In our view, all current software engineering tools and techniques have strengths and weaknesses but very few tools provide much in the way of useful support for the critical “people-related ” (or “softer”) organisational behaviour issues critical to the successful implementation of any new process or system. In this context, activity theory would appear to have much to offer, incorporating, as it does, notions of intentionality, history, mediation, motivation, understanding, communication, culture and context. Previously, we have reported on the specification and development of a repository designed to represent process knowledge captured within an activity theory framework. Here, we extend this work by proposing a framework for a broad process modelling methodlogy designed around this repository. We take advantage of the substantial overlap between a methodlogy based on knowledge analysis of tasks (KAT) and activity theory. KAT analysis directly supports the fundamental process modelling objective of identifying what people currently do in their work within a given domain. Here our focus is on the software development process and we illustrate our approach by applying it to the change management activity within the implementation stage of the SDLC. Specifically, we present an involving the use of change anchors. These are abstract devices designed to “kick start ” change initiatives to a point where these gain sufficient credibility to sustain themselves.

Just as the social science literature is rich in models relevant to the software development process, these fields could benefit greatly from advances in knowledge representation methods used within software engineering and related disciplines. Here, we advocate the use of formal conceptual modelling techniques, commonly employed in software engineering work, for representing models and theories developed within the social sciences and, especially, management science fields. We illustrate our thesis through a brief description of an instance where a formal representation of activity theory was employed to capture critical 'softer' factors within a system development project.

this paper. 5.1 System Requirements Identified in Case Study The requirements developed for the PTE centred on the student mentoring component of their Student Management System. The aim of this subsystem is to provide student supervisor's with a mechanism that allows them guide their students in terms of the options available to them to complete NZQA qualifications. The National Qualifications Framework (NQF) is a flexible but complex structure that allows students to `mix and match' unit standards depending upon the qualification requirements, the electives chosen by the student and their particular strengths and interests. In order for supervisors to provide effective mentoring, they need to know what unit standards the student has already achieved and what other combinations of unit standards are required to successfully complete their qualification. In order to achieve this goal, the existing system requires significant modification so as to allow the NQF framework to be mapped into their database. This will enable the requirements of each qualification that the PTE delivers to be recorded into its database. Once completed, the specific requirements of a qualification can then be matched against actual student achievement and the various options available for completion could then be determined and used to guide the student

This paper proposes a new generation Computer Enhanced Systems Engineering (CESE) tool known as an Operations Concept Harbinger (OCH). The OCH is the result of the application of information management technology to solving the problem of poorly implemented requirements engineering, in particular poorly written and articulated requirements as well as the effect of changing requirements for both single systems and Systems of Systems. The OCH thus bridges the gap between the soft systems methodologies used in the early phases of the system development life cycle and the hard systems methodologies used in the construction of a system. The OCH may be thought of as a multimedia Operations Concept Document that also contains measures of effectiveness for each operational scenario. The paper also describes the experiences of prototyping the OCH for a Force Level Systems Engineering application.