Accommodating disagreement: A study of effective design collaboration

This paper reports an investigation into the verbal interaction between two experienced software designers developing initial ideas for a new software application. Paying attention to the conversational strategies that make manifest the ‘web of moves’ (Schön, 1985) that characterises expert design behaviour, the study focuses on how the designers keep the designing moving on productively despite uncertainties and ambiguities over the brief and disagreement over elements of the design itself. The study examines how tentativeness supports constructive collaboration and draws attention to the conversational strategies used to accommodate disagreement, in particular explicit reference to it and the use of technicalising terms to encapsulate, but acknowledge, differences about how design requirements should be realised. The work contributes to understanding the subtle conversational mechanisms that support effective design collaboration and highlights the need to acknowledge phenomena that serve collaboration itself.

► A study of verbal interaction between software engineers.
► Focuses on how they keep design moving on productively despite disagreement.
► Identifies conversational strategies to accommodate disagreement.
► Argues for attending to how collaboration itself is supported conversationally.