A method for analysing requirements for complex sociotechnicalsystems is described. The method builds on the I* family of models byexplicitly modelling communication between agents by discourse acttypes. System (i*) models and use cases are developed which describe thedependencies between human and computer agents in terms of a set ofdiscourse acts that characterise the obligations on agents to respondand act. For human-computer communication, the discourse acts indicatefunctional requirements to support operators. For human agents, the actsspecify their obligation to act and constraints on action. The methodprovides analytic techniques and heuristics to assess agent workloads interms of the tasks and communication they have to perform. Scenarios arerun against the system model by walking through the chain of operatortasks and communication links to produce time estimates and failureprobabilities, where the demands of scenarios impose excessive loads onhuman operators. The method is illustrated with a case study of a navalcommand and control system
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