Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-cphqk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-22T11:21:13.207Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Untangling wicked problems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 April 2016

Raymond McCALL  and
Janet Burge
Raymond McCALL
Affiliation:
Environmental Design Program, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA
Janet Burge*
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, USA
*
Reprint requests to: Janet Burge, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Wesleyan University, Science Tower 655, 265 Church Street, Middletown, CT 06459-012, USA. E-mail: jburge@wesleyan.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

More than 40 years after Rittel and Webber published the first articles on the theory of wicked problems this theory has been applied to a wide range of fields involved in real-world problem solving. Interest in the theory seems greater than ever. This has led to an interest in rethinking the theory. A number of authors do this by imposing interpretations on the theory that are incompatible with each other and with the statements of the theory's authors. We agree that it is time to critically reexamine the theory and rethink what implications it has for design. However, rather than imposing an incompatible interpretation, our approach is see what new conclusions can be drawn from a systematic and critical examination of what Rittel and Webber actually said. This reexamination of their specific claims and arguments is what we call untangling wicked problems. From this untangling, we derive new conclusions about how designers should tackle wicked problems and how design rationale can aid them in doing so.

Keywords

Cause–Effect RelationshipsDesign RationaleParticipatory DesignUnforeseen ConsequencesWicked Problems
Type
Special Issue Articles
Information
AI EDAM , Volume 30 , Issue 2: Design Computing and Cognition (DCC'14) , May 2016 , pp. 200 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Allen, C., Fornier, S., & Miller, F. (2008). Brands and their meaning makers. In Handbook of Consumer Psychology (Haugtvedt, C.P., Herr, P., & Kardes, F.R., Eds.), pp. 781–822. New York: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Arnett, D.K. (2012). Wicked problems and worthy pursuits: resolving to meet American Heart Association 2020 Impact Goals. Circulation 125(21), 2554–2556.Google Scholar
Balint, P.J, Stewart, R.E., Desai, A., & Walters, L. (2011). Wicked Environmental Problems: Managing Uncertainty and Conflict. Washington, DC: Island Press.Google Scholar
Bracewell, R., Ahmed, S., & Wallace, K. (2004). DREd and Design Folders, a way of capturing, storing, and passing on knowledge generated during design projects. Proc. ASME 2004 Design Automation Conf., pp. 235–246, Salt Lake City, UT, September 28–October 2.Google Scholar
Buchanan, R. (1992). Wicked problems in design thinking. Design Issues 8(2), 5–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buckingham Shum, S.J., Selvin, A.M., Sierhuis, M., Conklin, J., Haley, C.B., & Nuseibeh, B. (2006). Hypermedia support for argumentation-based rationale: 15 years on from gIBIS and QOC. In Rationale Management in Software Engineering (Dutoit, A.H., McCall, R., Mistrik, I., & Paech, B., Eds.), pp. 111–132. Heidelberg: Springer.Google Scholar
Burge, J.E., & Brown, D.C. (2006). Rationale-based support for software maintenance. In Rationale Management in Software Engineering (Dutoit, A.H., McCall, R., Mistrik, I., & Paech, B., Eds.), pp. 273–296. Heidelberg: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burge, J., Carroll, J.M., McCall, R., & Mistrik, I. (Eds). (2008). Rationale-Based Software Engineering. Heidelberg: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burge, J., & McCall, R. (2014). Diagnosing wicked problems. 6th Int. Conf. Design Computing and Cognition. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Cherry, E. (1999). Programming for Design: From Theory to Practice. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Churchman, C.W. (1967). Wicked problems. Management Science 14(4), B-141–B-142.Google Scholar
Clemente, D., & Evans, R. (2015). Wartime Logistics in Afghanistan and Beyond: Analysing Complex Adaptive Systems as Networks and as Wicked Problems. London: Royal Institute for International Affairs/Chatham House.Google Scholar
Conklin, E.J. (2006). Dialogue Mapping: Building Shared Understanding of Wicked Problems. Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Conklin, E.J., Basadur, M., & VanPatter, G.K. (2007). Rethinking wicked problems: unpacking paradigms, bridging universes. NextD Journal 10, 1–30.Google Scholar
Conklin, E.J., & Begeman, M.L. (1988). gIBIS: a hypertext tool for exploratory policy discussion. ACM Transactions on Office Information Systems 6(4), 303–331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coyne, R. (2005). Wicked problems revisited. Design Studies 26(1), 5–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeGrade, P., & Stahl, L. (1990). Wicked Problems, Righteous Solutions: A Catalog of Modern Engineering Paradigms. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Dunne, D., & Martin, R. (2006). Design thinking and how it will change management education: an interview and discussion. Academy of Management Learning & Education 5(4), 512–523.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dutoit, A.H., McCall, R., Mistrik, I., & Paech, B. (Eds). (2006) Rationale Management in Software Engineering. Heidelberg: Springer.Google Scholar
Ermolaeva, E., & Ross, J. (2010). Unintended Consequences of Human Actions. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.Google Scholar
Farrell, R., & Hooker, C. (2013). Design, science and wicked problems. Design Studies 34(6), 681–705.Google Scholar
Fischer, G., Lemke, A., McCall, R., & Morch, A. (1996). Making argumentation serve design. In Design Rationale: Concepts, Techniques, and Use, pp. 267–293. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Fischer, G., McCall, R., & Morch, A. (1989). Design environments for constructive and argumentative design. Proc. 1989 ACM Conf. Human Computer Interaction (CHI 89), pp. 269–275. New York: ACM.Google Scholar
Kirschner, P.A., Buckingham Shum, S.J., & Carr, C.S. (Eds). (2003). Visualizing Argumentation: Software Tools for Collaborative and Educational Sense-Making. London: Springer.Google Scholar
Kovacic, S.F., & Sousa-Poza, A. (2013). Managing and Engineering in Complex Situations. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Kunz, W., & Rittel, H.W.J. (1970). Issues as Elements of Information Systems. Working Paper 131, University of California, Berkeley, Institute for Urban & Regional Development.Google Scholar
Mansfield, J. (2010). The Nature of Change or the Law of Unintended Consequences: An Introductory Text to Designing Complex Systems and Managing Change. London: Imperial College Press.Google Scholar
McCall, R., Bennett, P., d'Oronzio, P., Ostwald, J., Shipman, F., & Wallace, N. (1990). PHIDIAS: integrating CAD graphics into dynamic hypertext. Proc. 1990 European Conf. Hypertext: ECHT ‘90. Hypertext: Concepts, Systems and Applications (Rizk, A., Streitz, N., & Andre, J., Eds.), pp. 152–165. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McCall, R., Bennet, P., & Johnson, E. (1994). An overview of the PHIDIAS II HyperCAD system. Proc. 1994 Conf. Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture. Reconnecting: ACADIA ’94 (Harfman, A., Ed.), pp. 63–74. St. Louis, MO: Washington University Press.Google Scholar
McCall, R., Schaab, B., & Schuler, W. (1983). An information station for the problem solver: system concepts. Proc. 1st Int. Conf. Application of Mini- and Microcomputers in Information, Retrieval and Libraries, pp. 138–147. Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar
Merton, R.K. (1936). The unanticipated consequences of purposive social action. American Sociological Review 1(6), 894–904.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moran, T.P., & Carroll, J.M. (Eds). (1996). Design Rationale: Concepts, Techniques, and Use. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Poon, J., & Maher, M.L. (1997). Co-evolution and evolution in design. AI In Engineering 11(3), 319–327.Google Scholar
Protzen, J.-P. & Harris, D.J. (2010). The Universe of Design: Horst Rittel's Theories of Design and Planning. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rith, C., & Dubberly, H. (2007). Why Horst W.J. Rittel matters. Design Issues 22(4), 1–20.Google Scholar
Rittel, H.W.J. (1972). On the planning crisis: systems analysis of the “first and second generations.” Bedriftskonomen 8, 390–396.Google Scholar
Rittel, H.W.J., & Webber, M. (1973). Dilemmas in a general theory of planning Rittel. Policy Sciences 4(2), 155–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, B., Qiao, Y., Gung, J., Mathur, T., & Burge, J. (2014). Using text mining techniques to extract rationale from existing documentation. Proc. 6th Int. Conf. Design Computing and Cognition, pp. 457–474. Amsterdam: Springer International.Google Scholar
Schön, D.A. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Simon, H.A. (1956). Rational choice and the structure of the environment. Psychological Review 63(2), 129–138.Google Scholar
Stolterman, E. (2008). The nature of design practice and implications for interaction design research. International Journal of Design 2(1), 55–65.Google Scholar
Tenner, E. (1997). Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar