Contemporary Challenges in Requirements Discovery and Validation: Two Case Studies in Complex Environments - Intentional Perspectives on Information Systems Engineering - page 50

5 Alignment with the Challenges Model
We will next review requirements-related challenges encountered by both project
teams and consider commonalities and differences. Overall, we note significant con-
sistency with the challenges articulated in Sect. 2 [ 21] . Specifically, eleven of the
twelve challenges outlined in the systemic requirements challenges model are also
reflected in the case study findings.
5.1 Articulation Challenges
Not surprisingly, the idea that the envisioned users of a system cannot easily state
their requirements for the software did surface in the cases. While there was no
explicit discussion of these challenges within the University SIS project, the IPSI
case included multiple references to the inability of users to state what they required.
The following statement provides an example:
So the intent now is we get the baseline [platform] in, we show them the capability, we start
getting feeds in. And we'll see how they start working it and we'll evolve to it because they
really can't come out and say, 'Here's a requirement' other than, 'We want to see indictables
[offenses for which the Prosecutor's Office can indict an individual].' But they can't define
'indictables' because they don't want to see all indictables. It's really strange. We're going
to have to evolve to a requirement. - IPSI Project Manager
As the comment reveals, the perceived difficulty of articulation on the part of
users led the development team to place an emphasis on the evolution of the plat-
form. Rather than emphasizing the need for all requirements at the outset, the project
team simply acknowledged that requirements would emerge by involving the users
with the initial adoption of the system.
5.2 Reflectiveness/Motivation
Challenges related to reflectiveness and motivation were more pronounced in the
SIS project. In fact, the development team felt that several stakeholders lacked moti-
vation and reflectiveness regarding their engagement with the development effort.
As one project team member noted:
It would be an interesting meeting [i.e., student and faculty committee meeting] should they
show up. That's another problem. I don't think we've ever had a full attendance. The last
student one we had there was one student ... even though we offer all kinds of pizza to get
them to attend. - SIS Communications Lead
Overall, engagement from various stakeholder groups varied widely. In addi-
tion to intermittent participation on student and faculty committees for the project,
different schools had widely divergent rates of participation, with some schools
providing several representatives and others providing only a single individual and