A Learning Oriented Approach for Organizational Development Requirements

Abstract

In an organizational environment, deciding on features of a new software system is challenging to realize the required behavior in the context of human activity. Requirements indicate what users need from the system and is described in terms of its effect in the environment. In requirements development, it is essential to make a software system fit-to-purpose and context. But, organizational situation in developing nations is by far complex due to lack of having standard practices, variability of employees' knowledge, and challenges in management. Hence, to address software requirements in this kind of organizational context, software projects need to assess 'suitable' learning oriented approaches. On the other hand, the value of software applications in supporting organizational processes critically depends on how well the business goals are satisfied. Goal oriented activities are profound metrics for the success of organizational systems. Indeed, the motive of this research was to study challenges and opportunities in organizational requirements development so as to enhance collaborative learning. To achieve this, an attempt was made to investigate ideas of collaborative learning to understand organizational context and design a technique that support learning.

To do this, a qualitative research approach is employed. It was aimed to study the practice and identify the challenges and opportunities. The research methods used were survey using structured open-ended interview to study requirements development practice at six public universities of Ethiopia and an empirical case study in Addis Ababa University (AAU).

The proposed ontology based learning oriented approach for organizational requirements development is a comprehensive approach and it enables to explore organizational situation. It is also a cyclic approach to make use of organizational ontology to support learning.