Engineering Intelligent Systems

5Designing Systems by Drawing Pictures and Telling Stories

For in Calormen, storytelling (whether the stories are true or made up) is a thing you're taught, just as English boys and girls are taught essay‐writing. The difference is that people want to hear the stories, whereas I never heard of anyone who wanted to read the essays.

(C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia)

One of those most fundamental and essential aspects of engineering and building systems is achieving full agreement with all the stakeholders on what is to be built and how it is going to work for its users. Stakeholders include not only everyone who has a vested interest in the system being developed including the intended users but also those who will fund, install, maintain, manage, and rely on the system. Gaining stakeholder agreement sounds simple enough. Can't the system architects, designers, and engineers just talk with all the stakeholders and potential users for a new system, ask them about their needs, wants, and expectations regarding the system, and merge all this information together, resulting in a clear statement from which they can work? It turns out there is much more to it.

5.1 Requirements and Stories

In the 1960s, the practice of writing lists of specific requirements was developed to capture user needs and describe system functionality. When the development of a system is be contracted by an acquiring company or organization to another, the list of requirements is often the most important ...