Sean W. Hansen

Arguing the value of virtual worlds: patterns of discursive sensemaking of an innovative technology

With the rapid pace of technological development, individuals are frequently challenged to make sense of equivocal innovative technology while being given limited information. Virtual worlds are a prime example of such an equivocal innovative technology, and this affords researchers an opportunity to study sensemaking and the construction of perspectives about the organizational value of virtual worlds. This study reports on an analysis of the written assessments of 59 business professionals who spent an extended period of time in Second Life, a popular virtual world, and discursively made sense of the organizational value of virtual worlds. Through a Toulminian analysis of the claims, grounds, and warrants used in the texts they generated, we identify 12 common patterns of sensemaking and indicate that themes of confirmation, open-ended rhetoric, demographics, and control are evident in the different types of claims that were addressed. Further, we assert that the Toulminian approach we employ is a useful methodology for the study of sensemaking and one that is not bound to any particular theoretical perspective.

Requirements in the 21st Century: Current Practice and Emerging Trends *

Requirements have remained one of the grand challenges in the design of software intensive systems. In this paper we review the main strands of requirements research over the past two decades and identify persistent and new challenges. Based on a field study that involved interviews of over 30 leading IT professionals involved in large and complex software design and implementation initiatives, we review the current state-of-the-art in the practice of design requirements management. We observe significant progress in the deployment of modeling methods, tools, risk-driven design, and user involvement. We note nine emerging themes and challenges in the requirement management arena: 1) business process focus, 2) systems transparency, 3) integration focus, 4) distributed requirements, 5) layered requirements, 6) criticality of information architectures, 7) increased deployment of COTS and software components, 8) design fluidity and 9) interdependent complexity. Several research challenges and new avenues for research are noted in the discovery, specification, and validation of requirements in light of these requirements features.

Wikipedia, Critical Social Theory, and the Possibility of Rational Discourse

Information systems researchers that apply critical social perspectives frequently emphasize the potential for information technology to serve as a mechanism for increased rationalization, domination, and control. Such theorists often overlook or discount the liberating aspects of information systems. In this study, we apply the ideal of rational discourse developed by Jürgen Habermas to the phenomenon of Wikipedia in an effort to explore empirically the emancipatory potential of information systems. We contend that Wikipedia embodies an approximation of the necessary conditions for rational discourse. While several challenges persist, the example of Wikipedia illustrates the positive potential of information systems in supporting the emergence of more emancipatory forms of communication. The corresponding implications for researchers and design professionals alike are discussed.

Invisible Whispering: Restructuring Collaborative Decision Making with Instant Messaging

Organizational decision making is dominated by teams. When an important decision is required, a team is often formed to make it or to advise the individual decision maker, because a team has more resources, knowledge, and political insight than any one individual working alone. As teams have become geographically distributed, collaboration technology has come to play an important role in such collective decision making efforts. Instant messaging (IM) is an increasingly prevalent workplace collaboration technology that enables near-synchronous text exchanges on a variety of devices. We examined the use of IM during face-to-face, telephone, and computer-mediated team meetings, a practice we call “invisible whispering.” We introduce Goffman’s characterization of social interaction as dramatic performance, differentiable into “front stage” and “backstage” exchanges, to analyze how invisible whispering alters the socio-spatial and temporal boundaries of team decision making. Using IM, workers were able to influence front stage decision making through backstage conversations, often participating in multiple backstage conversations simultaneously. This type of interaction would be either physically impossible or socially constrained without the use of IM. We examine how invisible whispering changes the processes of collaborative decision making and how these new processes may affect the efficiency and effectiveness of collaborative decision making, as well as participation, satisfaction, relationships among team members, and individual attention.

Challenges in Contemporary Requirements Practice

The management of requirements remains a key source of difficulty in systems development projects. Substantive changes in the practice of systems development and associated requirements engineering efforts suggest that a reconsideration of prevailing requirements challenges is warranted. In this essay, we report on a field study of practicing design professionals in which we assess the key challenges they experience in developing a stable set of system requirements. Building upon the findings from our study, we propose a framework for understanding contemporary requirements challenges and the ways in which they are fundamentally interrelated.

Getting on the same page: Collective hermeneutics in a systems development team

The inherent complexity of information systems development presents significant impediments to the achievement of shared meaning among the members of a development team. How then do software development teams resolve questions of shared meaning in the development process? In this study, we build upon observations of a large platform development team to identify the ways in which team members converge around shared meanings through the application of a repertoire of interpretive techniques. Specifically, we develop a model of interpretive team interaction. This collective hermeneutic model extends the hermeneutic tradition in IS research by addressing the ways in which an interpretation takes shape not simply within the mind of an individual but also through collaboration with others. Finally, we discuss implications of this theoretical perspective for the design of systems development environments and the prospect for additional research on the interpretive processes of development teams.

Emerging principles for requirements processes in organizational contexts

In this paper, we review the main strands of requirements research over the past two decades and identify the central assumptions that form the prevailing paradigm of requirements management. Based on a field study involving interviews of leading IT professionals involved in large and complex software design and implementation initiatives, we analyze the assumptions and practical prescriptions that flow from them in light of the current state-of-the-art in requirements practice. We observe significant progress in several areas, including the deployment of modeling methods, CASE tools, risk-driven design, and user involvement. We also note nine emerging themes and drivers in the practice of requirements management.

Computing Requirements: Cognitive Approaches to Distributed Requirements Engineering

We present a study of on the goal-oriented modeling of RE processes executed by a practicing systems development team. The research combines an empirical case study of RE practices with the evaluation and simulation capability of i* modeling. Our analysis focuses on a system implementation project at a mid-size U.S. university and applies the theory of distributed cognition to generate a range of design insights for goal identification and process enhancement.

Wikipedia as Rational Discourse: An Illustration of the Emancipatory Potential of Information Systems

Critical social theorists often emphasize the control and surveillance aspects of information systems, building upon a characterization of information technology as a tool for increased rationalization. The emancipatory potential of information systems is often overlooked. In this paper, we apply the Habermasian ideal of rational discourse to Wikipedia as an illustration of the emancipatory potential of information systems. We conclude that Wikipedia does embody an approximation of rational discourse, while several challenges remain

“Invisible Whispering”: Restructuring Meeting Processes with Instant Messaging

Instant messaging (IM) is an increasingly prevalent workplace communication tool that enables near-synchronous text exchanges on a variety of devices. In an interview study of IM use in two organizations, we explored the use of IM during face-to-face and telephone meetings, a practice we call “invisible whispering.” We introduce Goffman’s characterization of social interaction as dramatic performance, differentiable into “front stage” and “backstage” exchanges, to analyze how invisible whispering alters the socio-spatial and temporal boundaries of meetings. Using IM, workers were able to participate concurrently in “front stage” and “backstage” interactions, to carry on multiple “backstage” conversations, and to influence “front stage” activities through “backstage” conversations. This type of interaction would be either physically impossible or socially constrained without the use of IM. We discuss the potential implications of these changes for meeting effectiveness and group dynamics, raising questions for further study. We also suggest that the analytic lens and vocabulary we use to analyze the social consequences of invisible whispering offer a new point of entry for future studies of IM and for computer-supported group decision and negotiation more generally.