Specifying the requirements for requirements specification: the case for Work Domain and Worker Competencies Analyses

This article presents an argument for the applicability of Cognitive Work Analysis (CWA), particularly Work Domain and Worker Competencies Analyses, in supporting the requirements specification process for the acquisition of bespoke, socio-technical systems. We argue that the outputs of CWA should be included within requirements specification documents as they provide a comprehensive system model, in terms of constraints, opportunities and functional relationships, that would not be possible to represent in the current style of text-based requirements documents, and that communicating required system architectures to system designers is more effective using the graphical-based representations of CWA than by text alone. We also argue that the collaborative and iterative process of conducting a CWA should be continually performed throughout the acquisition cycle, involving Human Factors specialists, prospective end-users and subject matter experts.