Query-based requirements engineering for health care information systems: Examples and prospects

Designing healthcare information systems is a challenge to software engineering theory and practice. Many requirements engineering (RE) methods demand user-participation, clear functional objectives and a well defined context of use. These demands are hard to meet in the healthcare domain, which is characterized by high diversity, complexity and little time and money to spend. There are many examples of healthcare software systems that have failed due to lacking investment in the early phases of design and requirements analysis. We have developed methods for gathering detailed observational data about care and communication practice. In this article, we explain how this data can be used for iterative, demand-driven, requirements elicitation and to answer design questions. The examples are taken from structured observation of actors, situations, information usage and activities at two Norwegian hospitals. We regard this approach as a useful supplement to other RE methods, in particular for agile development methods.

[1]  Donald A. Norman,et al.  User Centered System Design: New Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction , 1988 .

[2]  Betty H. C. Cheng,et al.  Research Directions in Requirements Engineering , 2007, Future of Software Engineering (FOSE '07).

[3]  Natalia Juristo Juzgado,et al.  Effectiveness of Requirements Elicitation Techniques: Empirical Results Derived from a Systematic Review , 2006, 14th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE'06).

[4]  Inger Dybdahl Sørby,et al.  Characterising cooperation in the ward: framework for producing requirements to mobile electronic healthcare records , 2006 .

[5]  Finn Kensing,et al.  Participatory Design: Issues and Concerns , 2004, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).

[6]  N. Hoffart.  Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory , 2000 .

[7]  Karen Holtzblatt,et al.  Contextual design , 1997, INTR.

[8]  Gry Seland,et al.  Using Scenarios and Drama Improvisation for Identifying and Analysing Requirements for Mobile Electronic Patient Records , 2005 .

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

[10]  Sebastian Garde,et al.  Requirements engineering in health care: the example of chemotherapy planning in paediatric oncology , 2006, Requirements Engineering.

[11]  Øystein Nytrø,et al.  Towards a Tomographic Framework for Structured Observation of Communicative Behaviour in Hospital Wards , 2007, REFSQ.

[12]  Luiz Marcio Cysneiros,et al.  Requirements engineering in the health care domain , 2002, Proceedings IEEE Joint International Conference on Requirements Engineering.

[13]  Claudia Pagliari,et al.  Design and Evaluation in eHealth: Challenges and Implications for an Interdisciplinary Field , 2007, Journal of medical Internet research.

[14]  Mona Choi,et al.  Handbook of Evaluation Methods for Health Informatics , 2011, Healthcare Informatics Research.

[15]  Øystein Nytrø,et al.  Analysis of Communicative Behaviour: Profiling Roles and Activities , 2022 .

[16]  Mikio Aoyama,et al.  Persona-Scenario-Goal Methodology for User-Centered Requirements Engineering , 2007, 15th IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE 2007).

[17]  Alan M. Davis,et al.  Requirements Elicitation Techniques: Analyzing the Gap between Technology Availability and Technology Use , 2003 .

[18]  Karen Holtzblatt,et al.  Contextual design , 1997, INTR.

[19]  Anselm L. Strauss,et al.  Basics of qualitative research : techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory , 1998 .