Using activity theory in analyzing requirements for mobile phone application

Abstract

System analyst often faced difficulties in articulating user's need into software requirements due to the lack of framework emphasizing on socio-technical systems. Activity Theory is a theory that focuses the human practices of development process, both the individual and social levels. It provides a comprehensive unit of analysis of the objects to be studied. This paper describes a case study involving the use of Activity Theory to analyze requirements comprehensively for a mobile ticketing solution. The research starts by eliciting the requirements using survey, observation and content analysis method, analyzing them and then mapping them into activity diagrams. To present the requirements in a detailed manner, decomposition of activities is being done before demonstrating the system features using graphical user interface. The result of this paper shows the application of Activity Theory that is ideally suited to handle mobile application requirements.