Towards Sustainable Requirements Elicitation from a Values Capability Perspective: A Pervasive Health Monitoring Case Study Juliana Hamka Kamaroddin Maria Angela Ferrario Fakulti Sains Komputer dan Matematik School of Computing and Communications Universiti Teknologi MARA Lancaster University Malaysia Lancaster, UK juliana@fskm.uitm.edu.my m.a.ferrario@lancaster.ac.uk Abstract—Research shows that there are several dimensions to Human freedom is what people perceive as their ability to sustainability requirements, including the aspect of social sus- make their own selection and decision towards fulfilling their tainability, which we argue is under-represented in Requirements needs, which depends on other determinants such as social and Engineering (RE) literature. In line with Sen’s Capability Ap- economic arrangements (e.g. private or public access to proach (CA) we contend that it is necessary to depart from a healthcare) as well as political and civil rights (e.g. the right to definition of (social) sustainable development that is solely fo- cused on the fulfilment of needs, and expand it with the notion of vote) [5]. human capability – which is intended as “the freedom to lead lives Sen’s Capability Approach (CA) states that for a society to that people today and in the future value”. Within this context, we be sustainable one should have the capability to be healthy by observe that software systems can either expand or restrict hu- his or her own choice e.g. the freedom to access health ‘ena- man capabilities, and that requirements elicitation as the first blers’ (e.g. doctors, good food, clean water). Hence, building step in RE, holds the promises for exploring and addressing this on the Bruntland’s report definition of sustainability, Sen de- tension in systems design. The aim of this paper is twofold: to fines (social) sustainability as “the freedom to lead lives that look at how the requirements elicitation process of values can (i) people today and in the future value” [5, 6]. Values – whether support the design of software systems that expand human capa- financial, material, ethical or spiritual, are deep-seated beliefs bilities and (ii) identify system designs that restrict such capabili- ties. We explore this question within a case study on eye-tracking and guiding principles influencing our decision-making pro- technology for pervasive health monitoring. cesses as groups, individuals, and organizations [7]. In this Index Terms—values, sustainability requirements, capability paper, we adopt Sen’s notion of social sustainability and relate approach, requirements elicitation, requirements engineering, it to values in RE and SE work [7, 8]. Requirements elicitation pervasive health monitoring, digital health. plays a fundamental role in capturing not only user needs, but their values and aspirations before being developed as soft- I. INTRODUCTION ware systems requirements. Requirements Engineering (RE) is considered the most The aim of this paper is to look at how values requirements crucial stage in a life cycle of sustainable system development. elicitation can (i) assist practitioners in designing software or It determines the key leverage points for practitioners who systems that enable human capabilities and (ii) identify system want to develop sustainable software-intensive system [1]. designs that inhibit such capabilities. This investigation is Venters et al. [1] have identified that current RE and Software done by mapping values derived from the requirements elicita- Engineering (SE) practices touch on several dimensions of tion process conducted for a pervasive health monitoring pro- sustainable requirements to include: environmental, economic, ject to the capabilities that the technology may support or hin- social, and technical [2]. We argue that the aspect of social der. sustainability (intended as social sustainable development) is II. CASE STUDY under represented in the current literature, yet is the key for Our case study is a pervasive health monitoring system the design of sustainable socio-technical systems. that we envision will detect early signs of cognitive health We suggest to extend the notion of sustainability beyond its most accepted definition as the “capacity to endure” [3], which is largely based on the Bruntland report’s definition of sustainable development as fulfilment of needs [4]. As a result, the concept of social sustainability emphasizes the needs but Measuring hand-eye Stimulating and testing eye movement not the freedom to address such needs, hence our suggestion is coordination in physical embedded with watching and control of a routines (image source: J. Turner) TV to include Sen’s notion of freedoms as human capabilities. Fig.1. MODEM a pervasive eye tracking for embedded cognitive assessment Copyright © 2017 for the individual papers by the papers' authors. Copying permitted for private and academic purposes. This volume is published and copyrighted by its editors. decline e.g. dementia, among older adults known as MODEM • “It really bugs me … basic • “ We thought it was very im- monitoring system … do you portant that you didn’t just get (Monitoring of Dementia using Eye Movements) [9, 10] as trust the systems work? Do you a letter when you got dementia illustrated in Figure 1. MODEM uses eye tracking technology Honesty trust the people that are that you’d need to get regular operating the system?” feedback so you don’t fear and currently is still under development. Its vision is to • “Do you trust, do you believe anything coming” capture the eye’s movement and the people’s behaviour in the that the outcomes are going to natural and relaxed mode in a home environment setting, with be what they say?” the natural ambience and unnoticeable technologies while they are watching TV and making tea. IV. CONCLUDING REMARKS We anticipate that when MODEM is realized, people may It can be observed that participants perceived the benefits become more aware of their cognitive health condition. If of MODEM as a technology that is capable to monitor their people value independence (as the capability to conduct their cognitive health condition notwithstanding several concerns live independently, i.e. live on their own in their own homes) about freedom, security, honesty and wealth values. We and trust the system in identifying early signs of cognitive understand that there are barriers to acceptance, but equally decline, then they may be likely to perceive MODEM as a there are indications on how these barriers can be addressed. technology that can support their value (independence). If The design of the technology must critically reflect and privacy is what they value most, then MODEM may be seen address these barriers as requirements to better understand as an intrusive technology that restricts their private life and what are the true enablers and inhibitors in socio-technical they may be more prone to reject the idea of this technology. systems design. III. METHODOLOGY AND EMERGING FINDINGS V. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The work described in this paper is funded by EPSRC pro- We conducted two requirements elicitation workshops and ject EP/M006255/1 Monitoring Of Dementia using Eye recruited 12 and 10 healthy older adults aged between 60 to 80 Movements (MODEM). years old in each workshop. A slide presentation of pervasive home monitoring scenario was presented to engage the REFERENCES participants in discussion about MODEM. We then conducted [1] Venters, C. C. et al. (2017, May). Characterising sustainability brainstorming sessions to elicit values that evolve from their requirements: A new species, red herring, or just an odd fish? In acceptance level towards MODEM. The workshop sessions Proceedings of the 39th International Conference on Software were audio-recorded and transcribed. Engineering: Software Engineering in Society Track (pp. 3-12). 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