Ruth Kirkham – Project Manager John Pybus – Technical Officer bvreh.humanities.ox.ac.uk

1. User Requirements Gathering for the Humanities:How do we establish best practice for the community? Ruth Kirkham – Project Manager John Pybus – Technical Officer http://bvreh.humanities.ox.ac.uk DRHA – 3rd- 6th September 2006

2. Building a VRE for the Humanities(very brief re-cap) • 15 month JISC project (started last summer) • Capturing user requirements from researchers across the division at Oxford • How do the Humanities differ from large scale Science? • No predefined technology (ground up approach) • Build 3 to 4 prototypes/demonstrators

3. User Requirements Workshops • AHRC funded series of research workshops • One held so far • Two coming up in October

4. Aims and Objectives • Emphasise the importance of Requirements Gathering for e-Research within the Humanities computing community • Establish best practice for user requirements and ongoing user testing within the community • Bring together individuals from the Humanities, e-Science and established Requirements Gathering Centres • Create a Humanities-based user requirements community

5. Structure of Workshops • User Requirements in ICT projects in the Humanities • Define and discuss current methods in the Humanities. • Inititate discussion around current issues and concerns • Think collectively about improving and advancing their methodologies • Requirements gathering in eScience • Establishing a Guide to Best Practice

6. Structure of Workshops • User Requirements in ICT projects in the Humanities • Requirements gathering in eScience • In conjunction with Oxford Centre for Requirements & Foundations at OUCL • Build on outcomes of first workshop • Introduction to methods from eScience • Discussion of similarities and differences between practices in Science and Humanities computing • Consider a methodology devoted to the Humanities • Establishing a Guide to Best Practice

7. Structure of Workshops • User Requirements in ICT projects in the Humanities • Requirements gathering in eScience • Establishing a Guide to Best Practice • Define focus of future User Requirements capture • Produce first draft of a Guide to Best Practice • Consider how we might embed this work in the community

8. Gathering Requirements • Technology push or pull? • Where does it all begin? A project has to come from somewhere. • Research question • Institution • Funding body • Who are your users?

9. Gathering Requirements • Why bother? • Know not just who your users are, but; • What they do, or want to do • How they go about doing it • Even where they work • Might turn out that there is no requirement for a tool – and that’s good to know early.

10. Our requirements gathering process • Unstructured and semi-structured interviews, researchers were asked about: • Current IT usage • Collaboration specifically using IT • Local and external tools/processes used to carry out research • Interaction with all aspects of grant applications such as seeking funding, interaction with  Research Services etc • No specific questionnaires, informal meetings allowed our researchers to speak freely • Focus Groups • Wherever possible the interviews were recorded

11. Comments • “Often as people are carrying out their research it is difficult to take a step back and fully to realise all of the tasks, tools and methods which they employ on a daily basis.” • “Capturing practise and processes would give a useful basis for both reflection and analysis for individuals and for those building IT tools and services to support their work.”

12. Requirements in e-Science • eScience/eSocialScience • Extensive programme of work • Often very large scale computing and data • Effective user requirements capture an important part of this • Need to learn the lessons of this as we consider the transfer of e-Science technologies to the Humanities “we must take advantage of technologies, but not slavishly follow the methods and cultures of the sciences”

13. Use in the Humanities • Which methodologies would be useful to adopt (from e­Science?) and which might we (AH computing community) create ourselves? • Two way process: • Arts and Humanities can contribute back to e­Science as it moves towards e-Research

14. e-Science Adopters • Scholars working with IT specialists inevitably become more aware of opportunities • As their peers take an interest • “that’s amazing, how do you do that?” • “How could we use that in our work?” • “what on earth’s the point?”

15. Getting a balance • How do we make people aware of technological potential – what doors are opening – without forcing particular practices on them? • Researchers will evaluate for themselves whether they believe a particular tool will support, or enhance their research

16. Getting a balance • Bridging the gap between developers and researchers • BVREH project experience: • Developer part of user requirements survey • Actively speaking to researchers • Two way process: • Arts and Humanities can contribute back to e­Science as it moves towards e-Research

17. “It is vital that as new systems are introduced it is done in a way that truly enhances the working practices of the individual researcher. This is only possible if those involved in creating these technologies have a full understanding of how research is currently undertaken and how new developments will be incorporated.”

18. What can we do? • Budgeting user requirements into project plan • Awareness in institutions and funding bodies • Encourage good communication between users and technologists

19. Workshops: Next steps • This is still work in progress! • report of first workshops in preparation • remaining workshops next month • Bring together community in which the methodologies for requirements gathering will grow and evolve • Identifying current issues and gaps

20. Workshops: Next steps • We are keen for feedback • and wider participation in the workshops Final Thought: • “Faster, better, but not different” • Two out of three – perhaps fast & better is different

21. Acknowledgements Principle Investigators: Professor Alan Bowman and Dr Charles Crowther Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents, Oxford Dr Michael Fraser Oxford University Computing Services Also: Marina Jirotka – Centre for Requirements and Foundations, Oxford University Computing Laboratory

22. Feedback/Questions • Any questions? ruth.kirkham@humanities.ox.ac.uk john.pybus@humanities.ox.ac.uk http://bvreh.humanities.ox.ac.uk/