Modeling and eliciting organizational and information system requirements

Area of Science:

• Information Systems
• Organizational Behavior
• Sociotechnical Systems

Background:

• Organizational development is significantly influenced by technologies like computers that mediate social relationships.
• Increasing computer adoption aims for organizational efficiency and competitiveness, yet these systems embed social values and power dynamics.
• Safety-critical systems, such as medical information systems, necessitate explicit identification of both technical and social values during requirements specification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a modeling framework for encapsulating and analyzing the social and technical aspects of organizational information systems.
• To develop a modeling language and notation for analyzing static and dynamic organizational models and behavior.
• To apply the conceptual modeling framework to a case study in a hospital's accident and emergency department.

Main Methods:

• Development of a conceptual modeling framework.
• Construction of a modeling language and notation.
• Analysis of organizational and organizational behavior models using concepts like role and responsibility.
• Application of the framework to a case study in a Dublin hospital's accident and emergency department.

Main Results:

• A framework is presented for analyzing sociotechnical aspects of information systems.
• The modeling language and notation facilitate the analysis of organizational dynamics.
• The case study demonstrates the practical application of the framework in a real-world setting.

Conclusions:

• Recognizing computers as instruments of power and encapsulators of social values is vital for information system development.
• The proposed modeling framework aids in making explicit and analyzing the interplay of social and technical values.
• This approach is particularly important for safety-critical systems, ensuring comprehensive requirements capture.