Information Requirements Determination: An Empirical Investigation of Obstacles within an Individual

摘要

This research has suggested that the requirements process be divided into two phases: IRD and IRA. There appears to be sufficient evidence to warrant additional investigation of the IRD phase using the model of inconsistency portrayed in this effort. Inconsistency appears to be a matter of perspective. From an analyst's point of view, the variation in users' needs constitutes inconsistency. From a user's point of view, the variation may be a fact of life resulting from perceptions of need that arise from a dynamic environment. This research is an initial attempt to document the requirements process from a user's perspective and to provide the user some external assistance to attempt to reduce the variation in perceptions of needs. It may be that the perceptions of needs always constitute a requirement from the individual's perspective and that the sorting of requirements from wishes must remain the responsibility of the referee. Perhaps tools oriented to both those roles: That of the user and that of the refereee, are necessary. The requirements formulation scratchpad (RFS), as a prototype tool to help the user in the problem formulation phase of information requirements determination, was too complex for the research environment of this study. Based on suggestions from this initial investigation, the second generation of the RFS will be much simpler in design.