Using Ethnographic Techniques to Describe Requirements Engineering Processes in Geographic Information Systems Workgroups

Luis Fernando Medina Cardona

2007

Abstract

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are a relevant field in Information Systems. However GIS applications are hard to develop given the disciplinary heterogeneity of GIS working groups. This paper presents the initial results of a qualitative study conducted to describe the GIS community requirements processes and needs. Ethnographic techniques are being used to achieve this goal. Ethnography is a discipline taken from social sciences that puts a strong emphasis on the Field Work and for this reason its conceptual framework and tools are presented. Applied through field work in different GIS scenarios as government offices, private consultants, NGOs1 and academy the obtained results are described allowing the identification of clue features related to requirements engineering for GIS applications. Finally, the conclusion includes reflections on the Ethnographic techniques and considerations (such as to extend UML) to design better methodologies for GIS-RE.

References

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Paper Citation


in Harvard Style

Fernando Medina Cardona L. (2007). Using Ethnographic Techniques to Describe Requirements Engineering Processes in Geographic Information Systems Workgroups . In Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Modelling, Simulation, Verification and Validation of Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 1: MSVVEIS, (ICEIS 2007) ISBN 978-972-8865-95-5, pages 169-174. DOI: 10.5220/0002433701690174


in Bibtex Style

@conference{msvveis07,
author={Luis Fernando Medina Cardona},
title={Using Ethnographic Techniques to Describe Requirements Engineering Processes in Geographic Information Systems Workgroups},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Modelling, Simulation, Verification and Validation of Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 1: MSVVEIS, (ICEIS 2007)},
year={2007},
pages={169-174},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0002433701690174},
isbn={978-972-8865-95-5},
}


in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Modelling, Simulation, Verification and Validation of Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 1: MSVVEIS, (ICEIS 2007)
TI - Using Ethnographic Techniques to Describe Requirements Engineering Processes in Geographic Information Systems Workgroups
SN - 978-972-8865-95-5
AU - Fernando Medina Cardona L.
PY - 2007
SP - 169
EP - 174
DO - 10.5220/0002433701690174