Activity-driven needs analysis and modeling in information systems development
Irmeli Luukkonen · UEF eRepo (University of Eastern Finland) · 2012
Increasingly complex information systems are used for supporting work in organizations.The development of the systems is not only the concern of software providers, but especially the early phases of development are an issue in user organizations.Cooperatively obtained shared understanding of the needs for information systems should be a basis for the development.However, gaining a shared understanding between the different types of actors is challenging, especially when the starting point analysis should be rather quick.The methodological support for the viewpoint of user organizations in information systems development is scanty, and the starting point of development is obscure.The Activity-Driven approach to information systems development has been proven to be supportive for the developers' view in earlier studies.This thesis studies the potential of the Activity-Driven approach in the development of the information systems of user organizations.The objective is to support those who plan the information systems development in user organizations or are involved in development activities in one role or another.The user organization viewpoint and its stakeholders and concerns were mainly researched in the healthcare domain.Healthcare is a multifaceted domain, where information plays a critical role, and the requirements for the quality of information systems are high.The empirical materials were obtained by action research in several healthcare organizations in Finland, complemented by case studies in China and Mozambique and a web-based inquiry concerning process modeling in organizations.The results show that the Activity-Driven tools for analysis and modeling (tables, diagrams, and stories) support the early phases of information systems development: domain exploration and needs analysis.The AD approach also supports the planning of the early phases and modeling.The options for further research include improving the core of the approach by increasing the maturity of the approach and expanding the approach with sound interlinkages with enterprise architecting and detailed requirements specification.