Understanding Requirements for Technology-Supported Healthy Aging

Aging imposes growing challenge across the globe. With the widespread availability of modern digital technologies, there is great potential for improving health/living conditions for the elderly. However, providing services for the elderly is a multifaceted problem with a multitude of alternative operationalizations that calls for a deep understanding of their requirements. The objective of this paper is to assess the needs for aging and the services required to address these needs. Recognizing that healthy aging involves balancing several major facets, we adopt a goal-oriented requirements analysis approach, drawing on Balanced Scorecard widely used in strategic business management to help professionals assess the aging needs of an elderly individual, the state of aging services in a jurisdiction (say, a city), or the status of aging related services provided by a service provider, and at the same time, identify areas of strength and weakness.