Can requirements be creative? Experiences with an enhanced air space management system

Requirements engineering is a creative process in which stakeholders work together to create ideas for new software systems that are eventually expressed as requirements. This paper reports a workshop that integrated creativity techniques with different types of use case and system context modeling to discover stakeholder requirements for EASM, a future air space management software system to enable the more effective, longer-term planning of UK and European airspace use. The workshop was successful in that it provided a range of outputs that were later assessed for their novelty and usefulness in the final specification of the EASM software. The paper describes the workshop structure, gives examples of outputs from it, and uses these results to answer 2 research questions about the utility of creativity techniques and workshops that had not been answered in previous research

Use and Influence of Creative Ideas and Requirements for a Work-Integrated Learning System

In this paper, we describe a creativity workshop that was used in a large research project, called APOSDLE, to generate creative ideas and requirements for a work-integrated learning system. We present an analysis of empirical data collected during and after the workshop. On the basis of this analysis, we conclude that the work-shop was an efficient way of generating ideas for future system development. These ideas, on average, were used at least as much as requirements from other sources in writing use cases, and 18 months after the workshop were seen to have a similar degree of influence on the project to other requirements. We make some observations about the use of more and less creative ideas, and about the techniques used to generate them. We end with suggestions for further work

Extending Agile Processes with Creativity Techniques

Agile processes seek just-enough requirements. However, this focus on simple software solutions can be at the expense of ones that meet more creative requirements. To explore alternatives, this paper reports the extension of one agile process with creativity techniques in a project in a large media organization. Domain experts ranked the requirements generated with the process as more novel than baseline epics from the product backlog of the same project, while usefulness of the requirements increased overall after incubation over the duration of a sprint

Into the future : inspiring and stimulating users\u27 creativity

This paper proposes a new approach to engaging and stimulating users in the requirements analysis process when developing a new information system &ndash; an ICT innovation for business. The approach is based on a synthesis of a constructivist learning theory and a creativity education theory. In contrast to previous approaches in which the systems analyst elicits requirements from the user, in the proposed approach, the user is engaged and stimulated to become a proactive and creative learner in the process of identifying and discovering their business problem as well as exploring opportunities to apply ICT innovations to solve the problem.Two experiential digital simulations are described as a proof of concept to demonstrate the proposed approach a learning environment. Learning from the case study suggests that both systems analyst and business users can be stimulated to be active learners in their discovery of problem, creative ideas and problem solutions in requirements elicitation and discovery.<br /

DREAMER : a Design Rationale Environment for Argumentation, Modeling and Engineering Requirements

International audienceRequirements engineering for interactive systems remains a cumbersome task still under-supported by notations, development processes and tools. Indeed, in the field of HCI, the most common practice is to perform user testing to assess the compatibility between the designed system and its intended user. Other approaches such as scenario-based design promote a design process based on the analysis of the actual use of a technology in and activities. Some of them also support a critical element in the development of interactive systems: creativity]. However, these approaches do not provide any support for a) the definition of a set of requirements that have to be fulfilled by the system under design and b) as a consequence for assessing which of these requirements are actually embedded in the system and which ones have been discarded (traceability and coverage aspects). This paper proposes a tool-supported notation for addressing these problems of traceability and coverage of both requirements and design options during the development process of interactive systems. These elements are additionally integrated within a more global approach aiming at providing notations and tools for supporting a rationalized design of interactive systems following a model-based approach. Our approach combines and extends previous work on rational design and requirements engineering. The current contribution, DREAMER, makes possible to relate design options with both functional and non functional requirements. The approach is illustrated by real size case study from large civil aircraft cockpit applications

Creative User-Centered Visualization Design for Energy Analysts and Modelers

We enhance a user-centered design process with techniques that deliberately promote creativity to identify opportunities for the visualization of data generated by a major energy supplier. Visualization prototypes developed in this way prove effective in a situation whereby data sets are largely unknown and requirements open – enabling successful exploration of possibilities for visualization in Smart Home data analysis. The process gives rise to novel designs and design metaphors including data sculpting. It suggests: that the deliberate use of creativity techniques with data stakeholders is likely to contribute to successful, novel and effective solutions; that being explicit about creativity may contribute to designers developing creative solutions; that using creativity techniques early in the design process may result in a creative approach persisting throughout the process. The work constitutes the first systematic visualization design for a data rich source that will be increasingly important to energy suppliers and consumers as Smart Meter technology is widely deployed. It is novel in explicitly employing creativity techniques at the requirements stage of visualization design and development, paving the way for further use and study of creativity methods in visualization design

Metodología para especificación de requisitos en proyectos de explotación de información

Este proyecto tiene como objetivo general definir una metodología de educción de requisitos para proyectos de explotación de información que permita ser integral al ciclo de vida de este tipo de proyectos. Se considera que el proyecto implica investigación básica en la definición del proceso de educción de requisitos de este tipo de proyectos.Eje: Ingeniería de Software y Base de DatosRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Metodología para especificación de requisitos en proyectos de explotación de información

Este proyecto tiene como objetivo general definir una metodología de educción de requisitos para proyectos de explotación de información que permita ser integral al ciclo de vida de este tipo de proyectos. Se considera que el proyecto implica investigación básica en la definición del proceso de educción de requisitos de este tipo de proyectos.Eje: Ingeniería de Software y Base de DatosRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Metodología para especificación de requisitos en proyectos de explotación de información

Este proyecto tiene como objetivo general definir una metodología de educción de requisitos para proyectos de explotación de información que permita ser integral al ciclo de vida de este tipo de proyectos. Se considera que el proyecto implica investigación básica en la definición del proceso de educción de requisitos de este tipo de proyectos.Eje: Ingeniería de Software y Base de Dato