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Society is increasingly on the move, mobile devices are commonly being used to coordinate group actions, and group communication features are rapidly being added to existing technologies. Despite this, little is known about how mobile groups act, or how communications technologies should be designed to augment existing behaviour. This is partially due to minimal research being done on the topic, but also to the lack of research methods available to study the topic with. Mobile groups are challenging to study because of frequent and long-duration movement, frequent distribution, and the rapidly changing environments they operate within. To address these issues, this research focuses on methodological issues surrounding the development of mobile devices for mobile groups and communities. More specifically it addresses backpackers, who are a relevant example of this type of community. The research primarily explores the convergence of computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) and the field of mobile device development. This enables the combination of emphasis on designing technologies for groups, social implications, mobile device design, and mobile settings. Major research outcomes presented in this thesis lie in three areas: 1) methods, 2) technology designs, and 3) backpacker culture. Five studies of backpacker behaviour and requirements form the core of the research. The methods used are in-situ and exploratory, and apply both novel and existing techniques to the domain of backpackers and mobile groups. Methods demonstrated in this research include: field trips for exploring mobile group behaviour and device usage, a social pairing exercise to explore social networks, contextual postcards to gain distributed feedback, and blog analysis which provides post-hoc diary data. Theoretical contributions include: observations on method triangulation, a taxonomy of mobility research, method templates to assist method usage, and identification of key categories leading to mobile group requirements. Design related outcomes include: 57 mobile tourism product ideas, a format for conveying product concepts, and a design for a wearable device to assist mobile researchers. Our understanding of backpacker culture has also improved as a consequence of the research. It has also generated user requirements to aid mobile development, methods of visualising mobile groups and communities, and a listing of relevant design tensions. Additionally, the research has added to our understanding of how new technologies such as blogs, SMS and iPods are being used by backpackers and how mobile groups naturally communicate.

Many different kinds of process are used to develop software intensive products, but there is little agreement as to which processes give the best results under which circumstances. Practitioners and researchers believe that project outcomes would be improved if the development process was constructed according to project-specific factors. In order to achieve this goal, greater understanding of the factors that most affect outcomes is needed. To improve understanding, researchers build models of the process and carry out studies based on these models. However, current models contain many ambiguities and assumptions, and so it is not clear what the results of the studies mean. The statement of this thesis is that it is possible to create an abstraction of the software development process that will provide a mechanism for comparing software processes and software process models. The long term goal of the research is to provide planners with a means of tailoring the development process on a project by project basis, with the aim of reducing risk and improving outcomes.

The Intelligent Control Paradigm for software architecture is the result of this work. The Viable Software Approach is developed as an instance of the paradigm. The approach uses the Viable System Model as the basis for software system architecture. The result is a model-based architecture and approach for developing software systems by piecemeal adaptation with the goal that they become adaptive systems at runtime. Software built in this manner is called Viable Software. Viable Software represents a unifying class of self-controlling software that is an “intelligent” control system. Cybernetics, Control Theory, and Complexity Theory are the background for this work, and aspects relevant to this work are presented. These results are related to software architecture and software engineering. Rationale for the selection of the Viable System Model as a basis for software systems is given. The Viable System Model is described. The model is restated as an Alexanderian “pattern language” to make it more accessible to software engineering. A Viable Software Approach is proposed and expressed in the form of a Product Line Architecture that arranges the Viable System Model, the Viable Software Architecture, a Viable Component Framework, and a Component Transfer Protocol into a system for generative programming. An important result is the formalisation of the pattern of the Viable System into the interface specifications of the Viable Component. Three case studies illustrate the approach. The first is an analysis and extension of the Groove collaboration system. This study shows how the approach is used to map an existing system into the Viable Software Architecture and add fuzzy-adaptive user interface controllers. The second study presents the design and detailed software construction of an adaptive camera controller as part of a smart environment. The final study shows how a Business-to-Business e-Commerce system can be evolved and an expert system-based controller developed to implement business contracts.

In this thesis we present a novel approach to the analysis of dependency graphs of object-oriented programs, and we describe a tool that has been implemented for this purpose. A graph-theoretical clustering algorithm is used in order to compute the modular structure of programs. This can be used to assist software engineers to redraw component boundaries in software in order to improve the level of reuse and maintainability. The analysis of the dependency graph of an object-oriented program is useful for assessing the quality of software design. The dependency graph can be extracted from a program using various different methods, including source code, byte code, and dynamic (behavioral) analysis. The nodes in the dependency graph are classes, members, packages and other artifacts, while the edges represent uses and extends relationships between those artifacts. Once the dependency graph has been extracted, it can be analysed in order to quantify certain characteristics of the respective program. Examples include the detection of circular dependencies and measurements of the responsibility or independence of units based on their relationships. Tools like JDepend1 implementing these principles have become very popular in recent years. Our work includes grouping types in dependency graphs using di erent clustering methods: Grouping into namespaces; Grouping into clusters using graph clustering algorithms; Grouping into clusters using rules. The detected mismatches are candidates for refactoring. We have developed a tool for processing dependency graphs clustering and producing results where users can outline possible design violations.

Many different kinds of process are used to develop software intensive products, but there is little agreement as to which processes give the best results under which circumstances. Practitioners and researchers believe that project outcomes would be improved if the development process was constructed according to project-specific factors. In order to achieve this goal, greater understanding of the factors that most affect outcomes is needed. To improve understanding, researchers build models of the process and carry out studies based on these models. However, current models contain many ambiguities and assumptions, and so it is not clear what the results of the studies mean. The statement of this thesis is that it is possible to create an abstraction of the software development process that will provide a mechanism for comparing software processes and software process models. The long term goal of the research is to provide planners with a means of tailoring the development process on a project by project basis, with the aim of reducing risk and improving outcomes.

Many different kinds of process are used to develop software intensive products, but there is little agreement as to which processes give the best results under which circumstances. Practitioners and researchers believe that project outcomes would be improved if the development process was constructed according to project-specific factors. In order to achieve this goal, greater understanding of the factors that most affect outcomes is needed. To improve understanding, researchers build models of the process and carry out studies based on these models. However, current models contain many ambiguities and assumptions, and so it is not clear what the results of the studies mean. The statement of this thesis is that it is possible to create an abstraction of the software development process that will provide a mechanism for comparing software processes and software process models. The long term goal of the research is to provide planners with a means of tailoring the development process on a project by project basis, with the aim of reducing risk and improving outcomes.

Many different kinds of process are used to develop software intensive products, but there is little agreement as to which processes give the best results under which circumstances. Practitioners and researchers believe that project outcomes would be improved if the development process was constructed according to project-specific factors. In order to achieve this goal, greater understanding of the factors that most affect outcomes is needed. To improve understanding, researchers build models of the process and carry out studies based on these models. However, current models contain many ambiguities and assumptions, and so it is not clear what the results of the studies mean. The statement of this thesis is that it is possible to create an abstraction of the software development process that will provide a mechanism for comparing software processes and software process models. The long term goal of the research is to provide planners with a means of tailoring the development process on a project by project basis, with the aim of reducing risk and improving outcomes.

The Intelligent Control Paradigm for software architecture is the result of this work. The Viable Software Approach is developed as an instance of the paradigm. The approach uses the Viable System Model as the basis for software system architecture. The result is a model-based architecture and approach for developing software systems by piecemeal adaptation with the goal that they become adaptive systems at runtime. Software built in this manner is called Viable Software. Viable Software represents a unifying class of self-controlling software that is an “intelligent” control system. Cybernetics, Control Theory, and Complexity Theory are the background for this work, and aspects relevant to this work are presented. These results are related to software architecture and software engineering. Rationale for the selection of the Viable System Model as a basis for software systems is given. The Viable System Model is described. The model is restated as an Alexanderian “pattern language” to make it more accessible to software engineering. A Viable Software Approach is proposed and expressed in the form of a Product Line Architecture that arranges the Viable System Model, the Viable Software Architecture, a Viable Component Framework, and a Component Transfer Protocol into a system for generative programming. An important result is the formalisation of the pattern of the Viable System into the interface specifications of the Viable Component. Three case studies illustrate the approach. The first is an analysis and extension of the Groove collaboration system. This study shows how the approach is used to map an existing system into the Viable Software Architecture and add fuzzy-adaptive user interface controllers. The second study presents the design and detailed software construction of an adaptive camera controller as part of a smart environment. The final study shows how a Business-to-Business e-Commerce system can be evolved and an expert system-based controller developed to implement business contracts.