Complete thesis - Murdoch University

ary process should also be regarded as flawed. Rather, it can be demonstrated to be one ofknowledge discovery (Guindon, 1989) facilitated by opportunistic behaviour (Guindon, 1990;Visser, 1992), and creativity (Lubars et al, 1993; Maiden and Sutcliffe, 1992; Maiden andGizikis, 2001; Thomas et al, 2002). These add richness to the mental model of the problemsituation (Batra and Davis, 1992) developed through an exploratory and self-correctingdialogue (Bach, 1999).Exponents of this view of RE assert it is hampered by strict adherence to an engineering andscience perspective. This is seen to restrict the essential characteristics of the process (such asopportunism) (Guindon, 1989); assists in adding accidental complexity by restricting naturalproblem-solving (Sutcliffe and Maiden, 1992); interferes with the management of knowledge(Visser, 1990) and inhibits the necessary creative thinking required by superimposing goalstoo early (Boden, 1997).The issues noted above characterise the discipline of RE as ‘wicked’ (Bubenko, 1995). Conklin(2005) provides a summary of criteria for wicked problems, based on the work of Rittel (1969),who coined the term:• the problem is ill structured, an evolving set of interlocking issues and constraints, sothat every solution that is offered exposes new aspects of the problem, requiring furtheradjustments of the potential solutions. What the problem is depends on who you ask• wicked problems have no stopping rule – a solution satisfices (Simon, 1981)• solutions to wicked problems are not right or wrong – the determination of solutionquality is not objective and is assessed in a social context in which judgement is likelyto vary widely and depends on the stakeholders values and goals• every wicked problem is essentially unique and novel – the solution will always becustom designed and fitted. Over time one acquires wisdom and experience about theapproach to wicked problems, but one is always a beginner in the specifics of a newwicked problem• every solution to a wicked problem is likely to spawn new wicked problems• wicked problems have no given alternative solutions – it is a matter of creativity todevise potential solutions, and a matter of judgement to determine which are valid,which should be pursued and implemented.Conklin (2005, p 10) concludes:The point is not so much to be able to determine if a given problem is wicked ornot as to have a sense of what contributes to the ‘wickedness’ of a problem.4