The emergence of shared understanding: applying functional pragmatics to study the requirements development process

摘要

While the importance of social interactions and especially communication is generally acknowledged in information systems development and requirements development, there are few studies that investigate communication. Departing from the conceptualisation of information systems development as a language development and formalisation process, we focus on linguistic communication and the development of language-based shared understanding of requirements. We investigate and analyse the semantic alignment process by which stakeholders achieve shared understanding in requirements development. We adopt Functional Pragmatics and examine how linguistic communication is shaped and regulated during requirements development in an actual project. By developing a pattern for semantic alignment and its use as an analytical lens, we enable a systematic and insightful understanding of communication in information systems development.