Johns University. The talk, given to staff librarians, described problems involved in the complex process of scientific communication, causes of science illiteracy, and possible remedies of the problem. The author encouraged the audience to become science literate by reading popular science literature, watching science programs on television and visiting science museums but to be aware of factors contributing to science illiteracy in the various media.     

Communicating spirit in a collaborative alliance

This case study identified communicative practices that supported “collaborative spirit”; in a collaborative alliance. Two components of collaborative spirit previously identified in the literature were examined: shared mission and shared power. Communication practices associated with the shared mission principle included discussion of the mission, reaffirmation, testimony, and pride statements. Communication practices associated with the shared power principle included use of a consent process, barter and negotiating behavior, provision of equal opportunity, soliciting others’ input, and the rotating chairperson.     

Communicating With the New Reference Librarian

No abstract available for this article.     

科技期刊广告经营中客户的稳定与发展

稳定、发展与优化广告客户对科技期刊经济创收的可持续发展具有重要的意义.提出了以服务质量稳定客户,以多种渠道发展与优化客户的若干措施.     

Communicating Social Relationships via the Use of Photo-Messaging

The present study applied theories of diffusion, technology acceptance, and uses and gratifications via an exploratory model to explain the photo-messaging behavior of 682 college students. Structural equation modeling results indicate that greater photo-messaging activity within one's social network predicts personal relationship formation and relationship maintenance motives. Relationship maintenance motives had a stronger influence on behavioral intention to adopt photo-messaging than did relationship formation. Technology cluster ownership also predicts perceived ease of use for photo-messaging activity. The technology acceptance model (TAM) conceptualizations were generally supported for photo-messaging.     

Communicating New Library Roles to Enable Digital Scholarship: A Review Article

ABSTRACT

Academic libraries enable a wide range of digital scholarship activities, increasingly as a partner rather than as a service provider. Communicating that shift in role is challenging, not least as digital scholarship is a new field with many players whose activities on campus can be disjointed. The library's actual and potential contributions need to be broadcast to a diverse range of internal and external constituencies, primarily academic staff, university management, library colleagues and related project teams, often with different perspectives. Libraries have significant contributions to offer and a focused communications strategy is needed to embed libraries in digital scholarship and to create new perceptions of their role as enabling partners.     

网络信息服务业客户研究

如何贴近客户,提高他们对信息产品和服务的满意程度,是网络信息服务业生存和发展的基本条件.本文阐述了客户化时代的基本含义,分析了网络信息服务业的客户结构和客户类型,旨在促进我国网络信息服务业的健康发展.     

图书馆树立信息形象的信息沟通策略

分析了图书馆树立信息服务形象的意义,探讨了运用ＣＩＳ全面塑造图书馆信息服务形象的原则、方法,论述了公共关系、广告在传播图书馆信息服务形象中应用的策略与方式。     

Communicating Dislike of Close Friends' Romantic Partners

The present study investigated individuals' disclosure of dislike for their friends' romantic partners. Of the 205 participants, 121 communicated their feelings to their friends. Based on qualitative and quantitative analyses, results indicated that individuals who expressed their dislike did so primarily to protect their friends' well-being or because of a perceived obligation for honesty. Non-disclosure appeared motivated by concern over upsetting the friend, perceptions the friend was not bothered, or conflict avoidance. Individuals were most likely to communicate dislike when it involved partner infidelity or upon seeing their friends experiencing emotional distress. Finally, expressing dislike had significant effects on both friendship quality and romantic relationship outcomes.     

Television's value to the American family member

It is difficult to evaluate accurately the values a given medium has to a given audience. It is relatively easy to theorize about attributes, but the subjective nature of values requires recourse to the members of the medium's audience for adequate information. The following report, which is part of a series of studies on leisure time activity and mass media attention, contrasts the various mass media against one another in terms of relative rather than absolute value.     

From the Editor: A Blueprint for Communicating Your Research

Results of a survey of serial use by psychology faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are compared with an Americal Psychological Association report published in 1963 and with data extracted from "SSCI Journal Citation Reports," 1978. The article profiles the relationship between the three and evaluates their usefulness in collection development.     

微博时代下谣言的传播与消解——以“7·23”甬温线高铁事故为例

本文以微博时代下谣言的传播与消解为研究对象,借鉴奥尔波特(Gordon Willard All-port)模型,提出事件的重要性、事件的模糊性和信息的不对称性是构成谣言传播法则的观点,并依据此建立网络谣言传播、扩散及消解模型。     

Insights into Information-seeking and Communicating Behaviour of Academics

This paper discusses the information-seeking behaviour of academics in relation to the productivity of academics in South African Universities, with particular reference to the University of Zululand, through a survey of 105 academics. It was established that the nature of the discipline and the rank of the academic, which normally corresponds with the academic qualification, experience, exposure and research productivity level, largely determine the information-seeking behaviour. Academics mainly need information for career development, and occupational and professional needs. Furthermore, university libraries, which currently face budget cuts on acquisitions, still play a pivotal role in information access by the academics. It is confirmed that the use of “local environment” is dominant for intra- and inter-university information access network and system. It is recommended that avenues that work colleagues can use to interact should be supported, and career challenges that stimulate productivity by academics, such as research and publication, should be maintained and sustained.     

Communicating the Impact of Free Access to Computers and the Internet in Public Libraries: A Mixed Methods Approach to Developing Outcome Indicators

The U.S. IMPACT studies have two research projects underway that employ a mixed method research design to develop and validate performance indicators related specifically to the outcomes of public access computing (PAC) use in public libraries. Through the use of a nationwide telephone survey (n = 1130), four case studies, and a nationwide Internet survey of PAC users administered through 636 public libraries, this approach will generate generalizable quantitative data on the extent and distribution of the use of public access computing resources, as well as provide rich contextual data that will help understand how people use the computers and Internet connections in public libraries and the impact it has on their lives.     

Communicating to young Chinese about human papillomavirus vaccination: examining the impact of message framing and temporal distance

This research investigated the influence of message framing (gain or loss) and temporal distance (present or future) on the intention of Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. A total of 156 Chinese undergraduates participated in a controlled experiment in Macau, a Special Administrative Region of China. Results showed that message framing and temporal distance interacted to impact the intention of HPV vaccination. Particularly, among participants who had no prior knowledge of HPV vaccine, the gain-present and loss-future framed messages resulted in more positive attitudes toward the message, higher degree of perceived severity of HPV infection, and more likelihood to get HPV vaccination than the gain-future and loss-present framed messages. Implications of the findings were discussed.