Applying Design Methodology to Software Development

Professional software development. and specifically the external design of interactive systems, suffers from a tension between the normative development models being prescribed and the actual design work being performed. This tension manifests itself in, e.g.. recurring problems with tluctuating requirements. I argue that this tension can be understood as the clash of two views on external design work: the engineering design and the creative design perspectives. To explain the tension and to lay a foundation for new ways to structure software development. I seek to apply critical insights and concepts from design methodology -the theoretical framework for creative design. The result is a development process in which external design is separated from internal design and construction. The external design work consists of conceptual, constitutive and consolidatory steps. The process shares some characteristics with participatory design, but the designer’s expertise is recognized and identified.

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