In the Object community, Use Cases are a popular way of specifying the expected behavior of a system. They explore how different users achieve their goals through interactions at the system boundary. But how do we agree the boundary of a system and how is the nature of the system decided?

Business modeling is not enough. Brainstorming sessions about the "system to-be" are often too short and lack methodological support. Pre-occupation with the constraints of the "current business logic" will deny new ideas. There needs to be a place for creative thinking and generating new possibilities. System envisioning is about defining a space upstream from Use Cases where users, business analysts, technologists and system architects can detach from the logic of the current systems. New systems ideas emerge when we freely perceive and define organizations and systems.

The first System Envisioning Workshop, held at OOPSLA '96, focused on establishing the "terrain" of system envisioning and what governs the possibilities for what a software system might and should do. The second workshop, at OOPSLA'97, was on the role of metaphors in systems envisioning. The third workshop explored "creativity" and techniques for creative dialogue such as the "ConceptCafe". This fourth workshop returns to the theme of metaphors and creative thinking but in the context of what we are calling "Idea Schemes".

"Idea Schemes" are a way of capturing powerful ideas about what a system should be. They facilitate discussion about the nature of the system to be built by anchoring key ideas. Concepts are represented in a "context of applicability" with the forces and benefits described in a pattern-like language. Like a pattern an Idea Scheme has a name which has a meaning in a context. Whereas Use Cases center the dialogue on what a system will do, Idea Schemes support a dialogue for what a system should be. They serve as patterns for promoting ideas in different situations and for inviting discussion about how key ideas interplay.

System envisioning occupies a space in the development life cycle where we foster creativity in conceptualizing solutions to problems by allowing new ways of speaking about and seeing the world. Often creative thinking about systems is born out of metaphors and imagery.

In this workshop we want to share experiences on how system envisioning has happened and can happen in system development projects. We want to share stories on "leaving behind" an "as-is" system to re-conceptualize the possibilities of a software system. We will identify interventions and techniques that are important for imagining and sharing the possibilities for a "could-be" or "to-be" system. We will explore the role of metaphors and analogies in system conceptualization.

We wish to share experiences on requirements elicitation and generation techniques that help us think "out-of-the-box". Through techniques such as fantasizing, scenario generation/enactment and future search, we attempt to experience what a new system will be like, and what was important to its creation.

Organizers:

Ralph Hodgson, IBM Consulting Group, North America
Email: rhodgson@us.ibm.com

Martine Devos, EDS Electronic Data Systems

Brian Foote, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign