Component One: Requirements Gathering, Creation of Use Cases, and Risk Analysis

The tasks associated with Component One were completed in August 2007.

Requirements gathering is the process of identifying in detail and analyzing the performance that is required of the system by its stakeholders before it is designed, built, tested, and implemented.

In order to identify the specific needs and conditions that were required in the new system, the requirements gathering effort for MEGA-J focused on gathering user stories that describe the desired capabilities and functions that the system will need to support. (A user story is a brief, very general description of a requirement, usually written in the non-technical everyday language of the user.)

Members of the project team meet with inspectors from Jordan's Department of Antiquities (DoA) in Umm Qais to learn of their specific requirements for the functionality of the system. Photo: Alison Dalgity

Decorative mosaics are a comment element of archaeological sites in Jordan. The 'Map Mosaic' dates from the 6th century AD and is located within the floor of the apse of the Basilica of St. George in Madaba. The mosaic is renowned as the oldest known floor map mosaic, and the oldest surviving original map of the Holy Land. It includes depictions of the Dead Sea and Jordan River, the Nile Delta, a detailed view of Jerusalem, and Bethlehem. Photo: Alison Dalgity

This effort conducted in May 2007 involved extensive interviews with many of the stakeholders in Jordan. These included DoA leadership, inspectors and other staff in the Amman central and local offices across the kingdom; national authorities, such as the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the Land and Surveys Department, and the Jordanian Royal Geographic Centre; local authorities, including city governments; and various international archaeological organizations based in Jordan.

As a supplement to the requirements-gathering effort, the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) and World Monuments Fund (WMF) held a workshop for DoA personnel in Amman at the American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR) in June 2007, which was attended by 35 DoA staff members, including inspectors and members of the DoA team assigned to the MEGA-J development effort.

In addition to emphasizing the direct involvement of the workshop participants in the development of the system, and thereby gaining their input and buy-in, the workshop concentrated on increasing participants' knowledge in such areas as the use of GPS devices, map reading, and combining Google Earth™ photography with digitized local maps to facilitate the collection of site boundary coordinates. It also offered the GCI-WMF development team the opportunity to further discuss with DoA personnel their requirements for the content and expectations of the functionality of the new system.

After the requirements gathering phase, use cases are developed, which outline how specific groups of future users will interact with the system and how the system should respond to those actions. It then serves to ensure that each one of the identified actions is accommodated in the system design.	During requirements gathering exercises at Jordan's Department of Antiquities (DoA) in Amman, small working groups were formed to discuss data collection criteria and specific terms that will be used in a standardized vocabulary for entering data into MEGA-J. Photo: Mario Santana

On the basis of what was learned from the requirements-gathering effort, system use cases—which are descriptions or scenarios of a specific interaction that different types of users may experience with a system—were developed. Also, potential risks to the successful deployment of the system were identified, along with mitigation strategies, and all were documented in an August 2007 report prepared by the team's consultants, Farallon Geographics, Inc. The report was shared with the Director General of the Department of Antiquities for comments and a review of the team's approach.

The report identified key determinates for the project's success, such as:

• engagement of DoA leadership in the development process and the need to work closely with DoA staff members who will be the primary users of the system (to this end, a MEGA-J team was established by the DoA consisting of 16 DoA personnel who will have regular input at various stages of development; it is acknowledged that securing their buy-in early in the development process is essential because they must, if deployment is to be sustainable, ultimately take ownership of the system);
• identification of a DoA project manager and appropriate staffing for system administration;
• integration of the system with daily activities of the DoA at both national and regional levels, as well as regular coordination of data with other national and local governmental authorities;
• management of the system by the DoA as a program within the Department—i.e., it requires an ongoing sustained effort rather than being treated as a project of limited duration;
• implementation of standards for data acquisition and system population to insure data integrity;
• ongoing training of system administration staff, as well as other DoA users, in collecting data and using the system as a management tool;
• identification and ongoing commitment of budget within the DoA for system maintenance and periodic hardware and software upgrades;
• thorough system documentation;
• engagement of other stakeholder institutions.

Last updated: June 2008