Building Information Systems Development Methods: Synthesizing from a Basis in both Theory and Practice

In this paper, we discuss some methodological issues associated with research into requirements engineering, and describe the benefits afforded to us by using action research to explore issues associated with requirements elicitation, modelling and validation. FOOM is a requirements engineering method which is designed to facilitate the development of high-quality, requirements-conformant information systems. In creating FOOM, an overriding concern has been to ensure both theoretic soundness and practical applicability within the target domain. We discuss in this paper the benefits of using action research as an enquiry mechanism for exploring issues associated with requirements elicitation, modelling and validation, and the way in which it formed a central part of the method’s evaluation and evolution.