Process Support for Agile Requirements Modeling and Maintenance of E-Projects

Process support for the development and maintenance of e-projects in organizations is increasingly important because systems evolve and become entwined with other systems. The focus of this paper is on support that enables constant updating of requirements after an initial set of requirements has been produced. An approach termed Up-front Requirements Modeling for E-projects (URME) aims to provide a process-based approach enabling organizations to react in a timely and appropriate fashion to changing circumstances. It empowers stakeholders to maintain and improve information systems and the services that these systems offer. In particular the paper reports on modifying URME to include a Collaboration Engineering (CE) technique known as thinkLets. Inclusion of thinkLet-based process designs allows for codification and promises re-use of group processes. The paper reports on experiences of applying thinkLets in an existing local government e-project in Alexandria, Egypt. The experience suggests that collaboration engineering concepts such as thinkLets are a suitable extension to URME and can support agile information systems development and maintenance. The research packages and codifies collaboration tasks enabling the potential transfer of competencies like the design and execution of goal oriented meetings. The CE component in the URME approach is needed to empower stakeholders to undertake key collaborative processes that support the achievement of agility and emergence in information systems-based organizations.