BACKGROUND: Shared homecare is increasingly common, and in order to develop ICT that support such complex cooperative and interdisciplinary work it is crucial to obtain an understanding of work processes at the clinical level before the development is initiated. It is also crucial, but difficult, to correctly transfer this insight to the development team. METHOD: User-centered scenario building in interdisciplinary working groups is applied for capturing cooperative work routines, information demands, and other central preconditions in shared homecare. RESULTS: Use of scenarios for analysis of cooperative work and as information carrier is described via a case from the multi-disciplinary OLD@HOME project. Both current and future work scenarios were elicited. To illustrate the process of transforming scenarios into more technical descriptions (use cases), and finally into an application, examples showing the transparency in resulting use cases and in the implemented system are provided. CONCLUSION: In this case study, scenarios proved to be useful not only in initial system development phases but throughout the entire development process, improving accessibility and assessment of end user needs. For the development team, scenarios assisted in solving usability issues, and served as a basis for describing use cases and for further system development. More importantly, the shared care scenarios ensured the provision of different perspectives on common work processes, which are often neglected in conventional requirements specifications. This also improved understanding between different clinical groups and between clinicians and developers. Copyright 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
BACKGROUND: Shared homecare is increasingly common, and in order to develop ICT that support such complex cooperative and interdisciplinary work it is crucial to obtain an understanding of work processes at the clinical level before the development is initiated. It is also crucial, but difficult, to correctly transfer this insight to the development team. METHOD: User-centered scenario building in interdisciplinary working groups is applied for capturing cooperative work routines, information demands, and other central preconditions in shared homecare. RESULTS: Use of scenarios for analysis of cooperative work and as information carrier is described via a case from the multi-disciplinary OLD@HOME project. Both current and future work scenarios were elicited. To illustrate the process of transforming scenarios into more technical descriptions (use cases), and finally into an application, examples showing the transparency in resulting use cases and in the implemented system are provided. CONCLUSION: In this case study, scenarios proved to be useful not only in initial system development phases but throughout the entire development process, improving accessibility and assessment of end user needs. For the development team, scenarios assisted in solving usability issues, and served as a basis for describing use cases and for further system development. More importantly, the shared care scenarios ensured the provision of different perspectives on common work processes, which are often neglected in conventional requirements specifications. This also improved understanding between different clinical groups and between clinicians and developers. Copyright 2008 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.