Ehn Maria, Derneborg Mattias, Revenäs Åsa, Cicchetti Antonio
School of Innovation, Design and Engineering, Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden.
Region Västmanland Innovation, Region Västmanland, Västerås, Sweden.
Int J Med Inform. 2021 Oct;154:104547. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2021.104547. Epub 2021 Aug 10.
Although e-health potentials for improving health systems in their safety, quality and efficiency has been acknowledged, a large gap between the postulated and empirically demonstrated benefits of e-health technologies has been ascertained. E-health development has classically been technology-driven, often resulting in the design of devices and applications that ignore the complexity of the real-world setting, thus leading to slow diffusion of innovations to care. Therefore, e-health innovation needs to consider the mentioned complexity already from the start. The early phases of innovation, fuzzy front-end (FFE) defined as "the period between when an opportunity is first considered and when an idea is judged ready for development" has been identified to have the highest impact on the innovation process and its outcome. The FFE has been recognized as the most difficult stage to manage in the innovation process as it involves a high degree of uncertainty. Such a phase becomes even more difficult when different sectors and organizations are involved. Therefore, effective methods for involving different organizations and user groups in the FFE of innovation are needed.
The aim of this study was to manage the FFE of a collaborative, open innovation (OI) process, to define a software system supporting seniors' physical activity (PA) by applying a framework of methods from software requirements engineering (RE) to elicit and analyze needs and requirements of users and stakeholders, as well as the context in which the system should be used.
Needs and requirements of three future user groups were explored through individual- and focus group interviews. Requirements were categorized and analyzed in a workshop with a multidisciplinary team: a system overview was produced by conceptual modelling using elicited functional requirements; high-level non-functional requirements were negotiated and prioritized. Scenario descriptions of system's supportive roles in different phases of a behavioral change process were developed.
User-centered RE methods were successfully used to define a system and a high-level requirements description was developed based on needs and requirements from three identified user groups. The system aimed to support seniors' motivation for PA and contained four complementary sub-systems. The outcome of the study was a Concept of Operations (ConOps) document that specified the high-level system requirements in a way that was understandable for stakeholders. This document was used both to identify and recruit suitable industrial partners for the following open innovation development and to facilitate communication and collaboration in the innovation process.
Applying software RE methods and involving user groups in the early phases of OI can contribute to the development of new concepts that meet complex real-world requirements. Different user groups can complement each other in conveying needs and requirements from which systems can be designed. Empirical studies applying and exploring different methods used to define new e-health solutions can contribute with valuable knowledge about handling innovation FFE.
尽管电子健康在改善卫生系统的安全性、质量和效率方面的潜力已得到认可，但已确定电子健康技术的假定益处与实际证明的益处之间存在很大差距。传统上，电子健康的发展是由技术驱动的，这往往导致设备和应用程序的设计忽略了现实世界环境的复杂性，从而导致创新在医疗保健领域的传播缓慢。因此，电子健康创新需要从一开始就考虑到上述复杂性。创新的早期阶段，即模糊前端（FFE），被定义为“从首次考虑机会到判断一个想法准备好进行开发之间的时期”，已被确定对创新过程及其结果具有最大影响。FFE被认为是创新过程中最难管理的阶段，因为它涉及高度的不确定性。当涉及不同部门和组织时，这个阶段会变得更加困难。因此，需要有效的方法让不同组织和用户群体参与到创新的FFE中。
本研究的目的是管理一个协作式开放创新（OI）过程的FFE，通过应用软件需求工程（RE）的方法框架来定义一个支持老年人身体活动（PA）的软件系统，以引出和分析用户及利益相关者的需求和要求，以及系统应使用的环境。
通过个人访谈和焦点小组访谈探索了三个未来用户群体的需求和要求。在一个多学科团队的研讨会上对需求进行了分类和分析：使用引出的功能需求通过概念建模生成系统概述；对高层次的非功能需求进行了协商并确定了优先级。制定了系统在行为改变过程不同阶段的支持作用的场景描述。
以用户为中心的RE方法成功用于定义一个系统，并根据三个已确定用户群体的需求和要求制定了高层次的需求描述。该系统旨在支持老年人进行身体活动的动机，包含四个互补的子系统。研究结果是一份作战概念（ConOps）文件，该文件以利益相关者能够理解的方式规定了高层次的系统要求。这份文件既用于识别和招募适合的产业伙伴进行后续的开放创新开发，也用于促进创新过程中的沟通与协作。
应用软件RE方法并让用户群体参与OI的早期阶段有助于开发满足复杂现实世界需求的新概念。不同用户群体在传达需求和要求方面可以相互补充，从而设计出系统。应用和探索用于定义新电子健康解决方案的不同方法的实证研究可以为处理创新FFE提供宝贵的知识。
