G. Fischer
E. Giaccardi
Abstract
End-user development (EUD) activities range from customization to component configuration and programming. Office software, such as the ubiquitous spreadsheet, provides customization facilities, while the growth of the Web has added impetus to end-user scripting for interactive functions in Web sites. In scientific and engineering domains, end users frequently develop complex systems with standard programming languages such as C++ and Java. However, only a minority of users adapt commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software products. Indeed, composing systems from reusable components, such as enterprise resource planing (ERP) systems, defeats most end users who resort to expensive and scarce expert developers for implementation.
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Index Terms
- Meta-design: a manifesto for end-user development
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Reviews
Neil Robert Karl
Meta-design at system design time involves information technology (IT) professionals and end users meeting together, to get the end user's input to the design process. Let's say IT is designing a current technology client-server system for the end users. In meta-design, IT designs a system to implement current practices, but provides end users with open source and open effort capabilities at use time. The technical design and programming language are graphic, tabular, natural language, and so on, making the system easy for end users to learn and use. IT does not need to provide a middleman, systems specialist, or systems analyst agent to customize extensions to the database, screens, and reports. The end users organize a community, to collaborate to help solve problems of shared interest and mutual benefit, extending the system by continuous process improvement. It could be said that IT under-designed the system. The authors don't know of any development system that now incorporates this forward-looking vision of system design. They present examples of its potential use in urban planning, open source software development, and interactive art. Future research directions include developing client-server software for various systems, or graphic art development that is hands-on for the end user, eliminating the systems specialist. The problem with the authors' concept is that one knowledgeable person, namely a system architect, needs to be in charge, to control changes in a consistent fashion. A system designed by a committee can become a conflicting mess. One possible solution is to build overall control into expert software. Online Computing Reviews Service
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