Critical Requirements Engineering in Practice

TL;DR

This paper advocates for integrating Critical Systems Heuristics into Requirements Engineering to better address the values, ethics, and power dynamics involved in designing systems, demonstrated through a case study on elderly care.

Contribution

It introduces a practical approach combining Critical Systems Heuristics with RE techniques to uncover underlying value judgments in requirements gathering.

Findings

CSH helps reveal implicit values in requirements

Combining CSH with RE techniques enhances understanding of ethical considerations

Case study demonstrates practical application in elderly care system

Abstract

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.