Building University Spin-Offs from Research on Decision-Making

Assuming two or more alternative solutions are available, to make a decision means to pick only one of these, or, equivalently here, to commit to one and ignore others. What role do requirements play in such decision making situations? In classical decision theory [1], the best solution is the one that yields the highest expected…
The work on Techne (here) can be seen as a case study in developing a new business analysis and requirements engineering mehods. I gave a general talk on this topic in 2013, at the Sauder School of Business, at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver. The presentation used at the talk is below.
Compliance to relevant laws is increasingly recognized as a critical, but also expensive, quality for software requirements. Laws contain elements such as conditions and derogations that generate a space of possible compliance alternatives. During requirements engineering, an analyst has to select one of these compliance alternatives and ensure that the requirements specification she is putting…
What can you do to influence someone’s decision, if you cannot give them advice? In short, a possible approach is to take actions that satisfy two conditions: I call this the nurturing of choice. Instead of providing advice that is clearly directed at the elements of the decision problem (as I discussed in my book…
If a requirement can be easily rephrased as a criterion in a decision problem (as I argued elsewhere), then what is advice?
In this paper we propose a mathematical program able to optimize the product portfolio scope of a software product line and sketch both a development and a release planning. Our model is based on the description of customer needs in terms of goals. We show that this model can be instantiated in several contexts such…