what-when-how
In Depth Tutorials and Information
stakeholders, nor an operational approach to guide the stakeholders through a nego-
tiation process where their perspectives are analyzed for conflict resolution. In order
to resolve this challenge in our work, in this section we will review our previous
work in a well-designed Socio-Technical Co-construction Process (STCP) which
is rooted in an Engineering Collaboration via Negotiation (ECN) paradigm and a
Sociotechnical Framework (STF). his work helps us specify operational guidance
for the engineering design team to carry out a negotiation process utilizing struc-
tured arguments for negotiation tasks. his section will explain these concepts (i.e.,
ECN, STF, and STCP) in details.
8.2.3.1 Engineering Collaboration via Negotiation Paradigm
Real-world negotiation tasks undertaken by engineering teams are always driven
by many conflicting social, economical, and technical (SET) factors. Traditional
engineering research has mainly focused on technical factors, with some recent
efforts being extended to consider the economic factors. While recognizing the
importance of both technical and economical considerations, our past research has
been focusing on social factors and, more specifically, on their interactions with
technical factors. We view an engineering team activity as a technical activity with
a human purpose. herefore, when a team of engineers (i.e., multiple stakeholders)
with differing life cycle concerns come together to develop new software, it can lead
to a complex sociotechnical campaign. To resolve this challenge, an Engineering
Collaboration via Negotiation (ECN) paradigm is developed in our past work and
can best support this type of sociotechnical campaign.
In this paradigm, we have defined the meanings of several key concepts that
lay down the foundation for the research framework and process. Now we first
give the definition of ECN: a sociotechnical negotiation activity, where a team of
stakeholders with different expertise and mixed objectives co-construct consensual
agreements of some engineering matter.
More details regarding the concepts used in this definition are explained
as follows:
8.2.3.1.1 Sociotechnical
Compared with traditional approaches, ECN treats engineering decision making as a
technical activity within dynamic social contexts instead of a purely technical activity.
8.2.3.1.2 Negotiation
With a general definition “to confer with another so as to arrive at the settlement
of some matter,” given by Webster's dictionary, we limit ourselves in the domain
of engineering domain and negotiation is viewed as an on-going activity of social
decision making, where two or more interdependent parties with some common or
