Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Language quality in requirements development: tracing communication in the process of information systems development

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Journal of Information Technology

Abstract

Knowledge transfer, communication, and shared understanding between project stakeholders are important factors in requirements development and in the information systems development process. Nevertheless, the impact and analysis of language and linguistic communication during requirements development is still an open issue. In our research, we claim that requirements development depends on the ability to deal with language and communication issues in practice and reach shared understanding of requirements. We propose the concept of language quality as a suitable means for analyzing the emergence of coherent and meaningful requirements. By applying the thereby developed dimensions of language quality to a real information systems development project, we are able to obtain practice-grounded propositions to further evaluate the consequences of different actions on the interaction and communication process of stakeholders in requirements development.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The same data set was used to develop the underlying framework in a companion paper (Corvera Charaf et al., 2012), although with a focus on the process of language development, whereas this article has a focus on the quality of the shared language that is built as the product of this process.

References

  • Abran, A., Moore, J.W., Bourque, P. and Dupuis, R. (eds.) (2004). Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK®), Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agrawal, M. and Chari, K. (2007). Software Effort, Quality, and Cycle Time: A study of CMM Level 5 projects, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 33 (3): 145–156.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alvarez, R. and Urla, J. (2002). Tell Me a Good Story: Using narrative analysis to examine information requirements interviews during an ERP implementation, The DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems 33 (1): 38–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alvesson, M. (2003). Methodology for Close up Studies – Struggling with closeness and closure, Higher Education 46 (2): 167–193.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ambriola, V. and Gervasi, V. (1997). Processing Natural Language Requirements, 12th IEEE International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE’97) (formerly: KBSE), Lake Tahoe, USA, p. 36.

  • Ambriola, V. and Gervasi, V. (2006). On the Systematic Analysis of Natural Language Requirements with CIRCE, Automated Software Engineering 13 (1): 107–167.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anupindi, R., Chopra, S., Deshmukh, S.D., Van Mieghem, J.A. and Zemel, E. (2006). Managing Business Process Flows. Principles of Operations Management, 2nd edn, Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA: Pearson Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Auramäki, E., Lehtinen, E. and Lyytinen, K. (1988). A Speech-act-based Office Modeling Approach, ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS) 6 (2): 126–152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Austin, J.L. (1962). How to do Things with Words: The William James Lectures delivered at Harvard University in 1955. in J.O. Urmson (ed.), Oxford, UK: Clarendon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Avison, D.E. and Fitzgerald, G. (2003). Where Now for Development Methodologies? Communications of the ACM 46 (1): 78–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beck, K. and Andres, C. (2004). Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change, 2nd edn, Boston, MA, USA, Addison-Wesley Professional.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bergman, M., Lyytinen, K. and Mark, G. (2007). Boundary Objects in Design: An ecological view of design artifacts, Journal of the Association for Information Systems 8 (11): 546–568.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berry, D.M. (2004). The Inevitable Pain of Software Development: Why there is no Silver Bullet, in M. Wirsing, A. Knapp and S. Balsamo (eds.) Radical Innovations of Software and Systems Engineering in the Future, Berlin, Heidelberg, Germany: Springer, pp. 50–74.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Berry, D.M. and Kamsties, E. (2003). Ambiguity in Requirements Specification, in S.d.P. Leite and K.J.H. Doorn (eds.) Perspectives on Software Requirements, Boston, Dordrecht, London: Kluwer, pp. 191–194.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beynon-Davies, P. (2010). The Enactment of Significance: A unified conception of information, systems and technology, European Journal of Information Systems 19 (4): 389–408.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Black, S.E., Boca, P.P., Bowen, J.P., Gorman, J. and Hinchey, M.G. (2009). Formal versus Agile: Survival of the fittest, IEEE Computer 49 (9): 39–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blair, D.C. (2005). Wittgenstein, Language and Information: “Back to the Rough Ground!”, in F. Crestani and I. Ruthven (eds.) 5th International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Sciences (CoLIS 2005), Glasgow, UK: Springer, p. 1.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boehm, B. and Basili, V.R. (2000). Gaining Intellectual Control of Software Development, Computer 33 (5): 27–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boehm, B. and Turner, R. (2004). Balancing Agility and Discipline: A guide for the perplexed, Boston, MA, USA: Addison-Wesley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boehm, B.W. (1988). A Spiral Model of Software Development and Enhancement, IEEE Computer 21 (4): 61–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boh, W.F., Slaughter, S.A. and Espinosa, J.A. (2007). Learning from Experience in Software Development: A multilevel analysis, Management Science 53 (8), August 1, 2007, 1315–1331.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boland, R.J.J. (1979). Control, Causality, and Information System Requirements, Accounting, Organization and Society 4 (4): 259–272.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boroditsky, L., Fuhrman, O. and McCormick, K. (2010). Do English and Mandarin Speakers Think Differently about Time? Cognition 118 (1): 123–129.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boroditsky, L. and Gaby, A. (2010). Remembrances of Times Eastt: Absolute spatial representations of time in an Australian Aboriginal community, Psychological Science 21 (11): 1635–1639.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bostrom, R. and Heinen, J.S. (1977). MIS Problems and Failures: A socio-technical perspective, MIS Quarterly 1 (3): 11–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bostrom, R.P. (1989). Successful application of communication techniques to improve the systems development process, Information & Management 16 (5): 279–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Branigan, H.P., Pickering, M.J., Pearson, J. and McLean, J.F. (2010). Linguistic Alignment between People and Computers, Journal of Pragmatics 42 (9): 2355–2368.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brighton, H. and Kirby, S. (2001). The Survival of the Smallest: Stability conditions for the cultural evolution of compositional language, in J. Kelemen and P. Sosík (eds.) Advances in Artificial Life, Berlin, Germany: Springer, pp. 592–601.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Byrd, T.A., Cossick, K.L. and Zmud, R.W. (1992). A Synthesis of Research on Requirements Analysis and Knowledge Acquisition Techniques, MIS Quarterly 16 (1): 117–138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cao, L., Mohan, K., Peng, X. and Ramesh, B. (2009). A Framework for Adapting Agile Development Methodologies, European Journal of Information Systems 18 (4): 332–343.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carnap, R. (1956). Meaning and Necessity: A Study in semantics and modal logic, 2nd edn, Chicago, IL, USA: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chae, B. and Poole, M.S. (2005). The Surface of Emergence in Systems Development: Agency, institutions, and large-scale information systems, European Journal of Information Systems 14 (1): 19–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chakraborty, S., Sarker, S. and Sarker, S. (2010). An Exploration into the Process of Requirements Elicitation: A grounded approach, Journal of the Association for Information Systems 11 (4): 212–249.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, H.H. (1996). Using Language, New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, R.J. (2001). Studies in Organisational Semiotics: An introduction, Australasian Journal of Information Systems 8 (2): 75–82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohn, M.L., Sim, S.E. and Lee, C.P. (2009). What Counts as Software Process? Negotiating the boundary of software work through artifacts and conversation, Computer Supported Cooperative Work 18 (5–6): 401–443.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corvera Charaf, M., Rosenkranz, C. and Holten, R. (2012). The Emergence of Shared Understanding: Applying functional pragmatics to study the requirements development process, Information Systems Journal, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2575.2012.00408.x.

  • Cule, P., Schmidt, R., Lyytinen, K. and Keil, M. (2000). Strategies for Heading off IS Project Failure, Information Systems Management 17 (2): 65–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Curtis, B., Krasner, H. and Iscoe, N. (1988). A Field Study of the Software Design Process for Large Systems, Communications of the ACM 31 (11): 1268–1287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, E.J. (2002). Technology Frames and Framing: A socio-cognitive investigation of requirements determination, MIS Quarterly 26 (4): 329–358.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, A.M. (1990). The Analysis and Specification of Systems and Software Requirements, in R.H. Thayer and M. Dorfman (eds.) Systems and Software Requirements Engineering, Los Alamitos, CA, USA: IEEE Computer Society Press-Tutorial, pp. 119–134.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deacon, T.W. (1997). The Symbolic Species. The co-evolution of language and the brain, New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deacon, T.W. (2005). Language as an Emergent Function: Some radical neurological and evolutionary implications, Theoria 54 (20): 269–286.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeMarco, T. and Lister, T. (1987). Peopleware: Productive projects and teams, New York: Dorset House Publishing Co., Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Saussure, F. (1974). Course in General Linguistics, London: Peter Owen Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dietz, G. and Juhrisch, M. (2012). Negotiating Language Barriers – A Methodology for Cross-Organisational Conceptual Modelling[dagger], European Journal of Information Systems 21 (3): 229–254.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dwivedi, Y.K., Lal, B. and Williams, M.D. (2009). Handbook Of Research On Contemporary Theoretical Models In Information Systems, Hershey, PA, USA: IGI Global.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Dybå, T. and Dingsøyr, T. (2009). What do we know about agile software development? IEEE Software 26 (5): 6–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Espinosa, J.A., Slaughter, S.A., Kraut, R.E. and Herbsleb, J.D. (2007). Team Knowledge and Coordination in Geographically Distributed Software Development, Journal of Management Information Systems 24 (1): 135–169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evangelopoulos, N., Zhang, X. and Prybutok, V.R. (2012). Latent Semantic Analysis: Five methodological recommendations, European Journal of Information Systems 21 (1): 70–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Falkenberg, E.D., Hesse, W., Lindgreen, P., Nilsson, B.E., Oei, J.L.H., Rolland, C., Stamper, R.K., Assche, F.J.M.V., Verrijn-Stuart, A.A. and Voss, K. (1998). A Framework of Information Systems Concepts, The FRISCO Report, IFIP WG 8.1 Task Group FRISCO (Web edition). [WWW document] http://www.mathematik.uni-marburg.de/~hesse/papers/fri-full.pdf (accessed 23 September 2009).

  • Fausey, C. and Boroditsky, L. (2011). Who Dunnit? Cross-Linguistic differences in Eye-Witness Memory, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 18 (1): 150–157.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fichman, R.G. and Kemerer, C.F. (1993). Adoption of Software Engineering Process Innovations: The case of object orientation, Sloan Management Review 34 (2): 7–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzgerald, B., Hartnett, G. and Conboy, K. (2006). Customising Agile Methods to Software Practices at Intel Shannon, European Journal of Information Systems 15 (2): 200–213.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flores, F., Graves, M., Hartfield, B. and Winograd, T. (1988). Computer Systems and the Design of Organizational Interaction, ACM Transactions on Information Systems 6 (2): 153–172.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, S. and Mancl, D. (2008). No Silver Bullet: Software engineering reloaded, IEEE Software 25 (1): 91–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Galliers, R.D. and Swan, J.A. (2000). There's More to Information Systems Development than Structured Approaches: Information requirements analysis as a socially mediated process, Requirements Engineering 5 (2): 74–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gallivan, M.J. and Keil, M. (2003). The User-Developer Communication Process: A critical case study, Information Systems Journal 13 (1): 37–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gasson, S. (1999). A Social Action Model of Situated Information Systems Design, The DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems 30 (2): 82–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gervasi, V. and Zowghi, D. (2005). Reasoning About Inconsistencies in Natural Language Requirements, ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology 14 (3): 277–330.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giddens, A. (1984). The Constitution of Society: Outline of theory of structuration, Berkley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goeken, M. and Patas, J. (2010). Evidenzbasierte Strukturierung und Bewertung empirischer Forschung im Requirements Engineering, WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK 52 (3): 173–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goldkuhl, G. and Lyytinen, K. (1982). A language action view of information systems, 3rd International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 1982), Houston, TX, USA.

  • Gopal, A. and Prasad, P. (2000). Understanding GDSS in Symbolic Context: Shifting the focus from technology to interaction, MIS Quarterly 24 (3): 509–546.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guinan, P. and Bostrom, R.P. (1986). Development of Computer-based Information Systems: A communication framework, SIGMIS Database 17 (3): 3–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guinan, P.J. and Scudder, J.N. (1989). Client-Oriented Interactional Behaviors for Professional-Client Settings, Human Communication Research 15 (3): 444–462.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, S., Berente, N. and Lyytinen, K.J. (2008). Requirements in the 21st Century: Current practice & emerging trends, in K.J. Lyytinen, P. Loucopoulos, J. Mylopoulos and W. Robinson (eds.) Design Requirements Engineering: A Ten-Year Perspective, Berlin, Germany: Springer, pp. 44–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, S. and Lyytinen, K. (2009). Distributed Cognition in the Management of Design Requirements, in M. Jarke, K. Lyytinen and J. Mylopoulos (eds.) Perspectives Workshop: Science of Design: High-Impact requirements for software-intensive systems, Dagstuhl, Germany: Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik, Germany.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, S. and Lyytinen, K. (2010). Challenges in Contemporary Requirements Practice, 43th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS 2010), Koloa, HI, USA.

  • Hansen, S. and Rennecker, J. (2006). Collective Hermeneutics in a Systems Development Process, in Sprouts: Working Papers on Information Systems.

  • Hansen, S. and Rennecker, J. (2010). Getting on the Same Page: Collective hermeneutics in a systems development team, Information and Organization 20 (1): 44–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • He, J., Butler, B.S. and King, W.R. (2007). Team Cognition: Development and evolution in software project teams, Journal of Management Information Systems 24 (2): 261–292.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herbsleb, D. and Mockus, A. (2003). An Empirical Study of Speed and Communication in Globally-Distributed Software Development, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 29 (6): 1–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hesse, W., Müller, D. and Ruß, A. (2008). Information, Information Systems, Information Society: Interpretations and implications, Poiesis & Praxis: International Journal of Technology Assessment and Ethics of Science 5 (3): 159–183.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hirschheim, R., Klein, H. and Lyytinen, K. (1995). Information Systems Development and Data Modeling. Conceptual and philosophical foundations, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Holmqvist, B. (1989). Work, Language and Perspective: An empirical investigation of the interpretation of computer-based information systems, Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems 1 (1): 72–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holten, R. and Rosenkranz, C. (2011). Designing Viable Social Systems: The role of linguistic communication for self-organization, Kybernetes 40 (3/4): 559–580.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holten, R., Rosenkranz, C. and Kolbe, H. (2010). Measuring Application Domain Knowledge: Results from a preliminary experiment, 31st International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2010), St. Louis, Missouri, USA.

  • Hoppenbrouwers, S. and Weigand, H. (2000). Meta-Communication in the Language Action Perspective, in M. Schoop and C. Quix (eds.) Proceedings of the Fifth International Workshop on the Language-Action Perspective on Communication Modelling (LAP 2000), Aachen, Germany, University of Tilburg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iivari, J., Hirschheim, R. and Klein, H.K. (2004). Towards a Distinctive Body of Knowledge for Information Systems experts: Coding ISD process knowledge in two IS journals, Information Systems Journal 14 (4): 313–342.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Iivari, J. and Iivari, N. (2011). The Relationship between Organizational Culture and the Deployment of Agile Methods, Information and Software Technology 53 (5): 509–520.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jarke, M., Loucopoulos, P., Lyytinen, K., Mylopoulos, J. and Robinson, W. (2010). The Brave New World of Design Requirements: Four key principles, in B. Pernici (ed.) Advanced Information Systems Engineering, Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 470–482.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Jarke, M. and Lyytinen, K. (2010). High Impact Requirements Engineering, WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK 52 (3): 115–116.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jarke, M., Lyytinen, K., Mylopoulos, J., Kappel, G., Leite, J., Mark, G., Ramesh, B., Schmitz, D. and Sutcliffe, A.G. (2009). High-Impact Requirements for Software-Intensive Systems: Seminar Outlines and Working Group Summaries, in M. Jarke, K. Lyytinen and J. Mylopoulos (eds.) Perspectives Workshop: Science of Design: High-Impact requirements for software-intensive systems, Dagstuhl, Germany: Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik, Germany.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jarke, M. and Pohl, K. (1993). Establishing Visions in Context: Towards a model of requirements processes, Proceedings 14th International Conference on Information Systems, Orlando, FL, USA, 23–34.

  • Joshi, K.D., Sarker, S. and Sarker, S. (2007). Knowledge Transfer within Information Systems development Teams: Examining the role of knowledge source attributes, Decision Support Systems 43 (2): 322–335.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaasbøll, J. (1987). Intentional Development of Professional Language through Computerization. A case study and some theoretical considerations, in P. Docherty, K. Fuchs-Kittowski, P. Kolm and L. Mathiassen (eds.) Proceeding of the IFIP TC 9/WG 9.1 Working Conference on System Design for Human Development and Productivity: Participation and beyond, Berlin, Germany: Elsevier, 371–382.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kamlah, W. and Lorenzen, P. (1984). Logical Propaedeutic. Pre-School of reasonable discourse, Lanham: University Press of America.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kautz, K., Madsen, S. and Nørbjerg, J. (2007). Persistent Problems and Practices in Information Systems Development, Information Systems Journal 17 (3): 217–239.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kautz, K. and Nielsen, P.A. (2004). Understanding the Implementation of Software Process Improvement Innovations in Software Organizations, Information Systems Journal 14 (1): 3–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ko, D.-G., Kirsch, L.J. and King, W.R. (2005). Antecedents of Knowledge Transfer from Consultants to Clients in Enterprise System Implementations, MIS Quarterly 29 (1): 59–85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kraut, R.E. and Streeter, L.A. (1995). Coordination in Software Development, Communications of the ACM 38 (3): 69–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Land, F. and Somogyi, E. (1986). Software Engineering: The relationship between a formal system and its environment, Journal of Information Technology (Routledge, Ltd.) 1 (1): 02, 14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Landauer, T.K., McNamara, D.S., Dennis, S. and Kintsch, W. (eds.) (2007). Handbook of Latent Semantic Analysis, Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Landis, J.R. and Koch, G.G. (1977). The Measurement of Observer Agreement for Categorical Data, Biometrics 33 (1): 159–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, A.S. (1991). Integrating Positivist and Interpretive Approaches to Organizational Research, Organization Science 2 (4): 342–365.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, G. and Xia, W. (2010). Toward Agile: An integrated analysis of quantitative and qualitative field data, MIS Quarterly 34 (1): 87–114.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levina, N. (2005). Collaborating on Multiparty Information Systems Development Projects: A collective reflection-in-action view, Information Systems Research 16 (2): 109–130.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levina, N. and Vaast, E. (2005). The Emergence of Boundary Spanning Competence in Practice: Implications for implementation and use of information systems, MIS Quarterly 29 (2): 335–363.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loucopoulos, P. and Karakostas, V. (1995). System Requirements Engineering, Maidenhead, Berkshire: McGraw-Hill International Series in Software Engineering.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lyytinen, K. and Newman, M. (2008). Explaining Information Systems change: A punctuated socio-technical change model, European Journal of Information Systems 17 (6): 589–613.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lyytinen, K. and Robey, D. (1999). Learning Failure in Information Systems Development, Information Systems Journal 9 (2): 85–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lyytinen, K.J. (1985). Implications of Theories of Language for Information Systems, MIS Quarterly 9 (1): 61–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Madsen, S. and Nielsen, L. (2010). Exploring Persona-Scenarios – Using storytelling to create design ideas, in D. Katre, R. Orngreen, P. Yammiyavar and T. Clemmensen (eds.) Human Work Interaction Design: Usability in Social, Cultural and Organizational Contexts, Boston: Springer, pp. 57–66.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Marakas, G.M. and Elam, J.J. (1998). Semantic Structuring in Analyst Acquisition and Representation of facts in Requirements Analysis, Information Systems Research 9 (1): 37–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maryam, A. (1984). An Assessment of the Prototyping Approach to Information Systems Development, Communications of the ACM 27 (6): 556–563.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mathiassen, L., Tuunanen, T., Saarinen, T. and Rossi, M. (2007). A Contingency Model for Requirements Development, Journal of the Assoication for Information Systems 8 (11): 569–597.

    Google Scholar 

  • McMaster, M. and Grinder, J. (1980). Precision: A New Approach to Communication, Beverly Hills, CA: Precision Models.

    Google Scholar 

  • Milroy, L. (1984). Comprehension and Context: Successful communication and communicative breakdown, in P. Trudgill (ed.), Applied Sociolinguistics, London: Academic, pp. 7–31.

  • Moldoveanu, M.C. (2002). Language, Games and Language Games, Journal of Socio-Economics 31 (3): 233–251.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morrison, J. and George, J.F. (1995). Exploring the Software Engineering Component in MIS Research, Communications of the ACM 38 (7): 80–91.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nahapiet, J. and Ghoshal, S. (1998). Social Capital, Intellectual Capital, and the Organizational Advantage, The Academy of Management Review 23 (2): 242–266.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, R.R. (2007). IT Project Management: Infamous failures, classic mistakes, and best practices, MIS Quarterly Executive 6 (2): 67–78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newman, M. and Robey, D. (1992). A Social Process Model of User-Analyst Relationships, MIS Quarterly 16 (2): 249–266.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ogden, C.K. and Richards, I.A. (1923). The Meaning of Meaning: A study of the influence of language upon thought and of the science of symbolism, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Orlikowski, W.J. and Gash, D.C. (1994). Technological Frames: Making sense of information technology in organizations, ACM Transactions on Information Systems 12 (2): 174–207.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Orlikowski, W.J. and Robey, D. (1991). Information Technology and the Structuring of Organizations, Information Systems Research 2 (2): 143–169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pask, G. (1975). Conversation, Cognition and Learning: A cybernetic theory, New York: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pernille, B. and Ojelanki, N. (2009). Virtual Team Collaboration: Building shared meaning, resolving breakdowns and creating translucence, Information Systems Journal 19 (3): 227–253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pickering, M.J. and Garrod, S. (2004). Toward a Mechanistic Psychology of Dialogue, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 27 (2): 169–226.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pikkarainen, M., Haikara, J., Salo, O., Abrahamsson, P. and Still, J. (2008). The Impact of Agile Practices on Communication in Software Development, Empirical Software Engineering 13 (3): 303–337.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pohl, K. (1993). The Three Dimensions of Requirements Engineering, 5th International Conference of Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAISE’93), Paris, France: Springer Verlag, Berlin, 275–292.

  • Pohl, K. (1994). The Three Dimensions of Requirements Engineering: A Framework and its Applications, Information Systems 19 (3): 243–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pondy, L.R. (2005). Beyond Open System Models of Organization, Reprinted in E:CO. (7:3–4), pp. 119–137. Originally presented at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Kansas City, Missouri, August 112, 1976.

  • Poppendieck, M. and Poppendieck, T. (2003). Lean Software Development: An Agile toolkit, 1st edn, Amsterdam: Addison-Wesley Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramesh, B., Cao, L. and Baskerville, R. (2010). Agile Requirements Engineering Practices and Challenges: An empirical study, Information Systems Journal 20 (5): 449–480.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robey, D. and Markus, M.L. (1984). Rituals in Information System Design, MIS Quarterly 8 (1): 5–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robey, D. and Newman, M. (1996). Sequential Patterns in Information Systems Development: An application of a social process model, ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS) 14 (1): 30–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robillard, P.N. (1999). The Role of Knowledge in Software Development, Communications of the ACM 42 (1): 87–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rowlands, B. (2009). A Social Actor Understanding of the Institutional Structures at Play in Information Systems Development, Information Technology & People 22 (1): 51–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Royce, W.W. (1970). Managing the Development of Large Software Systems: Concepts and techniques, Proceedings of WesCon, Reprint in: Proceedings of the 9th ICSE 1987: ICSE, 87 Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Software Engineering, Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Computer Society Press, 328–338.

  • Sambamurthy, V. and Kirsch, L.J. (2000). An Integrative Framework of the Information Systems Development Process, Decision Sciences 31 (2): 391–411.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sawyer, S. and Guinan, P.J. (1998). Software Development: Processes and performance, IBM Systems Journal 37 (4): 552–569.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sawyer, S., Guinan, P.J. and Cooprider, J. (2010). Social Interactions of Information Systems development Teams: A performance perspective, Information Systems Journal 20 (1): 81–107.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schoop, M. (2001). An Introduction to the Language-Action Perspective, CM SIGGROUP Bulletin 22 (2): 3–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schutz, A. (ed.) (1962). Concept and Theory Formation in the Social Sciences, Collected Papers: The problem of social reality, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, pp. 48–66.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwaber, K. (1995). Scrum Development Process, Conference on Object-Oriented Programming Systems, Languages, and Applications, pp. 117–134.

  • Searle, J.R. (1969). Speech Acts: An essay in the philosophy of language, Cambridge, UK: University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Selten, R. and Warglien, M. (2007). The Emergence of Simple Language in an Experimental Coordination Game, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104 (18): 7361–7366.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shenhav, Y., Alon, S. and Shrum, W. (1994). Goodness’ Concepts in the Study of Organizations: A longitudinal survey of four leading journals, Organization Studies 15 (5), 09/01, 753–776.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Siau, K., Long, Y. and Ling, M. (2010). Toward a Unified Model of Information Systems Development Success, Journal of Database Management 21 (1): 80–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silverman, D. (1998). Qualitative Research: Meanings or practices, Information Systems Journal 8 (1): 3–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, K. (2004). The Evolution of Vocabulary, Journal of Theoretical Biology 228 (1): 127–142.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sommerville, I. (2001). Software Engineering, 6th edn, Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stamper, R. (1973). Information in Business and Administrative Systems, New York: John Wiley & Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stamper, R., Liu, K., Hafkamp, M. and Ades, Y. (2000). Understanding the Roles of Signs and Norms in Organizations – A Semiotic Approach to Information Systems Design, Behaviour & Information Technology 19 (1): 15–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tan, M. (1994). Establishing Mutual Understanding in Systems Design: An Empirical Study, Journal of Management Information Systems 10 (4): 159–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tomasello, M. (2008). Origins of Human Communication, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tomasello, M., Carpenter, M., Call, J., Behne, T. and Moll, H. (2005). Understanding and Sharing Intentions: The origins of cultural cognition, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 28 (5): 675–691.

    Google Scholar 

  • Truex, D.P., Baskerville, R. and Klein, H. (1999). Growing Systems in Emergent Organizations, Communications of the ACM 42 (8): 117–123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsoukas, H. (2005). Afterword: Why language matters for the analysis of organizational change, Journal of Organizational Change Management 18 (1): 96–104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Urquhart, C. (2001). Analysts and Clients in Organisational Contexts: A conversational perspective, The Journal of Strategic Information Systems 10 (3): 243–262.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vidgen, R. and Wang, X. (2009). Coevolving Systems and the Organization of Agile Software Development, Information Systems Research 20 (3): 355–376.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wand, Y. and Wang, R. (1996). Anchoring Data Quality Dimensions in Ontological Foundations, Communications of the ACM 39 (11): 86–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wand, Y. and Weber, R. (1995). On the Deep Structure of Information Systems, Information Systems Journal 5 (3): 203–223.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watts Sussman, S. and Guinan, P.J. (1999). Antidotes for High Complexity and Ambiguity in Software Development, Information & Management 36 (1): 23–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weber, R.A. and Camerer, C.F. (2003). Cultural Conflict and Merger Failure: An experimental approach, Management Science 49 (4): 400–415.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, C. (2010). Client–Vendor Knowledge Transfer in IS Offshore Outsourcing: Insights from a survey of Indian software engineers, Information Systems Journal 21 (4): 335–356.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winawer, J., Witthoft, N., Frank, M.C., Wade, A.R., Wu, L. and Boroditsky, L. (2007). Russian Blues Reveal Effects of Language on Color Discrimination, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104 (19): 7780–7785.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winograd, T. (1988). A Language/Action Perspective on the Design of Cooperative Work, Human-Computer Interaction 3 (1): 3–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winograd, T. and Flores, F. (1986). Understanding Computers and Cognition: A new foundation for design, Norwood: Ablex Publishing Corp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wynn, E.H., Whitley, E.A. and Myers, M. (2002). Placing Language in the Foreground: Themes and methods in information technology discourse, in E.H. Wynn, E.A. Whitley, M.D. Myers and J.I.D. Gross (eds.) Global and Organizational Discourse about Information Technology, Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 1–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Xia, W. and Lee, G. (2005). Complexity of Information Systems Development Projects: Conceptualization and measurement development, Journal of Management Information Systems 22 (1): 45–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the editorial team of Journal of Information Technology for guidance and the three anonymous reviewers for very supportive feedback that helped enormously to improve the manuscript. The conference audience at ICIS 2010 also contributed with valuable comments to an earlier version of this article. In addition we would like to thank Christian Bill for his help in analyzing the data and Dr. Karlheinz Kautz for fruitful discussions and comments. Parts of this study were funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education (record no.: 01HQ0608).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Christoph Rosenkranz, Marianne Corvera Charaf & Roland Holten

Authors
  1. Christoph Rosenkranz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Marianne Corvera Charaf
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Roland Holten
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christoph Rosenkranz.

Appendices

Appendix A

Coding scheme for symbol and concept

Coding source: Transcript of utterances spoken by the stakeholders.

Table A1

Table A1 LC coding category – coding rules
Full size table

Figure A1

Figure A1
figure 5

Example for the identification of an OD and the respective LC coding.The OD name is given by the coder and corresponds to one of the observed symbols.

Full size image

Appendix B

Table B1

Table B1 Objects of definition and all codes
Full size table

Appendix C

Description of the Generation of the Coding ID

Each coding can be identified in Appendix B as follows:

illustration

figure a

The used coding ID consists of the following parts:

Table C1

Table 8 Table C1
Full size table

Appendix D

Table D1

Table D1 Subsets of codings and objects of definition
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Rosenkranz, C., Charaf, M. & Holten, R. Language quality in requirements development: tracing communication in the process of information systems development. J Inf Technol 28, 198–223 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1057/jit.2012.33

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/jit.2012.33

Keywords

Search

Navigation