Document Status: Initial Draft of User Requirements
Background
This set of requirements derives from the usage scenarios supplied by the participants in the 1-3 March 2006 kickoff meeting in Ann Arbor, Michigan (need link to this material).
Assumptions & Definitions
- Each institution wishing to use Sakaibrary will have to configure Sakai to work with their own metasearch tool (e.g., MetaLib, SIRSI SingleSearch). A metasearch tool allows searching across multiple databases.
- A canned search (in this document) is a search where the search terms and other constraints are pre-specified.
- A constrained search (in this document) is a search where some search terms and other constraints are in place, but the user can specify one or more search terms.
Requirements
Requirements are divided into the following categories.
- User Requirements - things users would like to be able to do, subdivided by user category (e.g., student, instructor, librarian)
- Functional Requirements - should flow from and reference user requirements; things the software system needs to be able to do
- Technical Requirements - requirements about how things need to be implemented; these should support user requirements, but they sometimes derive from other sources, such as the Sakai community's decision to use a particular technology
Values for the Priority column are high, medium, low, and outplan. High priority items must be achieved for the project to be successful. Ideally, there is time to accomplish all high priority items as well as a make-sense assortment of medium and low priority items. Outplan requirements are those which we decide we will not attempt to address.
The Status column can indicate what Sakai release a requirement will be met.
User Requirements
Note: Where user categories are not specifically identified (i.e., where this says "users can..." instead of "instructors can..." or "librarians can..."), the implication is that the task is broadly useful to most or all categories of user.
Code |
Description |
Priority |
Status |
|---|---|---|---|
U1 |
Users can create citation lists consisting of references to and links (if available) to materials from licensed databases, the public web, materials uploaded within Sakai, or links to canned or constrained searches. |
high |
|
U2 |
Users can embed citation lists within other document types in Sakai, whether structured (e.g., a template-based syllabus or assignment) or unstructured (e.g., a discussion posting, an announcement). |
high |
|
U3 |
Within Sakai, users can search across licensed databases or other relevant resources to locate and add citations to a citation list. |
high |
|
U4 |
Users can save citations as standalone objects (e.g., resources) within Sakai to facilitate use and reuse in a variety of contexts. |
high |
|
U5 |
Users can edit and repurpose citation lists. |
high |
|
U6 |
Users can add custom citations to a citation list. |
medium |
|
U7 |
Users can import from/export to other citation management tools such as Endnote or Refworks. |
medium |
|
U8 |
Librarians can have appropriately limited access to courses in their subject areas in order to provide citation lists, research guides, or other aids. Such access can be granted by the instructor or by administrators in accordance with local policy and workflow. |
high |
|
U9 |
Librarians can communicate with instructors and students with the Sakai context visible (e.g., the librarian can tell what course the student "coming from", even if the student doesn't mention it). |
medium |
|
Functional Requirements
Code |
Description |
Priority |
Status |
|---|
Technical Requirements
Code |
Description |
Priority |
Status |
|---|
Issues
This section is for requirements issues still to be decided.
- Is built-in support for version control and local modifications (i.e., branching) needed? If not, do we need to provide a way to compare citation lists to identify differences? (Preliminary decision: do not provide version control or sophisticated branching, merging, and diff-ing.)
- Unlike the Open Source Portfolio (OSP) Sakai doesn't seem to have the notion of templates and forms, which would be useful ways to incorporate citations and citation lists into structured documents such as syllabi. Do we need to float some requirements to the rest of Sakai to support this kind of thing?
- What support does/will Sakai provide for "learning objects" and how are they included in the citation list?
- Do we need context-sensitive presentation of citations? What contexts are relevant?
- Is a canned or constrained search a citation? Or is it a different kind of object? Even though it may be able to be represented as a URL, it also needs to be turned back into a set of editable search terms in an advanced search form.