The Contribution Structures of Networked Organisations

Networked organisations promote distributed and dynamic working arrangements. One of the largest problems they face is the reconfiguration of their personnel, a problem compounded by changing roles and commitments. This problem is especially rife when systems and software are engineered both in and for such organisations. In this paper, we argue that the enabling technologies underpinning current requirements engineering practices need to be re-examined if they are to support development in and for networked organisations. We focus our concern on requirements traceability and describe a particular need to keep track of those people with a stake in the requirements, as well as in the wider requirements engineering process. We outline an approach for doing this based on modelling the contribution structure underlying requirements. We explain why such an approach needs to be adopted when requirements engineering is conducted within a disperse and heterogeneous setting. We also explain how use of such an approach provides an infrastructure through which networked systems and software can be developed and maintained. We then indicate how knowledge of contribution structures can assist with organisational re-engineering and give a brief account of our related research interests.