Requirements Elaboration For System Co-development

Garfield, Joy and Loucopoulos, P. (2009) Requirements Elaboration For System Co-development. Ingénierie des Systèmes d’Information (Networking & Information Systems), 14 (4). pp. 77-98. ISSN 1633-1311

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Abstract

System co-development provides a mechanism for aligning business processes and technical systems. Whether a business wishes to exploit advances in technology to achieve new strategic objectives or to organise work in innovative ways, the process of Requirements Engineering could and should present opportunities for modelling and evaluating the potential impact that technology can bring about to an enterprise through a process of co-development. Co-development offers opportunities to change both the business and its underlying technical systems, in a synergistic manner. This paper considers the case of adopting a designing stance during requirements analysis so that typical challenges which arise during co-development projects can be taken into consideration. These involve multiple stakeholders from different participating organisations, subcontractors, divisions, etc, who may have a diversity of expertise, come from different organisational cultures and often have competing goals. Stakeholders are faced with many different alternative future ‘worlds’ each one demanding a possibly different development strategy. A conceptual framework for designing the enterprise strategy and system requirements during system co-development is put forward. The framework comprises of four main components, namely, System Dynamics modelling, ontology modelling, scenario modelling and rationale modelling. System Dynamics modelling is used as a central focus for designing, in which the behaviour of an enterprise system is defined. Invariant components of the physical and social world within the enterprise domain are formally defined within the ontology model. Scenario modelling is used to identify critical variables and by quantitatively analysing the effects of these variables through simulation to better understand the dynamic behaviour of the possible future structures. Rationale modelling is used to assist collaborative discussions when considering either ontology models or scenarios for change. A case study of electricity liberalization in the European Union is used to illustrate the workings of the framework.

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