Macro Analysis of Techniques to Deal with Uncertainty in Information Systems Development: Mapping Representational Framing Influences

• Authors: Carl Adams;David E. Avison
• Venue: Soft-Ware 2002 Proceedings of the First International Conference on Computing in an Imperfect World
• Year: 2002

Development methods and techniques provide structure, directed tasks and cognitive tools with which to collect, collate, analyze and represent information about system requirements and attributes. These methods and techniques provide support for developers when learning about a system. Each development technique has its own unique set of characteristics distinguishing it from other techniques. Consequently, different development techniques can represent the same set of requirements or a problem situation differently. A new classification of techniques is developed based on representational characteristics. To understand if these different representations are likely to impact problem and requirement understanding this paper draws upon the framing effect of prospect theory. The classification is applied to works from the cognitive psychology literature which indicate how specific technique attributes may influence problem understanding. This classification is applied to approximately 100 development techniques.