TY - JOUR
T1 - Requirements engineering blinders
T2 - Exploring information systems developers black-boxing of the emergent character of requirements
AU - Holmström, Jonny
AU - Sawyer, Steven
N1 - Funding Information:
Steve Sawyer is on the faculty of Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies and a research fellow at the Center for Technology and Information Policy. Steve does social informatics research with a particular focus on the relationships among changing forms of work, organization and uses of information and communication technologies. Sawyer’s research is done through studies of software developers, real estate agents, police officers, organizational technologists, and other information-intensive work settings. His work is published in a range of venues and supported by funds from the National Science Foundation, IBM, Corning, and a number of other public and private sponsors. Prior to returning to Syracuse, Steve was a founding faculty member of the
PY - 2011/1
Y1 - 2011/1
N2 - In this paper we focus empirical and conceptual attention on the social construction of information systems (IS) requirements, and illustrate that IS developers too often choose to ignore, and thus effectively black-box, the complexities of gathering requirements in order to simplify both the difficulties of their work and their relations with customers. The empirical contribution of this paper is evidence drawn from a study of how IS developers pursue requirements engineering and how they conceive its value. The factors we found to be important in this process include: the changing needs of the organization, the ways in which structured IS methods are enacted via experience and social competency, the formation of project groups, and finally engagement in interpersonal conflict and negotiations. Our conceptual contribution is theorization on the nature of developing requirements as a process of social learning.
AB - In this paper we focus empirical and conceptual attention on the social construction of information systems (IS) requirements, and illustrate that IS developers too often choose to ignore, and thus effectively black-box, the complexities of gathering requirements in order to simplify both the difficulties of their work and their relations with customers. The empirical contribution of this paper is evidence drawn from a study of how IS developers pursue requirements engineering and how they conceive its value. The factors we found to be important in this process include: the changing needs of the organization, the ways in which structured IS methods are enacted via experience and social competency, the formation of project groups, and finally engagement in interpersonal conflict and negotiations. Our conceptual contribution is theorization on the nature of developing requirements as a process of social learning.
KW - information systems development
KW - qualitative research
KW - requirements engineering
KW - social construction of technology
KW - social learning
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U2 - 10.1057/ejis.2010.51
DO - 10.1057/ejis.2010.51
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:78651298167
SN - 0960-085X
VL - 20
SP - 34
EP - 47
JO - European Journal of Information Systems
JF - European Journal of Information Systems
IS - 1
ER -