What a task—establishing user requirements!
Mike Norman · ACM SIGOIS Bulletin · 1993
Providing added value to organizations through the use of IT is still difficult, too frequently resulting in a poor return on a considerable investment. Since it is believed that we can competently undertake most areas of design and implementation of such systems, the area that is frequently cited as being the source of such shortcomings is that of establishing user requirements. Approaches from a variety of disciplines can give new insights into the way that designers and users actually go about their tasks. Working from this stand-point a software tool (TACT) to support a task oriented approach to defining user requirements has been developed. The principal features of the system are described and an account given of its development & evaluation. It provides a user oriented approach to defining IT systems, supports the way that designers work while enabling direct user involvement in the relevant part of the design process and may be further developed to provide "documentary" evidence of the design process.