Tasks and social interaction: the relevance of naturalistic analyses of conduct for requirements engineering

Methods for requirements elicitation have emphasized techniques for their elicitation and representation. The conception of tasks embodied in these methods is often vague or left implicit and generally characterized in individualistic terms. The authors draw from empirical materials to reveal the social and collaborative nature of task that is also overlooked in participative design or in attempts to elicit multiple viewpoints of an activity. Exploring the socio-interactional nature of activities leads to some radical implications for the technological design. An approach that utilizes ethnographic studies of real-world settings with detailed analysis of interactions of the participants may make an important contribution to the development of requirements method.<>