Complete thesis - Murdoch University

Perspectives on REWithin the IT disciplines, the complexity of the systems development process has also led tomultiple approaches to its definition and study: the work of Iivari (1991) and Glass (1992)identify and categorise these, based on epistemological and ontological positions taken, whileShackelford (2005) provides an overview of what might be considered computing today. Ata fundamental level, the assumptions made on, for example, the nature of the system or theimportance of its context, and the nature of knowledge, influence the perspective taken andhow the work is undertaken.The dominant views as to the nature of Requirements Engineering in systems developmentspan across the dimensions positivist – non-positivist and hard – soft. Traditionallythese perspectives have led to three broad categories - hard (objective, positivist, scientific),soft (subjective, interpretivist) and hard/soft (exemplified by the socio-technical approach)(Loucopoulos and Karakostas, 1995; Checkland and Holwell, 1998). Whether requirementsexist in some objective sense, and how methods and tools used impose and embody differentworldviews and create different worlds for the system under consideration. The beliefs heldregarding these aspects affect how the RE student learns to become a competent practitioner,and help determine what skills must be acquired.Despite an increasing emphasis on the relevance of unique factors specific to each situation(and the implied less general regularities), RE has traditionally reflected heavily the positivistepistemology. For the education of Requirements Engineers, what is disseminated to the nextgeneration is based on what is in the textbooks (Iivari, 1991; Checkland and Holwell, 1998;Sawyer and Kotonya, 2000) as well as the ideological stance adopted, and hence, in general,also align with a positivist (hard or soft) perspective. However, partly due to the diversityof the problems tackled, characterised by across-case irregularity, there is no single correctway of undertaking Requirement Engineering. Robinson (2001) suggests RE is situated inSchön’s swampy lowlands (Schön, 1983) and therefore fails to yield to a technically rationalsolution. This suggests the challenges of teaching and learning Requirements Engineeringtranscend the epistemological stance taken.1.2.2 Research approachThis research is undertaken with an acceptance of the view that not only is education a socialdiscipline, but also the (knowledge/discipline) domain into which the students expect to enter.These social system define the roles, values and rewards of their members, and their expectationsregarding participation within them. The action of the research can only be understoodby an ongoing act of interpretation (Mansell, 1991) and reflection (Schön, 1987). However,13