A Better Fit – Characterising the Stakeholders

1. A Better Fit – Characterising the Stakeholders Ian Alexander ian@scenarioplus.org.uk BPMDS at CAISE Riga 2004

2. Processes Methods before Tools before (Richard Stevens) What’s before Process? • Well, what do you have before Processes? • People, Stakeholders, that’s what. • Processes are made for People, not People for Processes. • Even more so for software tools to support processes.

3. An Algorithm for Identifying Stakeholders • Initial contact will usually indicate people to talk to, their roles and interests • Stakeholders include system users and other interested parties, eg regulators and standards bodies • Stakeholders may themselves suggest other people who ought to be consulted … Based on a paper by Helen Sharp, Requirements Engineering Process Workshop, Florence 1999

4. A first look at the Onion Model The Wider Environment The Containing System Our Our System (being developed) Our “Customers” Regulators Operators The Equipment Constraints & -ilities (standards, regulations) What they want the SYSTEM to do for them (desired results) Scenarios (how to use the equipment) Neighbouring Systems Interfaces (how they use the equipment)

5. Example Onion: Military Radar Army Intelligence (No Financial Beneficiary) Radar Operator RadioRegulator Military Commanders President, Government Radar Network (Regulator) Surrogate - on behalf of The Public (Political Beneficiary) (Normal Operator) (Functional Beneficiary) Fitter Military Procurement The Public (Negative) (MaintenanceOperator) (Purchaser) Surrogate - on behalf of Operators, etc (Developer) has a stake in the process;do you need to ensure he has a continuing stake in the product?

6. Meta-Model (1) • The World consists of • N concentric Circles, each containing those within it. (We could also distinguish Annuli, which do not contain the inner circles). A Circle is a Socio-Technical System of people, procedures, and possibly machines. • The Innermost Ring denotes the Product, Equipment, or Kit* under development. It may consist of any combination of hardware (structural, mechanical, electronic, hydraulic, electrical, …) and software. * often confusingly called the ‘System under Design’, though it normally doesn’t contain people.

7. Meta-Model (2) • Stakeholder Slots occur in any Circle. A Slot may be empty, or may contain any number of • Roles, stereotypical sets of tasks meant to achieve a useful purpose. A Role may be played by any number of named human beings (typically paid to do so). They are • Stakeholders, who may hold positive or negative Viewpoints on the System. An interfacing device is not a Stakeholder, but must be represented by a sentient being (currently necessarily human, though an android might do). • A Viewpoint is a textual description of the opinion and attitude of a Stakeholder to a System. It forms the initial basis for identifying Goals and Requirements.

8. Example Onion: Portable Music Player “The Market” Executive, Shareholder 1 Stakeholder, 2 Roles One Person (Financial Beneficiary) QualityRegulator “Users” “User” Portable Music Player (Regulator) Surrogate - on behalf of The Public (No Political Beneficiary) (Normal Operator) (Functional Beneficiary) ProductManager (No MaintenanceOperator) The Public (Negative) (Purchaser) Surrogate - on behalf of “Users” (Developer)

9. So, What is a ‘User’? • a user of what? • clearly, it’s a role from the point of view of the machine! “Is the user a computer peripheral?” Professor Julian Hilton “Even the word 'users' is an artefact of the [command-and-control] mentality.” Christopher Locke, The ClueTrain Manifesto • ‘User’ seems to be a hybrid role, typical with mass-market electronics products, where one person is simultaneously purchaser, operator, functional beneficiary, & often maintainer • That isn’t a good place from which to start generalising about stakeholders and their roles!

10. Putting the Model to Work • The onion-model has an immediate impact on the eliciting of Stakeholders’ • Viewpoints, • Business Processes, and • Requirements • Different techniques are needed to gather knowledge from such different kinds of people

11. Eliciting from Operational Roles NeighbouringSystems (Interfaces) (Benefits) Equipment under design (Operations) • Interviews • Scenario Workshops • Working as an Operator • Observation & Fieldwork (Maintenance)

12. (Interfaces) NeighbouringSystems Our System Equipment under Design Normal Operator Operations Manager MaintenanceOperator So, what’s an Actor? • A terrible name for ‘Operational Role’? (Sw. Aktör is an abstract borrowing from Fr. Acteur – borrowing always shifts meaning) • Consider the onion diagram below. • Both the human roles in the ‘Our System’ circle are clearly ‘Actors’, interacting directly with the Equipment under Design. • But so are any Neighbouring Systems that have interfaces, whether human or machine. • What about the Operations Manager? Clearly he/she can take on any Operator role if need arises, but normally contact with the equipment is indirect. Conclusion: Actors essentially play only direct (equipment-touching) roles in the Our System Circle.

13. NeighbouringSystem System under design Operator Maintenance Eliciting from Non-Operational Roles (Political Impact) • Lobbying • Legislation • Safety Cases • Standards • Negotiations Government Mass Market (Safety, Quality) (Effectiveness, Ease of Use, Cost) Regulator • Market Surveys • Prototypes • Trials • Analogous Products • Competitors • Observation & Fieldwork (Negative Impact) The Public • Public Meetings • Focus Workshops • Questionnaires

14. “Typical Consumer” “SalariedAuthority” (small)sample officialvoice e.g. PDA user, car driver e.g. SafetyRegulator The large (unreachable) Population present-for-futureanalogue professionalinterpretation “Operator ofCurrent Product” “ProjectIntermediary” e.g. soldier, pilot, railway signaller e.g. Requirements Engineer, Product/Marketing Manager, User Interface Designer A Nearly Unrecognised Obstacle: Surrogacy

15. How Recognising the Structure of Stakeholders and Surrogacy could Help • Counter the excessively narrow focus on ‘actors’ in ‘business use cases’ • Avoid missing entire processes and groups of requirements from non-operational stakeholders • Consider show-stopping risks such as loss of Sponsor/Champion, ‘political’ threats to projects, action by Negative Stakeholders • Pay more attention to the dangers of hearsay evidence – someone says that someone else might possibly want something • Be more careful in selecting the right kinds of surrogate stakeholder • Seek out ‘real’ non-surrogate stakeholders, where appropriate

16. Tools & Templates free from http://www.scenarioplus.org.uk • Tool constructs a hierarchical model in a DOORS Formal Module • Can copy-and-link roles in ‘Our System’ directly to Use Case Actors • Can link Stakeholders directly to Requirements in other documents

17. The Onion Model - To Conclude... (Whitsun Eve.-In the depths of the forest. To the back, in a clearing, is a hut with a pair of reindeer horns over the porch-gable.) (PEER GYNT is creeping among the undergrowth, gathering wild onions.) PEER:Well, this is one standpoint. Where is the next? One should try all things and choose the best. ... (Pulls off several layers at once.) What an enormous number of swathings!Isn't the kernel soon coming to light? (Pulls the whole onion to pieces.) I'm blest if it is! To the innermost centre,it's nothing but swathings-each smaller and smaller.-Nature is witty! (Throws the fragments away.) Peer Gynt, Act 5, Scene 5, by Henrik Ibsen