Coherence : Social Analysis for Software Engineers

It is increasingly recognised that human, social, and political factors have a significant impact on software system design. To address this, ethnographic studies of work have been used to inform the system design process, especially in cooperative work settings where systems support several users working together. Based on our experience of these studies, we have investigated the integration of social analysis into the system design process. This paper introduces a method that provides support for social analysis and which has been designed for use alongside other approaches to system requirements analysis. New methods are unlikely to be adopted in industry unless they are capable of being integrated with existing practice. Our approach addresses this issue by helping identify use cases, generating initial use case models, and by using UML to represent social aspects of work that may have an impact on the design of computer based systems. This paper introduces the approach, and focuses on the support provided for social analysis. We have identified three social viewpoints, namely a distributed coordination viewpoint, a plans and procedures viewpoint and an awareness of work viewpoint. We illustrate our approach using a case study based on an air traffic control system.

[1]  Dan Diaper,et al.  Task Analysis for Human-Computer Interaction , 1990 .

[2]  Tom Rodden,et al.  Designing with ethnography: a presentation framework for design , 1997, DIS '97.

[3]  Joseph A. Goguen,et al.  Techniques for requirements elicitation , 1993, [1993] Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Requirements Engineering.

[4]  Richard Bentley,et al.  Integrating ethnography into the requirements engineering process , 1993, [1993] Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Requirements Engineering.

[5]  Kendall Scott,et al.  UML distilled - applying the standard object modeling language , 1997 .

[6]  Paul Dourish,et al.  Technomethodology: paradoxes and possibilities , 1996, CHI.

[7]  T.M. Duffy,et al.  Scenario-Based Design: Envisioning Work and Technology in System Development [Book Review] , 1996, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication.

[8]  Ian Sommerville,et al.  Viewpoints for requirements elicitation: a practical approach , 1998, Proceedings of IEEE International Symposium on Requirements Engineering: RE '98.

[9]  Tom Rodden,et al.  Process Modelling and Development Practice , 1994, EWSPT.

[10]  Tom Rodden,et al.  Moving out from the control room: ethnography in system design , 1994, CSCW '94.

[11]  Mark Rouncefield,et al.  Never mind the ethno' stuff, what does all this mean and what do we do now: ethnography in the commercial world , 1997, INTR.

[12]  Don H. Zimmerman,et al.  Ethnomethodology and the Human Sciences , 1994 .

[13]  Michael G. Lamming,et al.  Locating Systems at Work: Implications for the Development of Active Badge Applications , 1992, Interact. Comput..

[14]  Tom Rodden,et al.  Presenting ethnography in the requirements process , 1995, Proceedings of 1995 IEEE International Symposium on Requirements Engineering (RE'95).

[15]  K Y Lim,et al.  Integrating human factors with the Jackson System Development method: an illustrated overview. , 1992, Ergonomics.

[16]  Ian Sommerville,et al.  Coherence: An Approach to Representing Ethnographic Analyses in Systems Design , 1999, Hum. Comput. Interact..

[17]  Joseph A. Goguen,et al.  Requirements engineering: social and technical issues , 1994 .

[18]  Ian Sommerville,et al.  Viewpoints: principles, problems and a practical approach to requirements engineering , 1997, Ann. Softw. Eng..

[19]  Richard Bentley,et al.  Ethnographically-informed systems design for air traffic control , 1992, CSCW '92.

[20]  Ivar Jacobson,et al.  Object-oriented software engineering - a use case driven approach , 1993, TOOLS.