Requirements development in user-centred system design

Abstract

The aim is to draw attention to three important issues. First and most importantly, we emphasise that a user-centred design approach of system development should involve understanding user requirements and the context of system use. To systematically arrive at a set of complete and accurate system requirements, the process of requirements engineering should, thus, be an integral part of the user-centred design process of system development. Next, we discuss that requirements engineering is not a single step in the system development lifecycle but it is a process of requirements development which involves eliciting and validating requirements, and takes into account the emerging requirements during the activities of domain analysis, requirements exploration, system analysis and design. Finally, we propose a scenario-based approach to develop requirements. Scenarios enable equal participation of designers and users, facilitate communication and help capture the context of system use in a narrative descriptive format that the involved participants can comprehend and interpret.