2019/10/03 by Letícia Duboc, Duboc, Leticia, Curtis McCord +5 · 1 citation
Computer Science · Decision Sciences · Social Sciences · #Complex Systems and Decision Making #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Information Systems Theories and Implementation #Software Engineering (cs.SE) #Software Engineering Techniques and Practices
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1910.01678
openalex publication_date 2019/10/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
The design of software systems inevitably enacts normative boundaries around the site of intervention. These boundaries are, in part, a reflection of the values, ethics, power, and politics of the situation and the process of design itself. This paper argues that Requirements Engineering (RE) require more robust frameworks and techniques to navigate the values implicit in systems design work. To this end, we present the findings from a case of action research where we employed Critical Systems Heuristics (CSH), a framework from Critical Systems Thinking (CST) during requirements gathering for Homesound, a system to safeguard elderly people living alone while protecting their autonomy. We use categories from CSH to inform expert interviews and reflection, showing how CSH can be simply combined with RE techniques (such as the Volere template) to explore and reveal the value-judgements underlying requirements.