Requirements Engineering for Groupware to Manage Business Process Dynamics and Stakeholders' Mindset

Process control in dynamic environments is most vulnerable to changes in business models. If under time critical conditions, a group decision support system causes air traffic collision or nuclear meltdown, the call for speeded decision processes may increase. However, higher negotiation speed among operators and decision makers may inherit decision inaccuracy as well, rendering the control process error prone. After a serious accident, the choices that are made for an improved software application depend on the business model en vogue. Time is money in an era of market oriented organizations (public and commercial), a business goal that directs the speed aspect of control system development. If saving lives at all costs is the core business of an organization, the accuracy aspect may be emphasized. Additionally, business goals change as a function of the mindset of workforce and managers. A big event such as a financial crisis or an accident changes the importance and attitude that stakeholders of a system attach to, for example, air traffic or nuclear power. We want to provide an overview of the state of the art that is exhibited in CSAPC 2003 and connect it to a general model of business goals and processes that direct human-machine system requirements. We do so by arguing that requirements change is a function of personal and business goals and related business processes of the worker/manager and the team. That is, requirements change of process control systems is a function of the dynamics in business models, which is regulated by the stakeholders' mindset in terms of relevance and valence toward internal and external events (cf. (2)).