AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF REQUIREMENTS ENGINEERING FOR DECISION ENHANCEMENT IN WATER ASSET MANAGEMENT: A CASE STUDY OF THE UGANDA NATIONAL WATER AND SEWERAGE CORPORATION

This paper proposes requirements for a decision enhancement studio for Uganda National Water and Sewerage Corporation, developed by benchmarking two cases of best practices: Rand Water (Johannesburg, South Africa) and Waterbedrijf Groningen (The Netherlands). The study focuses on asset maintenance, investment planning and risk management decisions. The adopted methodology includes; unstructured interviews, focus group discussions, asset management workshops, field observations and literature review. Collected data reveals limited usage of decision support systems and data mining tools that potentially ease Requirements Engineering processes and allow for more systematic and structured decision-making practices in water asset management. The discussion also compares decision-making practices of the two best-practice scenarios: Waterbedrijf Groningen and Rand Water with that of the Ugandan Company. In addition, the asset management environment in Uganda National Water and Sewerage Corporation is also interpreted in light of the conditions in other Sub-Saharan countries in order to identify relevant decision-making targets for Uganda. Finally, the paper elaborately identifies the various impediments to the generation of requirements for water asset management, and suggests requirements suitable for the resource constrained Ugandan water utility. This paper, though focusing on Uganda National Water and Sewerage Corporation, sheds light on Requirements Engineering in water asset management in general, especially for the resource constrained water utilities of Sub-Saharan Africa.