Related papers: Towards Assessing Necessary Competence
The use of conceptual models to foster requirements engineering has been proposed and evaluated as beneficial for several decades. For instance, goal-oriented requirements engineering or the specification of scenarios are commonly done…
Statistics is sometimes described as the science of reasoning under uncertainty. Statistical models provide one view of this uncertainty, but what is frequently neglected is the 'invisible' portion of uncertainty: that assumed not to exist…
This paper clarifies a fundamental difference between causal inference and traditional statistical inference by formalizing a mathematical distinction between their respective parameters. We connect two major approaches to causal inference,…
A growing literature uses large language models (LLMs) as synthetic participants to generate cost-effective and nearly instantaneous responses in social science experiments. However, there is limited guidance on when such simulations…
Empirical studies on formal methods and tools are rare. In this paper, we provide guidelines for such studies. We mention their main ingredients and then define nine different study strategies (laboratory experiments with software and human…
Deductive verification is an effective method to ensure that a given system exposes the intended behavior. In spite of its proven usefulness and feasibility in selected projects, deductive verification is still not a mainstream technique.…
The crisis in the reproducibility of experiments invites a re-evaluation of methods of inquiry and validation procedures. The text challenges current assumptions of knowledge acquisition and introduces G-complexity for defining decidable…
Normative requirements specify social, legal, ethical, empathetic, and cultural (SLEEC) norms that must be observed by a system. To support the identification of SLEEC requirements, numerous standards and regulations have been developed.…
In this paper we present a formal framework for analysis and optimisation of the requirements specifications of systems developed to apply in several countries. As different countries typically have different regulations/laws as well as…
Fitting models to data is an important part of the practice of science. Advances in machine learning have made it possible to fit more -- and more complex -- models, but have also exacerbated a problem: when multiple models fit the data…
Simulation can enable the study of recommender system (RS) evolution while circumventing many of the issues of empirical longitudinal studies; simulations are comparatively easier to implement, are highly controlled, and pose no ethical…
Prescriptive process monitoring approaches leverage historical data to prescribe runtime interventions that will likely prevent negative case outcomes or improve a process's performance. A centerpiece of a prescriptive process monitoring…
Many prescriptive approaches to developing software intensive systems have been advocated but each is based on assumptions about context. It has been found that practitioners do not follow prescribed methodologies, but rather select and…
There is increasing attention being given to how to regulate AI systems. As governing bodies grapple with what values to encapsulate into regulation, we consider the technical half of the question: To what extent can AI experts vet an AI…
Evaluations of generative models are now ubiquitous, and their outcomes critically shape public and scientific expectations of AI's capabilities. Yet skepticism about their reliability continues to grow. How can we know that a reported…
Retrospective testing of predictive models does not consider the real-world context in which models are deployed. Prospective validation, on the other hand, enables meaningful comparisons between data generation processes by incorporating…
Reward schemes may affect not only agents' effort, but also their incentives to gather information to reduce the riskiness of the productive activity. In a laboratory experiment using a novel task, we find that the relationship between…
Preparation and measurement of physical systems are the operational building blocks of any physical experiment, and to describe them is the first purpose of any physical theory. It is remarkable that, in some situations, even when only…
Pragmatic randomized trials are designed to provide evidence for clinical decision-making rather than regulatory approval. Common features of these trials include the inclusion of heterogeneous or diverse patient populations in a wide range…
Proven-in-use arguments are needed when pre-developed products with an in-service history are to be used in different environments than those they were originally developed for. A product may include software modules or may be stand-alone…