Book chapter
12. Square of values
Abstract
When creating software systems, experts in the field of Business Informatics must consider the values of the stakeholders. However, it might occur that stakeholder values are conflicting, resulting in not all stakeholder values being considered. If not all stakeholder values are being considered, ethical issues may arise. To resolve these ethical issues, ethical reasoning can be applied. The Square of Values is a low-threshold tool that can be used for ethical reasoning in the software development process. The tool originates in a doctrine of the square of opposition, originally introduced by Aristotle in 350 BC. Since then, the original doctrine has been refined to the Square of Values tool as it is used today.
The Square of values Tool is based upon two conflicting values. These values should have positive tension with each other, meaning that they cannot both be true at the same time. An example of two values that have positive tension are “generosity” and “thriftiness”. For both these values, exaggerations are then created, which are situations in which the values are overly applied. For example, overly applying the value of generosity might lead to being wasteful, so “wastefulness” is the exaggeration of “generosity”. When the exaggerations are created, scenarios are formulated so that for every value (the starting values and exaggerations), a scenario exists in which that value is considered. As the last step, a scenario is created in which both the core values are considered, resulting in a consensus between the values and a resolving of the ethical issue at hand.
The Square of Values tool has been and can be applied in different domains. For example, the tool is used in the domain of Business Informatics, where Requirements Engineering is combined with values. Furthermore, the Square of Values tool can be applied at different abstraction levels, such as on the individual level or team level. Applications of the tool can further be categorized in two approaches. The first approach is one where the tool is used to help create the best possible process to form and validate new ideas. In the second approach the tool acts as a mediator to help parties find the optimal scenario which takes two conflicting values into account.
Knowledge clip
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