Requirements engineering for human activity systems

The paper explores the use of requirements engineering techniques and principles for the description of social systems. The scope is limited to only defining requirements for the system-of-interest, thus excluding any attempt to design the system. The requirements engineering domain is briefly investigated to identify the applicable techniques and principles. Systems theory and soft systems methodology are investigated to understand how social systems are currently described and analysed. To demonstrate how requirements engineering and social systems may be unified, the example of an illustrative health care system is used. The paper concludes with the finding that it is a valid approach to use requirements to describe desired characteristics of social systems, for the purpose of giving context and enabling the systems engineering of elements of social systems. © 2014 International Council on Systems Engineering.