This chapter describes a requirement analysis framework that may be used as a tool for developing client-server systems for mobile workers. The framework concerns the initial analysis process for the development of a mobile system starting by describing scenarios of the work of mobile workers and resulting in a description of priorities both nonfunctional and functional requirements of the end-system. The framework describes a three step requirement process that includes 1) Elicit scenarios, 2) Scenario analysis, and 3) Requirement analysis. These steps will produce outputs that will be used to assess the requirements of the system. The requirement analysis process is described in detail through templates used to produce output and illustrating examples from the analysis of the development of mobile ITsupport system.
TopIntroduction
The development in mobile computing has changed the way we communicate and work. Mobile phones, smart phones, and PDAs, whose computing capacities become more and more powerful in terms of processing speed, storage capacity and operating time, have become necessary tools through functionality such as SMS, calendars, and WAP-browsers. The more powerful mobile devices have made it possible to create software systems for mobile workers that can better support and also improve their work processes. Such systems typically consist of various mobile clients connected to a server. They provide the mobile worker with information related to the running of planned tasks, and opportunities for filling in forms and reports on various locations, while being on the move.
At the same time, many wireless network technologies are also developed and deployed, for example, Bluetooth, wireless USB, wireless LAN or Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). Many mobile devices can communicate with other electronic devices in the working environment, making it possible to make measurements and take advantage of services in the work environment through wireless communication. The environment for accessing and processing information is rapidly changing from stationary to mobile and location independent. This new work environment, called the mobile work environment, allows people to work in flexible and efficient ways.
A mobile environment is different from traditional distributed environments due to its unique characteristics such as the mobility of users or computers, the limitation of computing capacity of mobile devices, and the frequent and unpredictable disconnection of wireless networks (Forman & Zahorjan, 1994; Satyanarayanan, 1996). Therefore, development of mobile systems is different from development of distributed systems. In other words, when designing a mobile system, we have to overcome challenges due to physical mobility of the clients, the portability features of mobile devices and the fact that the communication is wireless. Thus, it is important that these issues are examined carefully when considering the system requirements, in terms of both functional and nonfunctional requirements. As defined in Sindhgatta and Thonse (2005), (IEEE), functional requirements include all the logical and specific behaviours of a system, while nonfunctional requirements concern the overall characteristics of the system-like performance, reliability and security. Note that, in mobile systems, the nonfunctional requirements play vital roles in system development.
We have developed a requirement analysis framework that examines important issues to be considered when designing and developing such mobile systems. The framework concerns the initial analysis process in the development of a mobile system starting by describing scenarios of the work of the mobile workers1, and resulting in a description of priority, nonfunctional and functional requirements of the end-system.
In this chapter, we will describe the MOWAHS analysis framework consisting of a process, the characterisation of scenarios, computation of complexity indicators, and determination of nonfunctional and functional requirements. One important goal of this framework is to identify the parts that are most complex and perhaps hardest to implement in a mobile support system. The framework has previously been successfully used to analyse mobile scenarios such as mobile journalists, mobile researchers and m-learning (Ramampiaro, Wang, et al., 2003) to compare their characteristics. The framework has also been used to develop a mobile IT-support system (Wang, Sørensen, et al., 2005).
Our framework is aimed at development of systems for supporting any kind of mobile workers, like craftsmen, salesmen, emergency staff, police, public transportation drivers, and service staff. For system developers, we expect that they have a basic knowledge of software engineeringsoftware engineering for he/she to be able to use our MOWAHS framework to derive the requirements. This includes knowledge of all relevant phases in a software development life cycle (e.g., the waterfall model and the like). Knowledge of UML would also be useful.