Activity Theory: a Framework to Software Requirements Elicitation

In this article we defend the idea that social aspects have strong influence in the software requirements elicitation (Goguen 1993), which drive us to find help in the social sciences. The Activity Theory is a theory developed in the Psychology that focuses the human practices of development process, both the individual and social levels. This theory states that any human action must be understood within a minimal social context, established by an activity. So, we have proposed an approach of software requirements elicitation that have as framework several precepts from the Activity Theory. The case study is developed to show the possibility of using some principles of the Activity Theory in the software requirements elicitation.