The use of the SaGa tool for gathering requirements for future information systems

Scenarios have been used in many different ways to assist planning. They have been used for over 20 years in technological forecasting for corporate plans, in testing for the suitability of human-computer interfaces, in experimental gaming to explore decision-making processes, in preparing case-studies for management education, and for “surfacing” assumptions underlying strategic planning. One of the more useful applications of scenarios is generating user requirements for information systems. For this application several scenarios could be generated-showing pessimistic, optimistic, and most likely cases-in order to develop the requirements that are common to all cases, so that a system can be designed for a “surprise-free” future. However, preparing scenarios is often too laborious to allow for more than one or two scenarios to be generated. As well, it is very difficult to ensure that the scenarios are consistent and coherent. This paper describes the SaGa (Scenario Generator) computer-based tool that easily generates a number of scenarios containing a coherent set of factors. These scenarios can be used to provoke ideas and judgements from managers about how to achieve the future system that they desire. The paper gives the results of using the tool to determine the requirements for information systems for Australian Government agencies