AUTHORS: Azham Bin Hussain, Emmanuel O. C. Mkpojiogu

Download as PDF

ABSTRACT: Several software requirements elicitation techniques exist and are used in the elicitation of software requirements. However, most of the techniques are limited in that they are only effective in capturing the voice of the customer/user. They are not effective in capturing their mind. There are some kinds of requirements that stakeholders take for granted, not expecting or are not apt to voice out. Such requirements need special requirements elicitation approaches that will probe the psychology of the respondents so as to succinctly collect the needed requirements from them were necessary. Kano model provides a framework that enables the elicitation of these kinds of requirements. More so, it allows appropriate requirements to be elicited that will lead to the satisfaction of stakeholders if the requirements are met or to their dissatisfaction if they are unmet. It categorizes software requirements based on some quality attributes that describes the kind of requirements elicited. The Kano approach also, helps to obtain the perceived quality of the proposed product from the customer/users’ point of view. This method helps to filter out requirements that do not lead to the satisfaction of stakeholders and thus the quality of elicited requirements and the proposed software solution. Kano method, though popular in the interdisciplinary field of quality management, is seldom applied in the field of software engineering, especially in requirements elicitation. In this study, the Kano method was applied in the elicitation of requirements for a proposed e-Ebola Awareness System. The result of the Kano analysis indicated that the elicitation of stakeholders’ satisfying requirements leads to increase in the satisfaction level of potential users/customers of the would-be product. It also indicated improvement in the perceived quality of such product from the viewpoint of the potential users/customers as shown from the customer satisfaction coefficients and the self-stated importance ratings.

KEYWORDS: Requirements Elicitation, User Satisfaction, Kano Model, e-Ebola Awareness System, Health

REFERENCES:

[1] X. Ji, S.A. Chun, and J. Geller. Social Infobuttons: Integrating Open Health Data with Social Data using Semantic Technology, SWIM’13: Proceedings of the 5th Workshop on Semantic Web Information Management, New York, USA, June 23, 2013.

[2] S. Avancha, A. Baxi, and D. Kotz. Privacy in Mobile Technology for Personal Healthcare. ACM Computing Surveys, Vol.45, No.1, Article 3, November, 2012.

[3] H.W. Samuel, and O.R. Zaiane. HCMS: Conceptual Description of a Health Concept Management System, SEHC’11: Proceedings of the 3rd ACM Workshop on Software Engineering in Health Care, Waikiki, HI, May 22-23, 2011, pp.17-23

[4] M. Freudenheim. Health Care is high among Web Searches. http://www.pewinternet.org/MediaMentions/2011/NYT-health-Care-Is-HighAmong-Web-Searches.aspx. 2011, Pew Internet and American Life Project. Accessed on March 18, 2015

[5] G. Culjak. Access, Awareness and Use of Internet Self-Help Websites for Depression in University Students, 2012 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Science, HICSS’12, Maui, HI, 4-7 Jan 2012, pp. 2655- 2664

[6] S. Fox. Health Information Online. http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/156/report_d isplay.asp. Accessed on 03/18/2015, 2005, Pew Internet and American Life Project.

[7] Supply Chain Opz. How to use Kano Model for Requirement Assessment. http://www.supplychainopz.com/2013/02/kanomodel.html. Accessed on 23/02/2015

[8] E. Sauerwein, F. Bailom, K. Matzler, and H. H. Hinterhuber. The Kano Model: How to delight your customers. International Working Seminar on Production Economics, Innsbruck, Austria, Feb 19-23 1996, Vol.1, pp.313-327

[9] T. Chiang, C. Yi and C. Cheng. An Empirical Study of Applying Kano Model and TRIZ Business Evolution Trends to Improve ECommerce Service Quality. 2013 IEEE International Conference on Service Operations and Logistics, and Informatics, Dongguan, 28-30 July 2013, pp.340-344

[10] K.C. Tan, and X.X Shen. Integrating Kano’s Model in the Planning Matrix of Quality Function Deployment. Total Quality Management and Business Excellence , Vol.11, No.8, 2000, pp.1141-1151

[11] K.C. Tan and T.A. Pawitra. Integrating SERVQUAL and Kano’s Model into QFD for Service Excellence Development, Managing Service Quarterly, Vol.11, No.6, 2001, pp.418- 430

[12] G. Tontini. Integrating the Kano Model and QFD for Designing New Products, Total Quality Management and Business Excelence, Vol.18, No.6, 2007, pp.599-612

[13] N. Kano, N. Seraku, F. Takahashi, and S. Tsuji. Attractive Quality and Must-Be Quality, The Journal of the Japanese Society of Quality Control, Vol.41, No.2, 1984, pp.39-48

[14] K. Matzler and H.H. Hinterhuber. How to make Product Development Projects more Successful by Integrating Kano’s Model of Customer Satisfaction into Quality Function Deployment, Technovation, Vol.18, No.1, 1998, pp.25-38

[15] Q. Meng and X. Jiang. A Method of Rating Customer Requirements’ Final Importance in QFD Based on Quantitative Kano Model, IEEE 2011 International Conference on Service Systems and Service Management, Tianjin, 25-27 June 2011, pp.1-6

[16] A. Chaudha, R. Jain, A.R. Singh, and P.K. Mishra. Integration of Kano’s Model into Quality Function Deployment (QFD), IJAMT, Vol.53, Issue 5-8, March 2011, pp.689-698

[17] K. Zokaei and P. Hines, Achieving Customer Focus in Supply Chains, International Journal of Physical Distribution and Logistics Management, Vol.37, No.3, 2007, pp.223-247

[18] Z. Li-li, H. Lian-feng, and S. Qin-ying, Research on Requirement for High-Quality Model of Extreme Programming. 2011 International Conference on Information Management, Innovation Management and Industrial Engineering (ICIII), Shenzhen, 26- 27 Nov 2011, pp.518-522

[19] J. Nunnaly, Psychometric Theory, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1978

[20] C. Kumar, and D.K. Yadav, Software defects estimation using metrics of early phases of software development life cycle. International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, Springer: India, December, 2014

[21] A. Ghazarian, Detection of missing requirements using base requirements pairs. 2013 IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering Workshops (ISSREW), Pasadena, CA, IEEE, 4-7 Nov 2013, pp. 61-80,

[22] P. Nascimento, R. Aguas, D. Schneider, and J. de Souza, An approach to requirements categorization using Kano’s model and crowds. Proceedings of 2012 IEEE International Conference on Conputer Supported Cooperative Work in Design (CSCWD),, Wuhan, IEEE, 23-25 May 2012, pp. 387-392

[23] J. Terzakis, The impact of requirements on software quality across three products generations. 2013 21st IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE), Rio de Janeiro, IEEE, 15-19 July 2013, pp. 284-289

[24] H.B. Yadav, and D.K. Yadav, Early software reliability analysis using reliability relevant software metrics. International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, Springer: India, Dec, 2014

[25] WHO, Ebola virus disease, http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs1 03/en/, Accessed on 23/09/2014

[26] United Nations, United Nations Millennium Development Goals-Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other disease, http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/aids.shtml. Accessed on 23/09/2014

[27] UN News Centre Ebola: UN crises response mission opens new office in Mali. United Nations, Nov 26, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsI D=4945#.VOAgUIfw-Uk. Accessed on 15/02/2015 .

[28] S. Locke, How to stop the Ebola outbreak, http://www.vox.com/2014/8/5/5967245/ebolaoutbreak-virus-disease-symptoms-how-stop. Accessed on 11/02/2015

[29] WHO, Dr. Sambo proposes key actions to tackle Ebola. WHO Regional Office for Africa, Nov 5, http://www.afro.who.int/en/mediacentre/pressreleases/item/7151-dr-samboproposes-key-actions-to-tackle-ebola.html. Accessed on 15/02/2015

[30] WHO, Working with communities in Gueckedou for better understanding of Ebola, July, 2014 http://www.who.int/features/2014/communities -gueckedou/en/. . Accessed on 11/02/2015

[31] G. Lubinski, and A. Oppitz, Applying the Kano model in mobile services world: A report from the frontline. 2012 8th International Conference on the Quality of Information and Communication Technology (QUATIC), Lisbon, IEEE, 3-6 Sept 2012, pp. 161-164

[32] C. Berger, R. Blauth, D. Boger, C. Bolster, G. Burchill, W. DuMouchel, F. Pouliot, R. Richter, A. Rubinoff, D. Shen, M. Timko and D. Walden, Kano’s Methods for Understanding Customer-defined Quality, in Center for Quality Management Journal, 2(4), Fall 1993, pp.3-36

[33] R. Oliver, Satisfaction: A Behavioural Perspective of the Customer, New York, McGraw-Hill, 1997

[34] S.L. Vargo, K. Nagao, Y. He and F.W. Morgan, Satisfiers, Dissatisfiers, Criticals, and Neutals: A Review of their Relative Effects on Customer (Dis)Satisfaction, AMSR, Vol.11, No.2, 2007

[35] M.S. Garver, Best Practices in Identifying Customer-Driven Importance Opportunities, IMM, Vol.32, 2003, pp.455-466

[36] K. Matzler and E. Sauerwein, The Factor Structure of Customer Satisfaction: An Empirical Test of the Importance Grid and Penalty-Reward-Contrast Analysis, IJIM, Vol.13, No.4, 2002, pp.314-332

[37] G. Tontini and A. Silveira, Identification of Satisfaction Attributes using Competitive Analysis of the Improvement Gap, IJOPM, Vol.27, Issue 5, 2007 pp.482-500

[38] K.S. Neetu, and A.S. Pillai, A survey on global requirements elicitation issues and proposed research framework. 2013 4th IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering and Service Science (ICSESS), Beijing, China, 2013, pp.554-557.

[39] J.M. Gulard, L. Malinverni, and N.P. Burgues, Narrative-based elicitation: Orchestrating contributions from experts and children. CHIEA’14: Extended Abstrcts on Human Factors in Computing Systems,, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, ACM. April 26-May 1, 2014.

[40] S. Sharma, and S.K. Pandey, Requirements elicitation: Issues and challenges. International Conference on Computing for Sustainable Global Development ICCSGD, New Delhi, IEEE, 5-7 March 2014.

[41] R. Mohanani, P. Ralph, and B. Shreeve, Requirements fixation. ICSE 2014: Proceedings of the 36th International Conference on Software Engineering ICSE, Hyderabad: ACM, May 31-June 7, 2014, pp. 895-906

[42] H. Lai, R.P. Peng, and Y.A. Ni, A collaborative method for business process oriented requirements acquisition and refining. ICSSP: Proceedings of the 2014 International Conference on Software and System Process, ACM: NY, USA, 2014, pp. 84-93.

[43] T. Dyba, and S.D. Cruzes, Process research in requirements elicitation, 2013 IEEE 3rd International Workshop on Empirical Requirements Engineering (EmpiRE), Rio de Janeiro, 15 July 2013, pp. 36-39

[44] G. Guizzi, D. Chiocca, and E. Romano. Healthcare Lean Thinking: Simulation of an Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Advances in Computer Science. WSEAS Press, pp.394-400. ISBN: 978-1-61804-126-5.

[45] M.J. Simonette, F. Sanches, and E. Spina, Beyond Human Factors. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Communications and Information Technology. WSEAS Press. 16 December, 2009, pp.240-244. ISBN: 978- 960-146-5.

[46] R. Silhavy, P. Silhary, and Z. Prokopova, Requirements Gathering Methods in System Engineering. Recent Researches in Automatic Control, WSEAS Press, 2011, pp.105-110. ISBN: 978-61804-004-6.

[47] N.Y. Peng, W.R. Ismail, N.R. Suradi, Z. Mustafa, Z.M. Ali, R. Mohammad, and F. Ahmad. Customer Satisfaction of Light Rail Transit (LRT). WSEAS International Conference on Urban Planning and Transportation, Heraklion, Crete Island, Greece, 22-24 July, 2008, pp. 87-95. ISBN: 978-960-6766-87-9.

[48] N. Larburu, L. Windja, R.G.A. Bults, and C. Napolitano. Early phase telemedic requirements elicitation in collaboration with medical practitioners. 21st IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference. IEEE, 2013. pp. 273-276.

[49] J. Konate, A.E.K. Sahraoui, and G.L. Kofschoten. Collaboration requirement elicitation: A process-centered approach. Group Decision and Negotiation, 2013, pp.1-31

[50] V. Laporti, M.R.S. Borges, and V. Braganholo. Athena: A collaborative approach to requirement elicitation. Computers in Industry. 2009, 60, pp.367-380.

WSEAS Transactions on Business and Economics, ISSN / E-ISSN: 1109-9526 / 2224-2899, Volume 15, 2018, Art. #10, pp. 80-92


Copyright © 2018 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0