Norah Power

A theory of requirements documentation situated in practice

This paper presents a theoretical framework which attempts to explain the variety of styles of requirements documentation found in practice in relation to the variety of situations in which software products and systems are developed. It identifies situational factors that might be useful to categorize development situations from the point of view of the requirements documentation process. This framework is in contrast with much of the literature on requirements engineering, which takes a very prescriptive approach to documentation, and which takes very little account of the situation of use. The research was based on a qualitative study of requirements practitioners and their documentation practices. The empirical data collected from interviews in the study was systematically analyzed using the grounded theory method and a computer-based tool, ATLAS.ti.The framework is in three parts. The first part is an analysis of requirements documents as texts, categorizing the different constituent elements that might be used to specify requirements. The second part is a scheme for classifying system development situations with respect to the requirements documentation process. The third part of the framework takes each of these situation types and matches it with an appropriate style of requirements document that is found to be typical in that situation. The aim of the paper is to explain (or structure an explanation of) the diverse ways that system and software requirements are documented in practice. To date, this diversity has not been examined by any empirical study or theoretical framework. Most requirements specification techniques are regarded as application-independent, assumed to be context-independent, and presented as if they were universally applicable. Requirements specification standards follow a similar line. The paper concludes that standard prescriptive approaches have failed to identify the necessary and sufficient contents and style of a requirements document, because what is good enough in one situation may not be desirable or acceptable in another.

National Health Models and the Adoption of E-Health and E-Prescribing in Primary Care – New Evidence from Europe

Objective Recent research from the European Commission (EC) suggests that the development and adoption of eHealth in primary care is significantly influenced by the context of the national health model in operation. This research identified three national health models in Europe at this time – the National Health Service (NHS) model, the social insurance system (SIS) model and the transition country (TC) model, and found a strong correlation between the NHS model and high adoption rates for eHealth. The objective of this study is to establish if there is a similar correlation in one specific application area – electronic prescribing (ePrescribing) in primary care. Methods A review of published literature from 2000 to 2014 was undertaken covering the relevant official publications of the European Union and national government as well as the academic literature. An analysis of the development and adoption of ePrescribing in Europe was extracted from these data. Results The adoption of ePrescribing in primary care has increased significantly in recent years and is now practised by approximately 32% of European general practitioners. National ePrescribing services are now firmly established in 11 countries, with pilot projects underway in most others. The highest adoption rates are in countries with the NHS model, concentrated in the Nordic area. The electronic transmission of prescriptions continues to pose a significant challenge, especially in SIS countries and TCs. Conclusions There is a strong correlation between the NHS model and high adoption rates for ePrescribing similar to the EC findings on the adoption of eHealth. It may be some time before many SIS countries and TCs reach the same adoption levels for ePrescribing and eHealth in primary care as most NHS countries.

An artifact-centric framework for software development skills

While the specific knowledge, skills and abilities needed to develop software can be determined, it is much more difficult to decide what skill set is required for any given software development role. This paper suggests that progress may be made if, instead of trying to relate knowledge, skills or abilities to individual roles, efforts are made to understand what knowledge, skills and abilities are required to create and use the artifacts associated with software development. To this end, a framework incorporating two relationships is presented: The first relates software development artifacts to organizational functions, while the second relates knowledge, skills and abilities to different phases of an artifacts lifecycle. This framework leads to a new taxonomy of skills.

Legacy job titles in IT: the search for clarity

The use of Information Technology (IT) job titles is problematic. Titles may have different meanings depending on context, with job descriptions and responsibilities varying from one organization to another. This paper investigates the causes of this issue by examining the historical context; a comparison is made with three other established professional groupings and differences determined. The ramifications from current recruitment practices are identified, highlighting the potential conflict between business needs and for IT as a profession. An empirical approach towards job title discovery is suggested, utilizing the body of knowledge already available.

Linking career anchors and a social cognitive framework: developing an interview instrument

It is not unusual for researchers to struggle in sourcing potential participants for interviews. This is particularly true when it comes to interviewing senior IT personnel. Critical to the success of such interviews is the careful planning and structure of the interview in advance and prudent use of the time allotted. This paper proposes the use of an instrument to complement the interview process, with a view to optimizing the allotted interview time. Such an instrument is presented, tested with interviewees and supported by links to a theoretical framework that is based on social cognitive theory.

The IT professional as stakeholder

The concept of stakeholder is well established in the field of IS, yet the IT persons role as a stakeholder is often ignored because stakeholders on the customer side are, appropriately, regarded as more important than stakeholders on the supplier side. Focusing on various IT stakeholders can give us a fresh perspective on many issues of concern. Tools and techniques for stakeholder analysis, currently trained exclusively on customer-side stakeholders, can possibly lead to useful approaches for analyzing IT roles, including: understanding the skills and abilities needed to succeed in the IT profession, analyzing role profiles, supporting work satisfaction and staff retention, improving individual and team performance, facilitating group-work, particularly (globally) distributed teams. In particular, an analysis of stakeholder relationships can lead to a conceptual framework that will help researchers and educators to understand and communicate the ways IT professionals work with other categories of stakeholders in different development contexts.