requirements for project management
john cena
Ethnography.pptx
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GCIS 514
Requirements and Project Management
Ethnography
Richard Lamb, MS
Ethnography (Observation)
A social scientist spends a considerable time observing and analysing how people actually work.
People do not have to explain or articulate their work.
Ethnography, simply stated, is the study of people in their own environment through the use of methods such as participant observation and face-to-face interviewing. ...
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Ethnography (Observation)
Social and organisational factors of importance may be observed.
Ethnographic studies have shown that work is usually richer and more complex than suggested by simple system models.
Ethnography, simply stated, is the study of people in their own environment through the use of methods such as participant observation and face-to-face interviewing. ...
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Scope of ethnography
Requirements that are derived from the way that people actually work rather than the way in which process definitions suggest that they ought to work.
Scope of ethnography
Requirements that are derived from cooperation and awareness of other people’s activities.
Awareness of what other people are doing leads to changes in the ways in which we do things.
Scope of ethnography
Ethnography is effective for understanding existing processes but cannot identify new features that should be added to a system.
Focused ethnography
Developed in a project studying the air traffic control process
Combines ethnography with prototyping
Focused ethnography
Prototype development results in unanswered questions which focus the ethnographic analysis.
The problem with ethnography is that it studies existing practices which may have some historical basis which is no longer relevant.
Observation and Related Techniques (1)
Observation
Get into the trenches and observe specialists “in the wild”
Shadow important potential users as they do their work
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Observation and Related Techniques (1)
Observation
Initially observe silently (otherwise you may get biased information)
Ask user to explain everything he or she is doing
Session videotaping
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Observation and Related Techniques (1)
Observation
Ethnography also attempts to discover social, human, and political factors, which may also impact requirements
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Observation and Related Techniques (2)
Can be supplemented later with questionnaires
Based on what you know now – the results of observation
To answer questions that need comparison or corroboration (confirmation)
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Observation and Related Techniques (2)
Can be supplemented later with questionnaires
To obtain some statistics from a large number of users (look for statistical significance!), e.g.:
How often do you use feature X?
What are the three features you would most like to see?
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Observation and Related Techniques (2)
Can be supplemented later with questionnaires
Can be supplemented later with interviews
After getting a better idea of what is to be done, probably some questions require more detailed answers
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Observation and Related Techniques (2)
Can be supplemented later with questionnaires
Can be supplemented later with interviews
You will not be wasting other people's time or your own
This is very labour intensive!
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Ethnography – Overview (1)
Comes from anthropology, literally means "writing the culture"
Essentially seeks to explore the human factors and social organization of activities understand work
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Ethnography – Overview (1)
Studies have shown that work is often richer and more complex than is suggested by simple models derived from interviews
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Ethnography – Overview (1)
Social scientists are trained in observation and work analysis
Discoveries are made by observation and analysis, workers are not asked to explain what they do
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Ethnography – Overview (1)
Collect what is ordinary/what is it that people do (aim at making the implicit explicit)
Study the context of work and watch work being done
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Ethnography – Overview (2)
Useful to discover for example
What does a nuclear technician do during the day?
What does his workspace look like?
Less useful to explore political factors
Workers are aware of the presence of an outside observer
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Ethnography – Example (1)
Sommerville et al. were involved in a project where they had to elicit the requirements of an air traffic control system
They observed the air traffic controllers in action with the existing system
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Ethnography – Example (1)
Surprising observations
Controllers often put aircrafts on potentially conflicting headings with the intention of fixing them later
System generates an audible alarm when there is a possible conflict
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Ethnography – Example (1)
Surprising observations
The controllers close the alarms because they are annoyed by the constant warnings
Incorrect conclusion
The controllers do not like audible alarms because they close them
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Ethnography – Example (1)
Surprising observations
The controllers close the alarms because they are annoyed by the constant warnings
More accurate observation
The controllers do not like being treated like idiots
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Ethnography – Example (2)
Dealers at a stock exchange write tickets to record deals with old-fashioned paper/pencil method
It was suggested to replace this with touch screens and headphones for efficiency and to eliminate distracting noise
Source: Preece, Rogers, and Sharp “Interaction Design: Beyond human-computer interaction”
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Ethnography – Example (2)
Study found that the observation of other dealers is crucial to the way deals are done
Market position was affected if deals were not continuously monitored
Source: Preece, Rogers, and Sharp “Interaction Design: Beyond human-computer interaction”
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Ethnography – Example (2)
Study found that the observation of other dealers is crucial to the way deals are done
Even if only peripheral monitoring takes place
“Improvements" would have destroyed the very means of communication among dealers
Source: Preece, Rogers, and Sharp “Interaction Design: Beyond human-computer interaction”
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Ethnography and prototyping for requirements analysis
