Chapter 7 - Pre-requisites and Examples of the Integration of Human Factors with Structured Software Engineering Methods

Summary

The last thing one knows in constructing a work is what to put first.

Blaise Pascal, 1909, Pensées

The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves but in our attitude towards them.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Having developed a structured method that supports human factors specification at each stage of system development (namely MUSE), its explicit integration with similarly structured software engineering methods may be considered. In this way, the problems associated with the ‘too-little-too-late’ contribution of human factors to system development may be addressed more completely (see Chapter One). To this end, the following concerns of methodological integration are discussed in this chapter:

1. (a) A conception of what constitutes an integration of structured human factors and software engineering methods. The requirements to be satisfied by the integrated method are thus defined.

2. (b) The pre-requisites and issues to be addressed during the integration of structured human factors and software engineering methods.

The above concerns are reviewed generally, followed by an illustration of how they have been addressed in the integration of MUSE (the structured human factors method) with the Jackson Systems Development (JSD) method (a structured software engineering method). For completeness and to provide a contrast with the latter work, other integrations of human factors with structured software engineering methods (work undertaken elsewhere) are also reviewed. Three structured software engineering methods are covered in the latter review, namely the Jackson System Development (JSD) method; the Structured Systems Analysis and Design Method (SSADM); and the Structured Analysis and Structured Design (SASD) Method.