Applying collaborative process design to user requirements elicitation: A case study

User requirements play a central role in software development processes by bridging the needs of business to the software. In many cases stakeholders who have different perspectives and expectations about the future system need to collaborate to clarify, capture and uncover user requirements in an efficient and effective manner. Many industry experts have admitted that collaboration among stakeholders in a facilitated workshop, aimed at defining and articulating user requirements, is one of the most difficult tasks in software development. The aim of the research described in this paper is to present a process that can address the challenges of collaborative user requirements elicitation workshops. The process contains activities that correspond to a pattern of collaboration. Developed on a pattern-based architecture, the process is reusable and can be applied to similar user requirements elicitation workshops. To achieve this goal, the principles of Collaboration Engineering (CE) are applied to design collaborative processes that consist of ThinkLets, a set of facilitation scripts and process-building blocks, bundled together. The process is evaluated in practice by running facilitated workshops as well as by collecting experts' comments and opinions. The results indicate that the approach is usable and useful. The paper concludes with further elaboration and discussions on research contribution and potential future work in the field.

[1]  Denise Silver,et al.  Joint Application Development , 1995 .

[2]  Mirka Kans.  An approach for determining the requirements of computerised maintenance management systems , 2008, Comput. Ind..

[3]  A. Nakakawa.  Collaboration Engineering Approach to Enterprise Architecture Design Evaluation and Selection , 2008 .

[4]  Gwendolyn L. Kolfschoten,et al.  The Collaboration Engineering Approach for Designing Collaboration Processes , 2007, CRIWG.

[5]  Janis Stirna,et al.  Evaluating a Pattern Approach as an Aid for the Development of Organisational Knowledge: An Empirical Study , 2000, CAiSE.

[6]  Wei Liu,et al.  Formalization of design chain management using environment-based design (EBD) theory , 2013, J. Intell. Manuf..

[7]  Neil A. M. Maiden,et al.  Problem domain categories in requirements engineering , 1998, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[8]  G. G. Stokes.  "J." , 1890, The New Yale Book of Quotations.

[9]  Marten Schönherr,et al.  Outline of a design science research process , 2009, DESRIST.

[10]  Douglas L. Dean,et al.  Making the Collaboration Engineering Investment Decision , 2006, Proceedings of the 39th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'06).

[11]  Bashar Nuseibeh,et al.  Requirements engineering: a roadmap , 2000, ICSE '00.

[12]  Marcos R. S. Borges,et al.  Athena: A collaborative approach to requirements elicitation , 2009, Comput. Ind..

[13]  Robert O. Briggs,et al.  Collaboration Engineering , 2010, Handbook of Group Decision and Negotiation.

[14]  Martin Bichler,et al.  Design science in information systems research , 2006, Wirtschaftsinf..

[15]  Ann L. Fruhling,et al.  Designing and Evaluating Collaborative Processes for Requirements Elicitation and Validation , 2007, 2007 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'07).

[16]  Patrik Nilsson,et al.  Managing stakeholder requirements in a product modelling system , 2006, Comput. Ind..

[17]  Yong Zeng,et al.  Classification of Product Requirements Based on Product Environment , 2006, Concurr. Eng. Res. Appl..

[18]  Gert-Jan de Vreede,et al.  A Repeatable Collaboration Process for Usability Testing , 2005, Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[19]  Mehruz Kamal,et al.  Collaboration Engineering For Incident Response Planning: Process Development and Validation , 2007, 2007 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'07).

[20]  Robert O. Briggs,et al.  ThinkLets: a collaboration engineering pattern language , 2006, Int. J. Comput. Appl. Technol..

[21]  Jane Wood,et al.  Joint application development (2. ed.) , 1995 .

[22]  Wil M. P. van der Aalst,et al.  Workflow Patterns , 2004, Distributed and Parallel Databases.

[23]  Lawrence D. Pohlmann,et al.  Requirements By Collaboration , 2003 .

[24]  Min Wang,et al.  Please Scroll down for Article International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing Asking the Right Questions to Elicit Product Requirements Asking the Right Questions to Elicit Product Requirements , 2022 .

[25]  Robert O. Briggs,et al.  EasyWinWin: managing complexity in requirements negotiation with GSS , 2002, Proceedings of the 35th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[26]  Yong Zeng,et al.  Environment-Based formulation of Design Problem , 2004, Trans. SDPS.

[27]  Mark A. Fuller,et al.  Facilitator Influence in Group Support Systems: Intended and Unintended Effects , 1998, Inf. Syst. Res..

[28]  Gwendolyn L. Kolfschoten,et al.  Reconceptualizing Generate thinkLets: the Role of the Modifier , 2007, 2007 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'07).

[29]  Jay F. Nunamaker,et al.  ThinkLets: achieving predictable, repeatable patterns of group interaction with group support systems (GSS) , 2001, Proceedings of the 34th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[30]  Evan W. Duggan.  Generating Systems Requirements With Facilitated Group Techniques , 2003, Hum. Comput. Interact..

[32]  Robert O. Briggs,et al.  Defining Key Concepts for Collaboration Engineering , 2006, AMCIS.

[33]  Linda A. Macaulay.  Requirements capture as a cooperative activity , 1993, [1993] Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Requirements Engineering.

[34]  Gwendolyn L. Kolfschoten,et al.  A Design Approach for Collaboration Processes: A Multimethod Design Science Study in Collaboration Engineering , 2009, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[35]  Jim Browne,et al.  Integration of business modelling methods for enterprise information system analysis and user requirements gathering , 2004, Comput. Ind..

[36]  Alan M. Davis,et al.  Elicitation technique selection: how do experts do it? , 2003, Proceedings. 11th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference, 2003..

[37]  Paul Grünbacher,et al.  Agile product line planning: A collaborative approach and a case study , 2008, J. Syst. Softw..

[38]  Robert O. Briggs,et al.  A conceptual foundation of the thinkLet concept for Collaboration Engineering , 2006, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[39]  E.A.J.A. Rouwette,et al.  Choice criteria for facilitation techniques , 2006 .

[40]  Richard W. Pew,et al.  Human-system integration in the system development process : a new look , 2007 .

[41]  Robert O. Briggs,et al.  Collaboration ‘Engineerability’ , 2010 .

[42]  Norbert Gronau,et al.  Approach for requirement oriented team building in industrial processes , 2007, Comput. Ind..

[43]  Jay F. Nunamaker,et al.  Collaboration Engineering with ThinkLets to Pursue Sustained Success with Group Support Systems , 2003, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[44]  Stefan W. Knolla,et al.  A Design Approach for a Universal Group Support System using ThinkLets and ThinXels , 2008 .

[45]  Neil A. M. Maiden,et al.  Provoking Creativity: Imagine What Your Requirements Could Be Like , 2004, IEEE Softw..

[46]  Robert O. Briggs,et al.  Collaboration Engineering: Designing Repeatable Processes for High-Value Collaborative Tasks , 2005, Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[47]  Barry Boehm,et al.  The WinWin Approach: Using a Requirements Negotiation Tool for Rationale Capture and Use , 2006 .

[48]  Jay Xiong.  New Software Engineering Paradigm Based on Complexity Science , 2011 .

[49]  Paul Clements,et al.  Better, faster, cheaper: Pick any three , 2012 .

[50]  H. Merisalo-Rantanen,et al.  Gathering innovative end-user feedback for continuous development of information systems: a repeatable and transferable e-collaboration process , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication.

[51]  Roger Schwarz,et al.  The Skilled Facilitator , 1994 .

[52]  William J. Kettinger,et al.  Business Process Change : Reengineering Concepts, Methods and Technologies , 1998 .

[53]  Suzanne Robertson,et al.  Requirements trawling: techniques for discovering requirements , 2001, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[54]  Alistair G. Sutcliffe,et al.  Experience with SCRAM, a SCenario Requirements Analysis Method , 1998, Proceedings of IEEE International Symposium on Requirements Engineering: RE '98.

[55]  Artem Katasonov,et al.  Requirements quality control: a unifying framework , 2005, Requirements Engineering.

[56]  Suzanne Robertson,et al.  Mastering the Requirements Process , 1999 .

[57]  Mark Adkins,et al.  A language technology toolset for development of a large group augmented facilitation system , 2004, 37th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2004. Proceedings of the.

[58]  Roger M. Schwarz,et al.  The skilled facilitator : practical wisdom for developing effective groups , 1994 .

[59]  Didar Zowghi,et al.  Requirements Elicitation: A Survey of Techniques, Approaches, and Tools , 2005 .

[60]  Linda A. Macaulay.  Human-computer interaction for software designers , 1995, Tutorial guides in computing and information systems.

[61]  Gwendolyn L. Kolfschoten,et al.  Cognitive learning efficiency through the use of design patterns in teaching , 2010, Comput. Educ..

[62]  Carlos E. Acosta,et al.  Supporting the Collaborative Collection of User ' s Requirements , 2006 .

[63]  Yong Zeng,et al.  On the logic of design , 1991 .

[64]  Luisa Mich,et al.  Applying a pragmatics-based creativity-fostering technique to requirements elicitation , 2005, Requirements Engineering.

[65]  Mariëlle den Hengst,et al.  Designing mobile information services: user requirements elicitation with GSS design and application of a repeatable process , 2004, 37th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, 2004. Proceedings of the.

[66]  Haruhiko Kaiya,et al.  Improving the detection of requirements discordances among stakeholders , 2005, Requirements Engineering.

[67]  Robert O. Briggs,et al.  Collaboration Engineering: Foundations and Opportunities: Editorial to the Special Issue on the Journal of the Association of Information Systems , 2009, J. Assoc. Inf. Syst..