Ethnography (Requirements Engineering)

Updated 22 Jul 2026

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def
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  a social-science-inspired technique where an analyst spends considerable time observing and analyzing how people actually work
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advantages
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  people do not have to explain or articulate their work — observation captures tacit knowledge
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  social and organisational factors of importance can be observed
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  reveals that real work is often richer and more complex than process definitions suggest
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types of requirements derived
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  requirements derived from actual work practice (not prescribed process)
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  requirements derived from cooperation and awareness of others' activities
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limitations
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  effective for understanding existing processes
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  cannot identify new features that should be added to a system
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  may capture historical practices no longer relevant
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focused ethnography
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  combines ethnography with prototyping
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  prototype development surfaces unanswered questions that focus the ethnographic analysis
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related
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  Requirements Elicitation
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  Prototyping

Linked references 2