A Goal-Oriented Requirements Engineering Framework for E-government Information Systems

Abstract

E-government information systems projects in developing countries face several challenges that lead to their partial or total failure. Several causes of e-government information systems project failure have been identified, including inadequate requirement engineering. The overall failure rate of e-government information systems projects due to requirements engineering inadequacies is still high. Inadequate requirement engineering leads to systems with missing features, low quality, project costs, and time overrun. This research aims to design a framework to guide practitioners in e-government information systems requirements engineering processes. The design science research approach and qualitative data collection and analysis methods were applied through three iterative cycles of rigor, design, and relevancy.  The proposed framework is based on goals and viewpoints requirements engineering. It consists of three models: the e-government viewpoints model, the e-government goals model, and the e-government requirements engineering process model. The framework was validated through two rounds of Delphi focus group discussion techniques and a single technical action research case study. The results showed a strong consensus among practitioners about the proposed framework's ease of use and utility with a mean agreement of 4.429/5. The technical action research involved five practitioners who applied the proposed framework to discover the requirements of the road emergency response module of road safety information systems of Tanzania. A total of 104 requirements were discovered compared to nine requirements elicited before without using the proposed framework. The overall objective of the proposed framework is to facilitate the discovery and specification of adequate and relevant requirements for e-government information systems projects and ultimately reduce the rate of e-government projects failure and contribute to the realisation of e-government benefits.