Issue-based information system

detail of a Tree of Knowledge after Diderot & d'Alembert's Encyclopédie, by Chrétien Frédéric Guillaume Roth
Information mapping
Topics and fields
Node–link approaches
See also

The issue-based information system (IBIS) is an argumentation-based approach to clarifying wicked problems—complex, ill-defined problems that involve multiple stakeholders.[1] Diagrammatic visualization using IBIS notation is often called issue mapping.[2]: ix 

IBIS was invented by Werner Kunz and Horst Rittel in the 1960s. According to Kunz and Rittel, "Issue-Based Information Systems (IBIS) are meant to support coordination and planning of political decision processes. IBIS guides the identification, structuring, and settling of issues raised by problem-solving groups, and provides information pertinent to the discourse."[1]

Subsequently, the understanding of planning and design as a process of argumentation (of the designer with himself or with others) has led to the use of IBIS in design rationale,[3][4] where IBIS notation is one of a number of different kinds of rationale notation.[5] The simplicity of IBIS notation, and its focus on questions, makes it especially suited for representing conversations during the early exploratory phase of problem solving, when a problem is relatively ill-defined.[6]: 204 

The basic structure of IBIS is a graph. It is therefore quite suitable to be manipulated by computer, as in a graph database.[7]

  1. ^ a b Kunz, Werner; Rittel, Horst W. J. (July 1970). Issues as elements of information systems (Working paper). Berkeley: Institute of Urban and Regional Development, University of California, Berkeley. OCLC 5065959. 131.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Knowledge Cartography was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Rittel, Horst W. J.; Noble, Douglas E. (January 1989) [1988]. Issue-based information systems for design (PDF) (Working paper). Berkeley: Institute of Urban and Regional Development, University of California, Berkeley. OCLC 20155825. 492. Retrieved 26 May 2017. Originally presented to the ACADIA '88 Conference, Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture, University of Michigan, October 1988.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference 15 years was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Buckingham Shum, Simon J. (1991). "Cognitive dimensions of design rationale". In Diaper, Dan; Hammond, Nick V. (eds.). People and computers VI: proceedings of the HCI '91 Conference, 20–23 August 1991. British Computer Society conference series. Vol. 3. Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 331–344. ISBN 978-0521416948. OCLC 24871337. Also available as: Technical Report EPC-91-114, Rank Xerox EuroPARC.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Culmsee & Awati 2011 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Conklin, E. Jeffrey; Begeman, Michael L. (October 1988). "gIBIS: a hypertext tool for exploratory policy discussion" (PDF). ACM Transactions on Information Systems. 6 (4): 303–331. doi:10.1145/58566.59297. S2CID 2609461. Retrieved 26 May 2017.