As the markets’ needs change rapidly, developing a variety of products that meet customers’ diverse needs is a competitive factor for many manufacturing companies. Development of highly customized products requires following an engineer-to-order business process to allow the products to be modified or adapted to new customers’ specifications, which brings more value to the customer and profit to the company. The design of a new product variant involves a large amount of repetitive and time-consuming tasks but also information handling activities that are sometimes beyond human capabilities. Such work that does not rely so much on creativity can be carried out more efficiently by applying design automation systems. Design automation stands out as an effective means of cutting costs and lead time for a range of well-defined design activities and is mainly considered as a computer-based tool that processes and manipulates the design information. Variant design usually concern generating a new variant of a basic design, that has been developed and proved previously, according to new customer’s demands. To efficiently generate a new variant, a deep understanding of the intention and fundamentals of the design is essential and can be achieved through access to design rationale—the explanation of the reasons and justifications behind the design. The maintenance of product families and their corresponding design automation systems is essential to retaining their usefulness over time and adapting them to new circumstances. Examples of new circumstances can include the introduction of new variants of existing products, changes in design rules to meet new standards or legislations, or changes in technology. To maintain a design automation system, updating the design knowledge (e.g. design rules) is required. The use of design rationale will normally become a necessity for allowing a better understanding of the knowledge. Consequently, there is a need for principles and methods that enable the capture and structure of the design rationale and sharing them with the users. This study presents methods and tools for modeling design knowledge and managing design rationale in order to support the utilization and maintenance of design automation systems. Managing design rationale concerns enabling the capturing, structuring, and sharing of design rationale. The results have been evaluated through design automation systems in two case companies. / Att kunna erbjuda kundanpassade produkter har blivit allt viktigare för många tillverkande företag. Utformningen av en ny produktvariant involverar en stor mängd repetitiva och tidskrävande uppgifter men även informationshanteringsaktiviteter som ibland är bortom mänskliga möjligheter. Sådant arbete som inte förlitar sig så mycket på kreativitet kan genomföras mer effektivt genom att använda designautomatiseringssystem. Designautomatisering framstår som ett effektivt sätt att minska kostnader och ledtid för en rad väldefinierade designaktiviteter och betraktas huvudsakligen som ett datorbaserat verktyg som analyserar och syntetiserar designinformationen. Variantdesign handlar vanligtvis om att skapa en ny variant av en grundläggande design, som har utvecklats och bevisats tidigare enligt nya kunders krav. För att effektivt skapa en ny variant är en djup förståelse för designens avsikt och grundläggande uppbyggnad avgörande och kan uppnås genom tillgång till ”design rationale”- förklaringen av skälen och motiveringarna bakom designen. Underhållet av produktfamiljer och deras motsvarande designautomatiseringssystem är viktigt för att behålla användbarheten över tid och anpassa dem till nya omständigheter. Exempel på nya omständigheter kan innefatta införande av nya varianter av befintliga produkter, ändringar av designregler för att uppfylla nya standarder, lagstiftningar eller tekniska ändringar. För att upprätthålla ett designautomatiseringssystem krävs uppdatering av designkunskapen (t ex designregler). Användningen av design rationale kommer normalt att bli en nödvändighet för att ge en bättre förståelse av kunskapen. Följaktligen finns det ett behov av principer och metoder som möjliggör fångande och strukturering av design rationale och dela dem med användarna. Denna studie presenterar metoder och verktyg för modellering av designkunskap och hantering av design rationale för att stödja utnyttjande och underhåll av designautomatiseringssystem. Vid hantering av design rationale gäller det att göra det möjligt att fånga, strukturera och dela med sig av design rationale. Resultaten har utvärderats genom att undersöka effekterna av dem i designautomationssystem i två företag.

O volume crescente de projetos de pesquisa que envolvem software motiva a realização de análises sobre os processos utilizados no desenvolvimento desses projetos, considerando-se as atividades realizadas, os resultados obtidos e a aplicação de recursos. Na área de Engenharia de Software, processos têm sido propostos nos últimos anos com o objetivo de contribuir para o desenvolvimento de projetos de pesquisa que envolvem software. Busca-se, de forma geral, auxiliar o gerenciamento dos diversos artefatos que podem ser gerados, por exemplo, modelos, código fonte, relatórios técnicos e artigos científicos. As soluções apresentadas na literatura começaram a ser propostas recentemente e, portanto, os estudos realizados nessa área apresentam-se em estágio bastante inicial. Dessa forma, o objetivo deste trabalho foi definir um processo para o desenvolvimento de projetos de pesquisa envolvendo software, que esteja de acordo com um conjunto de requisitos identificado e que possa contribuir para a evolução desses projetos. Para reforçar a continuidade dos projetos, foi estudada a abordagem de design rationale, com o objetivo de oferecer meios para que as decisões sejam capturadas e registradas em fases específicas do desenvolvimento. O processo de documentação foi enfatizado, ou seja, foi investigado como a abordagem de design rationale poderia ser utilizada para melhorar a documentação dos projetos de pesquisa. Como um resultado obtido, foi definido um modelo para representação de design rationale (DR-SACI), implementado em uma ferramenta CASE e avaliado em um experimento / The increasing volume of research projects in the context of software is a motivation for analyzing processes which are used to develop such projects, regarding activities that are carried out, results that are gathered and application of resources. In the Software Engineering area, recently, processes have been considered with the objective to contribute for research projects development in which software is an element. Overall, the main purpose is to help management overtime of artifacts that can be produced, such as, models, code, technical reports and scientific papers. However, research developed in this direction and solutions discussed in the literature are presented in an initial stage. Therefore, the objective of this work was to define a process for development of research projects regarding a set of requirements. It is expected that such process can be useful to contribute for evolution of these projects. To reinforce the aspect of research project evolution, the design rationale approach was studied. The goal was to provide the opportunity of capturing and registering decisions in specific development phases. The documentation process was emphasized, i.e., the design rationale approach was analyzed focusing on the improvement of research projects documentation. As a result, a model for design rationale representation was defined, implemented in a CASE tool and evaluated by means of an experiment

This thesis presents a new method that improves upon the existing approaches to developing collaborative tools. The new method uses automatically inferred and manually recorded design rationale to intelligently filter the information that is shared by a collaborative tool. This represents an improvement upon the existing state of the art in collaborative engineering tools. To demonstrate the viability of the method three collaborative tools were created. The first is a multi-user collaborative design environment tool named SimulPart and built upon the NX CAD package. SimulPart uses the new method to limit the amount of communication required to keep every user in synch during a multi-user co-design session. The second implementation is a visual history tool named VisiHistory that allows designers to watch time lapse videos of the creation of a design that are automatically generated using the new method. The final tool is an intelligent user directory named SmartHelp that uses the new method to allow designers to identify which of their peers have expertise in certain CAD operations. Validation was performed for each of these tools by benchmarking the tool against the leading commercial solution or industry process. The results of the validation showed that the new method does in fact offer a superior collaborative solution as it outperforms the existing tools and methods in several key collaborative metrics. As a result of this work future efforts are encouraged into both improving upon the quality of the inferred design rationale and increasing the functionality of the three tools created using the new method.

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[pt] Uma das estratégias mais populares para publicar dados estruturados na Web é expor bases de dados relacionais (BDR) em formato RDF. Esse processo é chamado BDR-para-RDF ou triplificação. Além disto, princípios de Linked Data oferecem vários guias para dar suporte a este processo. Existem duas principais abordagens para mapear bases de dados relacionais para RDF: (1) a abordagem de mapeamento direto, onde o esquema das bases de dados é diretamente mapeado para um esquema RDF, e (2) a abordagem de mapeamento customizado, onde o esquema RDF pode ser significativamente diferente do esquema original da base de dados relacional. Em ambas abordagens, existem vários desafios relacionados tanto com a publicação quanto com o uso de dados em RDF originados de bases de dados relacionais. Esta tese propõe a coleta de design rationale como uma valiosa fonte de informação para minimizar os desafios do processo de triplificação. Essencialmente, a coleta de design rationale melhora a consciência sobre as ações feitas no mapeamento da base de dados relacional para um conjunto de dados no formato RDF. As principais contribuições da tese são: (1) um modelo de design rationale (DR) adequado para o processo de BDR-para- RDF, independente da abordagem utilizada (direta ou customizada); (2) a integração de um modelo de DR para um processo que segue a abordagem direta de BDR-para-RDF e para um processo que segue a abordagem customizada usando a linguagem R2RML; (3) o uso do DR coletado para melhorar recomendações de reuso de vocabulários existentes através de algoritmos de Ontology Matching. / [en] One of the most popular strategies to publish structured data on the Web is to expose relational databases (RDB) in the RDF format. This process is called in RDB-to-RDF or triplification. Furthermore, the Linked Data principles offer useful guidelines for this process. Broadly stated, there are two main approaches to map relational databases into RDF: (1) the direct mapping approach, where the database schema is directly mapped to an RDF schema; and (2) the customized mapping approach, where the RDF schema may significantly differ from the original database schema. In both approaches, there are challenges related to the publication and to the consumption of the published data. This thesis proposes the capture of design rationale as a valuable source of information to minimize the challenges in RDB-to-RDF processes. Essentially, the capture of design rationale increases the awareness about the actions taken over the relational database to map it as an RDF dataset. The main contributions of this thesis are: (1) a design rationale (DR) model adequate to RDB-to-RDF processes, independently of the approach (direct or customized) followed; (2) the integration of a DR model in an RDB-to-RDF direct mapping process and in an RDB-to-RDF customized mapping process using the R2RML language; (3) the use of the DR captured to improve the recommendations for vocabularies to reuse.

[pt] Valores de usuário são um fator importante no design de software, mas nem sempre são considerados de forma explícita no processo de design. Ao tomar decisões de design, valores de usuários podem se perder junto aos viéses dos designers relacionados a seus próprios valores. Para evitar esse problema, este trabalho estuda a integração de valores de usuários com técnicas de design rationale, especificamente Questões, Opções e Critérios (QOC), e como essa integração é refletida em um artefato de design resultante (um diagrama de interação usando MoLIC). Conduzimos dois estudos separados com estudantes de Ciência da Computação no Rio de Janeiro. No primeiro estudo, vimos que valores de usuários podem ser integrados com design rationale usando notações informais, como circulando ou sublinhando as opções ou critérios associados a valores de usuários. As decisões tomadas com o método QOC usando valores de usuário resultaram em impactos relevantes nos diagramas MoLIC. Participantes que realizaram as atividades para usuários com valores bem definidos tiveram resultados mais ricos do que aqueles com usuários mais genéricos. No segundo estudo, vimos que designers conseguem reconhecer quando valores de usuários são incorporados em artefatos de design. Esses resultados são estimulantes para continuar a pesquisar valores de usuários, com possibilidades de desenvolver novos métodos ou de atualizar técnicas e notações existentes, como QOC ou MoLIC, para dar suporte a valores de usuários. / [en] User values are a significant part of designing software, but are not always considered explicitly in the design process. When making design decisions, user values can get lost among the designers own biases regarding their values. To avoid this pitfall, this work studies the integration of user values with design rationale techniques, namely Questions, Options, and Criteria (QOC), and how this integration reflects on a resulting design artifact (in particular, an interaction diagram using MoLIC). We performed two separate studies with Computer Science students in Rio de Janeiro. In the first study, we found that user values can be integrated into design rationale using informal notations, such as circling or underlining the options or criteria related to user values. The decisions made with the QOC method using user values did result in relevant impacts on MoLIC diagrams. Participants who performed activities for users with strong values had richer results than those for more generic users. In a second study, we found that designers can recognize when user values are embedded into design artifacts. These results are encouraging to continue research regarding user values, with possibilities of developing new methods or updating existing techniques and notations such as QOC or MoLIC to explicitly support user values.

Ce travail de thèse s'intéresse à l'étude des processus de conception de produits dans le cadre de projets d'innovation. L'approche proposée se focalise sur les connaissances associées aux processus de décision, identifiées comme critiques dans ces projets.<br />Les contributions de ce travail de recherche sont centrées sur la compréhension des mécanismes de décision et le support à leur bon déroulement. En premier lieu, un modèle de processus de décision, appelé INDIGO est proposé. Il a pour objectif de représenter l'ensemble des informations associées aux processus de décision, regroupées en un modèle unique, multi-vues. Il s'agit de la vue structure de la décision (les éléments d'information de l'espace de décision), de la vue processus de décision (les activités de décision), de la vue organisation de la décision (les acteurs impliqués dans la décision). Un Système de Gestion des Connaissances, appelé MEYDIAM est ensuite proposé. Il est fondé sur la proposition d'une nouvelle approche de Gestion des Connaissances. Il permet la création et la réutilisation de connaissances liées à la décision par l'utilisation d'informations structurées par le modèle INDIGO. MEYDIAM est principalement constitué dune mémoire de projet. Cet outil, au moyen d'interfaces appelées objets de connaissances, permet de capturer, au fil de l'eau les informations associées aux processus de décision et de les<br />réutiliser. Les contributions ont été validées via une maquette informatique testée dans le cadre des projets d'innovation du groupe PSA PEUGEOT CITROËN.

This thesis work is based on the previous researches in design automation at Sandvik Coromant. The concept of product family description (PFD) has been introduced to the company to improve documentation of knowledge in engineering design process. Current documentation at the company for engineering design covers mostly the design definition part of the knowledge. PFD is constituted by design definition and completed by design rationale. This kind of documentation improves reusing, revising and expanding the knowledge at the company. On the other side, PFD is an input for design programming and a good engineering design description for a product provides more efficiency in design programming. The project is started by a survey for several principles and applications for knowledge modelling. Product variant master (PVM) and Semantic MediaWiki are selected by the results of the survey. To show the concept of PVM, modelling of a test product is done in product model manager (PMM) software. The main part of the project is setting up product family description (PFD) by capturing design rationale for the test product, implementing in Semantic MediaWiki. Since the design rationale is not documented, it was recorded during several meetings with the designer of the test product. The description is completed by including the argumentations about the rules, figures, dimensions and etc. Also in the project has been tried to improve and revise the description to make it more simple and efficient. Another objective of the project is to show Semantic MediaWiki as a candidate application for modelling knowledge at the company. In this step the applicability and functionality of both PFD and Semantic MediaWiki is seen. In the next stage the project findings and company documentation are evaluated. In this step has been tried to show the pros and cons of the project. The emphasis of the evaluation is on PFD and the alternative application. In the end a conclusion of the whole methods and findings of the project comes with discussion with people who were involved in this work.

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