  This article discusses the difficulties that arose when attempting to specify
and design a large scale digital learning environment for Scottish schools.
This had a potential user base of about 1 million users and was intended to
replace an existing, under-used system. We found that the potential system
users were not interested in engaging with the project and that there were
immense problems with system governance. The only technique that we found to be
useful were user stories, presenting scenarios of how the system might be used
by students and their teachers. The designed architecture was based around a
layered set of replaceable services.
