Integrating ethnography into the requirements engineering process

Abstract

This paper reports on experiences of an interdisciplinary project involving software engineers and sociologists. The project is concerned with discovering the requirements for a user interface to a flight database which is used to provide real-time information to air traffic controllers. The sociologists are conducting an ethnographic analysis of the activity of air traffic control and this is being used to inform the development of a prototype system. The paper gives an overview of the project, discusses how sociologists can contribute to requirements engineering and suggests tool support which will allow ethnographic observations to be integrated into the requirements engineering process.