Organizational Requirements and the Introduction of Information Technology in Courtrooms: A Case Study

Abstract

Traditional methods of systems design have tended to concentrate on capturing functional requirements and from them develop a system that will provide users with a technical solution to a problem they may have. However, there is a growing understanding, with historical origins in sociotechnical systems theory, that technical solutions alone, regardless of how well designed, may not succeed fully unless there is a concomitant understanding of the organization into which the technical solution is to be introduced. Organizational requirements, therefore, should become considerations of equal importance to systems designers. The ESPRIT Project ORDIT (organizational requirements definition for information technology) has developed a methodology which identifies and operationalizes organizational requirements for IT systems. This paper presents a case study in which the ORDIT concepts are applied to the process of introducing an IT system into a courtroom.