requirements engineering using appreciative inquiry for an online community of caregivers of children with autism
Appreciative Inquiry, commonly used in organizational development, aims to build organizations, processes or systems based on success stories using a hopeful vision for an ideal future. It produces positive results with organizational change management. We adjusted the user requirements process for an online community of caregivers of children with autism and compared it with the traditional approach. Based on case studies with 4 special education teachers, we found that Appreciative Inquiry was effective for obtaining meaningful requirements and extremely useful in encouraging buy-in with novice users. This outcome was in stark contrast to the traditional approach where our participants showed no interest in an online community. In addition to these results, we present lessons learned in adjusting the Appreciative Inquiry process for user requirements analysis.
requirements engineering appreciative inquiry online community autism spectrum disorder