Engineering task models

Abstract

This paper describes a method which allows designers and developers to define a task model of the interactive application considered and then to derive an architecture specification. This specification supports the same temporal relationships defined in the task specification, and what the related tasks are is precisely identified for each basic component. This method highlights significant aspects in task and architecture design and gives useful suggestions for developing user interface environments which maintain a focus on task-oriented aspects. We consider the possibility of supporting very flexible temporal relationships among tasks (concurrent tasks, tasks which can interrupt or enable other tasks and so on).