Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
guidance on handling requirements discourse and value analysis is beyond the scope
of this chapter, but more detailed advice can be found in Sutcliffe [
31]
and Thew
and Sutcliffe [
36]
.
6 ADVISES Case Study
In this section, use of the common ground framework is illustrated in a case study
describing requirements analysis experience in an e-science application to sup-
port epidemiological research. The case study reviews requirements analysis for
ADVISES, a decision-support system for analysis of epidemiology problems that
served two stakeholder groups: academic researchers and public health analysts. For
researchers, understanding the causes of childhood obesity by statistical analysis of
health records was a high-level goal. In contrast, the goal of public health analysts
(PCT: Primary Care Trust) was local health management; for example, identify-
ing where local concentrations of obese children were located and then targeting
interventions, e.g. promotion of local sports facilities, healthy eating campaigns,
etc. The analysis was carried out in a series of requirements elicitation interviews,
observations of stakeholder meetings, observations of research work, and scenario-
based discussions of storyboard designs and prototypes. Recordings of the various
meetings and interviews were transcribed and analysed using the taxonomy and key
issues.
6.1 Value Analysis
Analysis began by constructing a shortlist of hunches based on values directly
expressed by the users:
•
Being methodical, precise, systematic (personal characteristics).
•
Creativity.
•
Public profile, collaborations, National Health Service (sociability).
•
Users don't collaborate or work together (sociability? trust?).
We used the value and motivation tables to focus attention on these ideas, to
unpack the meaning of terms such as 'methodical' for our users, and explore the
common ground for understanding shared values, goals and possible design solu-
tions. The users' public profile collaboration appeared to clash with their stated
internal approach to work, so we focused attention on this issue.
Following several iterations of analysis making use of both observation and inter-
view data, we developed a deeper understanding of the potential common ground
and new ideas about our users' values and emotions:
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