# Presentation: 018126

## Storyboards: A Medium for Stealth Knowledge Capture

- Carroll Thronesbery
- Debra Schreckenghost
- Arthur Molin
- 02 March 2006

## Overview: Stealth Knowledge Capture

- Common difficulty – capturing design knowledge
- Our approach – integrate with design
- Example project – storyboard tool
- Principals to apply to other projects
- Responses

## Difficulty – Design Knowledge Capture

- Not always clear when to capture the knowledge
- Several times during a meeting
- After each meeting, milestone in project, project completion
- Where is the reminder to capture design knowledge?
- How many design alternatives to capture?
- Important to know what was not selected for design and why
- Capturing too many alternatives can waste effort, time, project resource
- Too many alternatives can also reduce the usefulness of the repository
- Too few runs risk of repeating past design mistakes or wrong paths
- Resources are rarely dedicated to design knowledge capture (DKC)
- RFPs and contract requirements do not include DKC
- Can reduce cost effective competitiveness of current project
- Unclear how design knowledge will be used
- To support changes to current design
- To support design of future systems
- How similar will future systems be to the current design?
- While these issues need to be addressed, they should not be addressed during current system design – lose designer’s focus

## Our Approach: Stealth Capture

- Designers concentrate on design, DKC is a by-product
- Provide a tool that supports an aspect of system design
- Capture the design and design alternatives while supporting design
- Export the design knowledge data to mainstream design knowledge management software tools (DesKART)

## Our Project: Storyboard Tool

- SBIR project – just beginning Phase I
- Assist storyboard generation and refinement
- Assist in communicating storyboard design data to subsequent engineering tools
- System specification, requirements, design
- UML diagrams (XMI data format), Cradle, CORE
- Unified Modeling Language (UML)
- Extensible Markup Language (XML)
- XML Metadata Interchange (XMI)
- Capture design knowledge as a by-product

## Context of Storyboarding:System Acquisition Phase

- System acquisition timeline from Constellation Hazard Analysis Document (JSC 0000028585) – System Engineering Viewpoint
- During Mission Definition and System Definition
- Part of the Concept of Operation (ConOps) definition effort
- Purpose of ConOps is to convey the user’s concept of how the new system can support user mission performance

- Our focus

## Context – Data Exchange

- Concept of Operations (ConOps)

- ConOps Document

- Scenarios

- Storyboard

- How new system will support end-user task performance

- Requirements Document

- Design

- Development

- Training

- Documentation

- Evaluation

- End user

- Developer

## Traditional Storyboards - Movies

- Meanwhile, back at the ranch, our hero consults with the experts...

- To convey the concept of the movie to stakeholders
- To support early decisions and design
- Two important parts: text, illustration

- Hand sketched illustrations of scenes to illustrate this portion of the movie

- Text descriptions of context, action that goes before and after the current scene.

## Software Storyboards

- Initially, the user will need to log in
- Provisions are needed to deal with users forgetting passwords
- Successful login leads to main application menu display

- To convey the concept of the application to stakeholders
- To support early decisions and design
- Two important parts: text (data), illustration

- Quickly sketched illustration of display to illustrate this portion of the scenario

- Text descriptions of context, action that goes before and after the current display.

## Explicit Data Representation

- To support storyboard generation, explicitly represent
- User description
- Task description (especially information requirements)
- Context of use, use case scenario
- Purpose of system, role of its support in mission
- To support evaluation and refinement
- Generic evaluation objectives and responses
- Specific evaluation objectives and responses
- Design refinement decisions, iterations and results
- To support subsequent analysis and design
- Most of the above – UML data, Cradle, CORE
- To support design knowledge capture (DKC)
- All of the above – formatted for special KM tools (DesKART)

## Support Storyboard Generation

**User**: group administrator
**System**: Specify and use complex telemetry monitoring limits
**Scenario**: Establish limit values
**Task**: Select telemetry ID
**Note**: Related “rule variables” are displayed when a telemetry ID is selected
**Rationale**: Rule variables help user identify intended telemetry ID

- Identification of context of illustration (user, scenario ...)
- Contextual data supports generation of graphic illustration of interaction
- Data portions of storyboard can feed UML specifications

- Sketched illustration

- Text (data)

- Select Parameter with Limits

- V54S0380E MRL LATCH CMD

## Storyboard Tool Will Collect Data for SW Design Activities

- Group Administrator

- Establish limit values

- Monitor limits

- Flight Controller

**User**: group administrator
**System**: Specify and use complex telemetry monitoring limits
**Scenario**: Establish limit values

- UML Use Case Diagram using data

- Data Exported from Storyboard

## Storyboard Tool Will Also Export Design Knowledge

**Design sketch**: graphic illustration
**Context of use**:
- System ...
- Scenario: Establish limit values
- Task: Select telemetry ID
**User**: group administrator
**Note**: Related “rule variables” are displayed when a telemetry ID is selected
**Selected for design**: yes
**Rationale**: Rule variables help user identify intended telemetry ID

**User**: group administrator
**System**: Specify and use complex telemetry monitoring limits
**Scenario**: Establish limit values
**Task**: Select telemetry ID
**Note**: Related “rule variables” are displayed when a telemetry ID is selected
**Rationale**: Rule variables help user identify intended telemetry ID

- Data Exported from Storyboard

- Captured Design Knowledge

## Integration with Design Knowledge Capture

- Context: Storyboarding tool has one role in overall knowledge management
- Schedule brief knowledge capture sessions for major milestones of analysis and development activities
- Reminder to explicitly address design knowledge
- Focus with “What have we learned about design in the context of this software application?”
- This is the additional cost of DKC beyond the design itself
- Bulk of the data has been captured automatically, so sessions can be brief
- Ensure that designers see benefits to themselves
- How can we do our jobs better on this type of design in the future?
- If new requirements arise from future use, what do we need to know about the current design decisions to support a good re-design?
- If we must redesign because of changing requirements, what design rationale will help us to make good decisions in the future?
- Export design data to specialized knowledge management tools
- Retain the repository of design knowledge
- Assist future users in finding relevant design knowledge
- Future design projects
- Redesigns for current application when new requirements arise

## Addresses Capture Difficulties

- When to capture
- As designs are updated
- How much to capture
- Any design info entered into storyboard can be exported to KM tool
- Default: if the alternative is evaluated with users or stakeholders, info can be exported
- Resources – primary expenditure is brief meeting after important milestones
- Decisions about future use
- Many implications from data types requested by storyboard tool
- Much of the difficult work is done beforehand – mapping design data to design knowledge management tool
- Additional issues are addressed outside design context in the design capture meeting

## Knowledge Capture Principals to Apply to Other Projects

- Make knowledge capture immediately rewarding to people generating the knowledge
- Integrate knowledge capture with support for activities considered more mainstream (design)
- Provide direct support for the mainstream activity, incidental support for knowledge capture
- Schedule brief knowledge capture discussions after major milestones
- Integrate with other knowledge management tools rather than attempting the whole process inside a single software tool

## Storyboard Developer Feedback

- We are still in early analysis and design phases and need storyboard developer feedback:
- Specific items of design data that should be captured
- Specific support for
- Generating storyboards
- Evaluating and refining storyboards
- Suggestions for integrating with engineering tools
- Overlooked
- Requirements of storyboarding tool
- Context of use of storyboarding tool
- Differences in storyboard requirements
- Government contracting
- Commercial software development