A survey of issue resolution on the incremental refinement of the system scope in web system development

Abstract

Increasingly, IT systems and Web systems in particular, fall into the class of applications where the scope of the application to be developed cannot be clearly articulated a priori. This is for a range of reasons, but is at least in part due to the complex interdependencies which exist between different aspects of the problem domain. While Whereas the core system requirements might be clear, the domain inter-dependencies lead to ancillary requirements which are only identified as the emerging system and its relationship to the domain are understood. A key mechanism in supporting the development of this understanding is the exploration of application pilots or prototypes, and the subsequent identification of solution or problem domain "issues". The resolution of these issues will often play a crucial role in supporting the development of domain understanding and hence project scope. In this paper we explore this phenomenon by analysing issue handling across a range of case studies. We describe a model of the issue resolution process and highlight those issues which are most likely to assist in clarification of project scope.