Collaborative Requirements Engineering: Bridging the Gulfs Between Worlds - Intentional Perspectives on Information Systems Engineering - page 359

notations such as i ∗ [ 39] also helps understanding user viewpoints. Clarks's the-
ory draws attention to the fact that mutual understanding is generated during a
dialogue set within an arena and setting of mutually understood norms and cul-
ture. This background knowledge may be referred to as attitudes, opinions, beliefs
and values, a set of linguistically based but ambiguous concepts which shape our
intentions, decisions and actions. Attention in RE tends to be driven by modelling
and analysis; for example, tracing event flows, decomposing goals or analysing
dependencies between agents, tasks and goals. However, there is little guidance
about the use of contextual information or the people-oriented issues that are nec-
essary for interpreting models. In spite of the recognition that issues of culture,
politics and value clashes often de-rail many system developments, values have
not received much attention in RE. I argue that a key component in managing
RE conversations is awareness and active analysis of stakeholder values to arrive
at a mutually understood and agreed view about what motivates stakeholder goals
and why.
5.1 Value-Based Requirements Engineering
The taxonomy of values and their consequences for process guidance are illustrated
in Table 3.
Nine upper-level value categories are proposed based on Rescher's theory [ 20]
and investigations from the card-sort experiments and interviews with expert RE
practitioners. Six categories accord with generally recognised concepts, some of
which have more stable interpretations: trust, morals, aesthetics and security; while
sociability and creativity/innovation hide many sub-categories. Some of these are
given in the related terms column. Personal characteristics are diverse; personality
theory dimensions are used (introvert/extrovert, sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling,
judging/perceiving), with some additions. Personality characteristics are closely
related to motivations and both have implications for team management in the RE
process and customisable applications. Motivations are a placeholder for a more
detailed taxonomy, while beliefs and attitudes are a diverse category which includes
socio-political, cultural and religious beliefs. These change more rapidly than other
value clusters which are more closely related to personal attributes; consequently
we have not elaborated this part of the taxonomy.
The elicitation guides in column 3 suggest some potential conversation topics
which might expose particular values. The process implications in column 4 vary
from organising the team composition in response to aesthetic needs (i.e. include
aesthetically aware designers) to more general heuristics for project team manage-
ment, such as the need for fewer controls when trust is high, or the converse when
mistrust is discovered. Sensitivity to moral values indicates the need for honesty,
openness and fairness in all parts of the development process. In many cases, espe-
cially with motivations, beliefs and attitudes, value analysis may alert the analyst
to potential stakeholder conflicts, in which case negotiation will be necessary to