Using work agreements as operation-time system requirements for emergent work community support systems

We propose an approach for capturing evolving requirements for work support systems that are organically created by co-workers in self-organized, networked organizations. It is in the nature of such organisations that comprehensive design-time capturing of the volatile taskrelated functional requirements is not possible. Therefore, we advocate a combination of two types of requirements: i. stable requirement fragments elicited at design time, based on elementary collaboration and communication patterns likely to occur in an operational context, and ii. highly dynamic requirements in the form of explicit, easy-to-understand yet well-structured work agreements between organisational actors within organisations at operation-time. These agreements capture many aspects and concepts well known from requirements engineering, as well as business process analysis and design, but design-time modeling/specification of work-specific structures is now moved to operation time. Description of such structures by co-workers is supported by mechanisms part of the stable communication patterns under i.