Requirements Elicitation for Agent-Based Applications

摘要

Requirements Elicitation for a software system is a key stage in a successful development. At the same time, it is one of the most challenging, because requirements have to consider the mutual influences between the envisioned system and the human context where it will work. These influences cover aspects such as organization, motivation, evolution, and cognition, taking place in a specific setting. The agent paradigm facilitates the analysis of these features because of its intentional and social nature. Nevertheless, determining the information that should be obtained and the way it should be modelled is not a trivial task. Developers are experts in software systems but they are not always familiarized with the concrete domain of those systems. The Requirements Elicitation Guide, a technique based on the Activity Theory from Social Sciences, can be applied to support developers in these issues. This guide empowers the development team with the experience of Social Sciences in these issues. This paper introduces the guide and shows its application in a case study about a web application.