L'Aide Multicritère à la Décision (AMCD) vise à aider un décideur (DM) confronté à un problème de décision impliquant plusieurs objectifs contradictoires. Les préférences du DM jouent un rôle important au sein du processus d'aide à la décision, puisque les recommandations ne sont pertinentes et acceptables que si le système de valeurs du DM est pris en considération. Un outil d'élicitation des préférences est donc nécessaire pour aider l'analyste à intégrer les préférences du DM de façon appropriée dans les modèles de décision. Nous sommes intéressés par le développement d'outils d'élicitation des préférences pour deux modèles d'agrégation basés sur des points de référence à savoir Electre Tri et une méthode de Rangement basé sur des Points de Référence multiples (RPM). Tout d'abord, nous considérons Electre Tri en utilisant la règle d'affectation optimiste. Nous proposons un outil d'élicitation des préférences, qui infère les paramètres de préférence de ce modèle à partir d'exemples d'affectation du DM, et analyse également la robustesse des affectations résultant de la nature imprécise de l'information préférentiel. En second lieu, un outil d'élicitation des préférences est développé pour le problème de sélection de portefeuille formulée comme des problèmes de tri contraint en utilisant Electre Tri. Les préférences du DM à la fois au niveau individuel et au niveau du portefeuille sont considérés pour infère le modèle Electre Tri. Le modèle élicité évalue intrinsèquement les individus et sélectionne simultanément un portefeuille satisfaisant comme un groupe. Troisièmement, nous nous intéressons à l'élicitation des préférences pour le modèle RPM, qui détermine un pré-ordre comparant des alternatives avec des points de référence. Nous proposons un outil qui infère un modèle RPM parcimonieux à partir de comparaisons par paires du DM. Enfin, trois web services implémentent des outils d'élicitation des préférences pour Electre Tri et ont été intégrées au logiciel de Decision Deck. Les outils d'élicitation des préférences proposés consistent en des algorithmes qui résolvent des programmes linéaires en nombres mixtes. Des expériences numériques approfondies ont été réalisées pour étudier la performance et le comportement des outils d'élicitation proposées. Ces expériences éclairent sur l'applicabilité pratique de ces outils. De plus, les outils ont été appliqués avec succès à trois cas.

Background and aims: Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is the most common genetic, life threatening disorder in the UK (Cystic Fibrosis Trust, 2010). Given the trajectory of the illness, adolescence may be a particularly challenging period, during which young people become more aware of differences from peers, and are faced with the task of balancing increasing illness demands with the drive to aspire to developmental goals. Nevertheless, little research specifically explores how young people with CF reconcile their illness experiences with the emerging sense of self. In an attempt to address this gap in the literature, this study sought to hear the narratives of young people with CF with reference to the local and broader contextual factors influencing their construction, with the aim to further understanding, inform clinical practice and improve support for young people with CF. Methodology: A qualitative approach was employed. A purposive sample of six participants diagnosed with CF and aged between 12 and 16 years was recruited. Participants were asked to take photographs of their experiences of life as a young person with CF which were used alongside a semi-structured topic guide in individual interviews to explore the young person’s narratives. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analysed using a narrative approach to explore both what was said and how it was told.Analysis and Findings: The researcher’s global impressions of each person’s narratives, along with details of the local context of the interview were presented. Following this, similarities and differences across the narratives were considered with particular attention to how the main storylines were interwoven with participants’ emotional experiences, the identity work taking place through the narrative, and the broader narratives available to them. It emerged that (i) CF was perceived as part of participants’ normality which they had grown accustomed to over time, (ii) participants drew on cultural narratives to position themselves as normal teenagers, to maintain a positive sense of self, though also leading them to minimise difficulties and distress, and (iii) participants continued to position themselves within the norm as they talked of their futures, describing similar hopes to their peers, and again played down concerns about how CF might impact on their futures. These findings are discussed with reference to the clinical implications, strengths, and limitations of the methodology, and directions for future research.

The precision of formal specifications allows us to prove program correctness. Even if formal methods are not used throughout the software project, formalisation improves our understanding of the problem. Formal specifications are amenable to automated analysis and consistency checking. However using them is challenging. Customers do not understand formal notations. Specifiers have difficulty tackling large problems. Once systems are built, formal specifications quickly become outdated during software maintenance. A method of developing formal specifications using concrete scenarios is proposed to tackle the disadvantages just mentioned. A concrete scenario describes system behaviour with successive steps. The pre- and post-states of scenario steps are expressed with actual data rather than variables. Concrete scenarios are expressed in a natural language or formal notation. They increase customer involvement in the creation of formal specifications. Scenarios may be ranked by priorities allowing specifiers to focus on a small part of the system. Formal specifications are constructed incrementally. New requirements are also captured in concrete scenarios which guide the modification of formal specifications. On one hand, concrete scenarios assist the creation and maintenance of formal specifications. On the other hand, they facilitate program correctness proofs without using conventional formal specifications. This is achieved by adding implementation details to customer scenarios. The resulting developer scenarios, encapsulating decisions of data structures and algorithms, are generalised to operation schemas. With the implementation details, the schemas written in formal notations are programs rather than specifications.

Agent-based models (ABM) are an increasingly important research tool for describing and predicting interactions among humans and their environment. A key challenge for such models is the ability to faithfully represent human decision making with respect to observed behaviour. This thesis aims to address this challenge by developing a methodology for empirical measurement and simulation of decision making in humanenvironment systems. The methodology employs the Beliefs-Desires-Intentions (BDI) model of human reasoning to directly translate empirically measured decision data into artificial agents, based on sound theoretical principles. A common simulated decision environment is used for both eliciting human decision making behaviour, and validating artificial agents. Using this approach facilitates the collection of decision making narratives by way of participatory simulation, and promotes a fair comparison of real and modelled decision making. The methodology is applied in two case studies: One to carry out a trial involving human subjects solving an abstract land-use problem, and another to examine the feasibility of up-scaling the methodology to a real agricultural scenario—dairy farming. Results from the experiments indicate that the BDI-based methodology achieved reasonably direct encoding of decision making behaviour from elicited human narratives. The main limitations found with the technique are: (1) the significant use of subjects’ time required to elicit their decision making behaviour; (2) the significant programming effort required; and (3) the challenge of aggregating behaviour from multiple subjects into a generalised decision making model. In spite of its limitations, BDI has shown its strengths as a tool for empirical analysis and simulation of decision making in research of human-environment systems.

Background: Disparities exist in mortality rates in African American breast cancer survivors (AABCS), partly due to modifiable lifestyle behaviors. Gaps remain in developing effective tools to assess AABCS' motivations to prevent weight gain. Conceptual Framework: This research study used the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to guide development of the elicitation study and the AABCS-Weight Gain Prevention Intention Questionnaire (AABCS-WGPIQ). Purpose: Aim One was to use the elicitation approach of the TPB to identify, define and describe AABCS' salient behavioral (advantages/disadvantages), normative (social influence) and control (facilitators/barriers) beliefs related to the prevention of post diagnosis weight gain. Aim Two was to develop and pilot test a questionnaire based on qualitative data to quantify the magnitude of influences of attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioral controls related to intentions to prevent weight gain in AABCS. Methods: Guided by the TPB, this cross-sectional, descriptive study used an internet based qualitative elicitation questionnaire to identify salient beliefs of 27 AABCS regarding their motivations to prevent weight gain and inform development of the quantitative AABCS-WGPIQ. Initial psychometric testing of the questionnaire included content and face validity and temporal stability assessment of belief constructs, using the test-retest approach. Findings: Aim One: Motivators to preventing weight gain among AABCS included improving health and well-being (advantages), social support from family and friends (approvals), external support systems, and personal accountability (facilitators). Time and effort required preventing weight gain (disadvantages), lack of social support (disapprovals), and time constraints, lack of accountability, unhealthy eating and health issues (barriers) negatively influenced AABCS' decisions to prevent weight gain. Future interventions aiming to increase motivation to prevent weight gain in AABCS should emphasize positive benefits of preventing weight gain, include social support systems, focus on skill building for time management, planning and goal setting, managing health issues and incorporate weight loss management strategies. Aim Two: The AABCS-WGPIQ has acceptable content validity, face validity and temporal stability of belief constructs. The AABCS-WGPIQ has the potential to be a valid instrument for assessing correlates of weight gain prevention in AABCS. Future research with larger groups of AABCS should include assessing internal consistency and construct validity.

Thesis (M. Tech. - Dept. of Visual Arts and Design, Faculty of Human Sciences) / The aim of the study The aim of the study is to find an optimal research methodology that is both beneficial to qualitative researchers (regarding data quality and interviewee participation) and research participants (regarding enjoyment of the research process and means of expression). This takes the form of a comparison assessing the use of the visual method of photo-elicitation in qualitative interviews. Firstly, photo-elicitation interviews and standard qualitative interviews as two different methodologies are compared. In this study the research subjects are children, and as noted in Chapter 3, photo-elicitation is particularly applicable to young research subjects, as it tends to break down the communication barriers / SENEX

De nombreuses méthodes existent pour résoudre des problèmes d'optimisation multicritère, et il n'est pas aisé de choisir une méthode suffisamment adaptée à un problème multicritère donné. En effet, après le choix d'une méthode multicritère, différents paramètres (e.g. poids, fonctions d'utilité, etc.) doivent être déterminés, soit pour trouver la solution optimale (meilleur compromis) ou pour classer l'ensemble des solutions faisables (alternatives). Justement, vue cette difficulté pour fixer les paramètres, les méthodes d'élicitation sont utilisées pour aider le décideur dans cette tâche de fixation des paramètres. Par ailleurs, nous supposons que nous disposons d'un ensemble de solutions plausibles, et nous faisons aussi l'hypothèse de la disponibilité au préalable, des informations préférentielles obtenues après une interaction avec le décideur. Dans la première contribution de ce travail, nous tirons profit d'une mesure statistique simple et rapidement calculable, à savoir, le coefficient de corrélation $rho$ de Spearman, afin de développer une approche gloutonne (approchée), et deux approches exactes basées sur la programmation par contraintes (PPC) et la programmation linéaire en nombres entiers (PLNE). Ces méthodes sont ensuite utilisées pour éliciter automatiquement les paramètres appropriés de la méthode multicritère basée sur l'ordre lexicographique. Nous proposons aussi des modèles d'élicitation des paramètres d'autres méthodes multicritère, telles que la méthode MinLeximax issue de la théorie du choix social et du partage équitable, la méthode de la somme pondérée et les opérateurs OWA. / Many methods exist for solving multicriteria optimization problems, and it is not easy to choose the right method well adapted to a given multicriteria problem. Even after choosing a multicriteria method, various parameters (e.g. weight, utility functions, etc.) must be carefully determined either to find the optimal solution (best compromise) or to classify all feasible solutions (the set of alternatives). To overcome this potential difficulty, elicitation methods are used in order to help the decision maker to fix safely the parameters. Additionally, we assume that we have a set of feasible solutions, and we also make the assumption that we have prior information about the preferences of the decision maker, and we focus on how to use this information, rather than how to get them. In the first contribution of this work, we take advantage of a simple and quickly computable statistical measure, namely, the Spearman $rho$ correlation coefficient, to develop an gready approche, and two exact approaches based on constraint programming (CP) and linear integer programming (MIP). These methods are then used to automatically elicit the appropriate parameter of the lexicographic ordering method. We also propose some elicitation models for most commonly used multicriteria methods, such as MinLeximax method used to ensure fairness and efficiency requirements, the weighted sum method, and OWA operators. These elicitation models are based either on solving mixed integer linear programming, or constraints networks with an objective function.

[pt] Um dos possíveis meios utilizados para a coleta de fatos na elicitação de requisitos é o uso do questionário. Um questionário consiste num documento usado para guiar uma ou mais pessoas a responder a uma ou mais perguntas. A elaboração de um questionário é um processo bem mais complexo do que possa aparentar. Um questionário mal formulado pode levar a considerações erradas, o que acaba sendo prejudicial ao projeto em questão. Não existe um método padrão para a construção de questionários, porém existem recomendações de diversos autores com relação a essa importante tarefa no processo de pesquisa científica. O trabalho aqui apresentado detalha a técnica de questionários, identificando as etapas necessárias e comuns à criação de um questionário eficaz. Será proposto um método para a construção de perguntas de questionários, que utiliza como base uma listagem de requisitos para a construção de questionários de qualidade, obtida após a realização de uma extensa pesquisa nas áreas de ciências sociais e marketing. Posteriormente apresentamos uma ferramenta utilizada para elicitação de requisitos de software, através da utilização de questionário, questionário esse gerado através do método proposto no presente trabalho. / [en] Questionnaire is one of the techniques available for requirements elicitation. A questionnaire is a document used to guide one or more people to answer one or more questions. The elaboration of a questionnaire is a process more complex than it can make look like. A questionnaire that is not well formulated can lead to unreliable information and may be harmful to the project in question. Although there is no standard method for the construction of questionnaires, there are recommendations from diverse authors with regard to this important task in the process of eliciting information. The work presented here details a technique for identifying the necessary and common stages for the creation of a questionnaire. A method for the construction of questions is proposed, which uses as base a list of requirements for the construction of quality questionnaires, obtained from the literature in the areas of social sciences and marketing. A tool for the elicitation of software requirements, by means of questionnaires is presented.

It has previously been shown that the quality of the onboarding process affects the chances of a new hire staying at a company, yet it is common that companies have problems in succeeding to maintain a well-organized onboarding. To aid new hires in their onboarding, and to lower the amount of work for the HR personnel, chatbots can be used. In this project, a chatbot was developed for the onboarding process of a large company. Interviews were held with new hires and HR personnel which were used to create requirements for the chatbot. These were divided into two categories; information and functional requirements. A third category, non-functional requirements, was created based on Microsoft’s guidelines for development of conversational AI. Based on the requirements, a chatbot prototype was built using Microsoft Bot Framework with the use of two cognitive services, LUIS and QnA Maker. Both the requirements and the prototype were created iteratively. The information that the interview participants requested from the chatbot was eitherpractical or personal information, or information about the employer, the internal systems, or other employees. It was revealed that the chatbot mainly needed to answer simple questions and didn’t demand any procedural conversation flow which made the use of QnA Maker appropriate. However, for questions and tasks that would benefit or require a procedural flow QnA Maker’s follow-up prompts could be used in future work to create multi-turn conversations.

Esta pesquisa do campo da Engenharia de Software explora a aplicação do conceito de padrões no tratamento dos problemas da fase inicial da produção de software. Essa fase visa à compreensão do problema com objetivo de sugerir uma solução viável ao projeto. A área que estuda esses fenômenos é conhecida como Engenharia de Requisitos, e a fase que compreende o levantamento das necessidades dos usuários e dos sistemas denomina-se \"elicitação\". No desenvolvimento deste trabalho, é aplicada a pesquisa-ação como método de pesquisa. Foram selecionadas três empresas do ramo comercial em segmentos diferentes, através da técnica de observação e análise das atividades aplicadas na elicitação de requisitos, contidas no processo de construção de software nessas organizações. A abordagem teórica se limitou aos conceitos essenciais da Engenharia de Requisitos, com ênfase na fase de elicitação de requisitos, uma exploração sobre padrões, apresentando suas características e as diversas aplicações na padronização da solução geral para problemas complexos. Essencialmente, a pesquisa sugere um catálogo de padrões candidatos, aplicável ao processo de elicitação de requisitos. Cada padrão é extraído dos documentos de requisitos construídos com base em estudo de campo realizado. São organizados por tipo de requisitos e organizados em um gabarito proposto pelo pesquisador. Posteriormente, são relacionados de acordo com suas afinidades e preocupações, transformando-os dessa maneira em um catálogo de padrões devido a sua classificação e sumarização. Por fim, o pesquisador apresenta as conclusões e desenvolve as críticas acerca do catálogo de padrões, sugere melhorias, indica as limitações, e aponta as contribuições relativas à redução da complexidade na execução da atividade de elicitação de requisitos com a possibilidade de se antecipar ao problema que provavelmente o analista ou engenheiro de requisitos irá enfrentar. / This research in the Software Engineering field explores the application of the patterns concept in the treatment of initial phase problems in software production. This phase aims at understanding the problem with the objective of suggesting a viable solution to the project. The area that studies those phenomena is known as Requirements Engineering and the phase that comprehends the detection of users needs and the systems needs is called \"elicitation\". In the development of this work the research-action is applied as research method. Three commercial companies branch were selected in different segments, through the observation technique and analysis of applied activities in requirements elicitation, contained in construction process of software in these organizations. The theoretical approach was limited to essential concepts of Requirements Engineering with emphasis in the phase of requirements elicitation, an exploration on patterns, to show the characteristics and the several applications in patterns of general solution for complex problems. Essentially, the research suggests a pattern catalog, containing candidates for requirements elicitation process. Each pattern is extracted from requirements documents built based on field studies implemented. They are organized by requirements type in a format proposed by the researcher. Then, they are related to each other according to their similitarities and concerns, transforming them in a pattern catalog due to their classification and summarization. Finally, the researcher presents the conclusions and develops critics concerning the patterns catalog, suggesting improvements, establishing restrictions, as well as pointing out the relative contributions to the reduction of complexity in the execution of the requirements elicitation activity with possibility of anticipating problems that will be presumably be detected by the analyst or requirements engineer.