1. Requirements Gathering in Information Technology: a Cross-cultural
Perspective
Americo B. Cunha Alberto G. Canen
Production Engineering Department Production Engineering Department
COPPE/UFRJ COPPE/UFRJ
Production Engineering Department agcanen@pep.ufrj.br
CEFET-RJ
americo@pep.ufrj.br
Abstract contract, standard, specification, or other formally
The requirements gathering phase in IT projects is imposed documents; (3) a documented representation of a
recognized as one of the most crucial phases in condition or capability as in (1) or (2).”
Information Systems (IS) initiatives. The challenge is to The BSS projects are classified as User-Centered
coordinate and understand correctly a large variety of Design (UCD), and their success relay on good
sources of information. This diversity of sources forces requirements because the IT outcomes must focus on the
the Information Technology (IT) specialists to confront a end users’ business rules. Without good requirements,
“many-to-many intercultural interaction” in almost all projects fail, are late, come in over budget, or produce
projects. The development of the concepts of sensibility, systems that are never used [3]. The requirements
openness, and multiculturalism among IT team can lead gathering process is conducted in the earliest phase of
to better systems requirements. This paper discusses the SDLC and the problems arise when requirements are not
importance of cross-cultural sensitivity in IT projects and precisely communicated or not correctly understood.
how to enhance intercultural consciousness and the Many researchers indicate that several problems in the
communication performance in environments with high software engineering are related to the users-analysts
levels of diversity. interaction. Ambiguous requirements may be interpreted
Keywords: Software Engineering, Software in different ways by developers and users [4]. Several
Requirements, Cross-cultural communication, sources of ambiguity can be found due to differences
Multiculturalism. among the stakeholders. The communities involved in the
“requirements elicitation possess a variety of backgrounds
Introduction and experience levels, so that which is common
knowledge to one group may be completely foreign to
The development and updating of Business Support another. “This makes it difficult for a requirements
Systems (BSS) is a key success factor in a fast changing analyst to interpret and integrate information gathered
environment. Support systems must be updated and from these diverse communities” [5].
changed very often, therefore the requirements gathering Furthermore, requirement gathering can become much
in the systems developing life cycle (SDLC) have become more complex when distinct national and organizational
a crucial phase of the strategic changing. In this paper, cultures are involved. The globalization and
requirements gathering process will be discussed from a transnationalization of several organizations, has
cross-cultural perspective. The research question introduced other challenges to IT systems development.
addressed here is how to develop intercultural In fact, the sources of requirements can come from people
consciousness among professionals in charge of the of distinct nationalities and the system, when it is ready,
requirements gathering process in Information should work properly in different countries. New
Technology (IT) projects. challenges emerge from the cultural diversity, “managers
A requirement in Information Systems (IS) is a and staff in general have been moving more frequently to
statement of need, something that some class of user or cultural environments different of their own” [6]. In order
other stakeholder wants [1]. According to IEEE [2] a for this cross-cultural interaction to be productive, a
“requirement” is defined as “(1) a condition or capability reliable communication process is needed as well as
needed by a user to solve a problem or achieve an people with multicultural competences, here understood
objective; (2) a condition or capability that must be met or as the “ability and flexibility to deal with the tension of
possessed by a system or system component to satisfy a cultural differences” [7]. According to Canen & Canen
978-1-4244-2086-5/08/$25.00 ©2008 IEEE

2. [8], the intercultural perspective could sensitize all the analyst working with user can specify systems
diverse communities involved in the requirement requirements reasonably, completely and consistently.”
gathering process to cross-cultural concerns. This [11]. On the contrary now, the development of large
approach might lead to reduce misunderstandings, systems that integrate all functions of a corporation, is
ambiguities, and conflicts. always a great challenge. At the very beginning of the
Following Canen and Canen [6], “the idea is to tackle SDLC, the requirements gathering depends on a good
cultural plurality with either technical or human definition of all stakeholders, irrespective of who they are
competencies in order to: create a cultural tolerant and wherever they are located. It is imperative these days
environment in the organization, try to minimize that an IT analyst has good communication skills with all
disruptions and mismanagements due to cultural diversity kind of individuals regardless of their origins, background
ignorance; and optimize market profits, by offering an and previous experience.
organizational image fitted to consumers’ culturally According to the International Institute of Business
diverse profiles”. This paper has two basic objectives, Analysis (IIBA) [12], the Business Analyst (BA) is the
first to present why cross-cultural sensitivity is important professional in charge of eliciting, analyzing,
in the IS projects and to discuss multicultural communicating and validating requirements for changes
competencies in the technical staff, non-management to business processes, policies and information systems.
level and other stakeholders in IS developing teams. For simplicity, the term BA will be used in this paper to
Secondly, it proposes the basis for a practical approach to identify the professional that performs the activities of
enhance intercultural communication to reduce requirements gathering in IS initiatives, although other
communication problems in the requirements gathering definitions can be found in the IT industry. Here, the role
phase. Differently from other studies, this work intends to of this professional will be studied focusing the
suggest an approach to improve intercultural communication issues related to the context of IS
competencies in contexts where there are several cultures development.
dealing one with each other at the same time. Indeed, the BA has to deal with a large variety of
The present paper is structured in four main sections: sources of information, including the distinct business
firstly, the main communication issues of the areas within the organization, partners, suppliers, and
requirements gathering and elicitation in IT projects are clients. After a BA identifies all sources of information,
discussed. In the next section, it presents the multicultural he has to initiate the eliciting, sorting and conflict
concepts, competencies [6][7][8][9], and theoretical resolution tasks. The ability of dealing with completely
frameworks to assess cross-cultural communication, distinct groups make this activity very difficult and the
particularly focusing on Hofstede’s [10] dimensions for BA’s task success depends on how he is able to
national and organizational cultures. This will be communicate with distinct professional profiles,
followed by a proposal of a basic multicultural education backgrounds and communications patterns. Some users
approach to be applied in IT projects in order to improve either have difficulty or are not willing to describe
the multicultural sensibility within the project team. As a minutely how they perform a task or deliver an outcome
conceptual exploratory study, the main purpose is to in the work process. BA’s sensibility should go further
broaden the understanding of how multiculturalism than the requirement gathering itself and include the
influences system development within culturally diverse awareness of the interlocutor’s ability of communication
teams and to bring to discussion the best possible and his desire to cooperate. Communication and
approach to develop intercultural communication perception sensibility seems to be very important to the
consciousness in technologic-driven specialists in the IS BA role however, it is not usually required as the other IT
industry. The final section will raise some possible technical skills.
directions for further studies. Additionally, the IS development team usually give a
lower emphasis on requirements gathering than on the
The main issues of requirements gathering in technical IS activities. We agree with Morgan [13] that IS
IT projects industry put much more emphasis on the software
programming and cleverness of the coders than in the
Requirements gathering and elicitation in IT projects communication process required to understand deeply the
are presented as key steps for the success of support needs of a client when he is demanding an information
systems projects these days. In the past, IS initiatives did system solution. When insufficient attention is paid to
not have the crucial role for corporations that they have requirements, the experience has shown that the price
now. Some years ago, the IS have had a delimited scope paid could be very high and systems, once ready could
just to support local activities within the business units. In neither customer needs, nor be delivered on time and be
those small and local projects “requirements analysis and over budget [1]. Although all phases of a system
development are relatively unproblematic, an individual development are important, this work focuses its analysis

3. in the initial phase usually called Software Requirements to develop the ability and flexibility to deal with distinct
[14]. cultures and the natural tension that might emerge from
In general, the IS industry has developed its own way this interaction [7]. In the previous topic, we argued that
to enhance the communication efficiency amongst the the activity of requirements gathering relies basically on a
stakeholders and systems developing team. Several good communication skill, sensibility, and openness to
communication models were structured trying to promote deal with distinct domains of knowledge and, in
a standard tool that would be understood by everyone in multicultural environments, with different cultures too.
the team. Most of the models represent graphically the We tend to say that the project team diversity can
information architecture and business processes as the negatively influence the results of the software
Data Flow Diagram – DFD, Entity-Relationship Model – requirements phase and would require an extra
ERM, more recently Unified Modelling Language – UML communication effort.
and others. These models are an analogy of the natural These days the cultural diversity is very high due the
language and are used to help the visualization of how the multinational workforce presence in all kinds of industry
system will work. It shows the interfaces of a system to that uses IS and even inside IS industry. The cultural
all external entities (users and other systems), functions diversity is present when an IT specialist deals with a
that will be performed, data transformations, relationships user, a client, and a colleague. Diversity, in a general
that will be established among information, system perspective, defined as “a mixture of people with
behaviour and users (Brackett in [11]). Although these different group identities within the same social system”
models are very well-structured and known within IT [17] and includes several dimensions of culture as gender,
specialists, they are still very confusing in the users’ point nationality, profession, religion, economic class, ethnic
of view. Thus the efficiency of these models depends on a group, educational background and etc.. The importance
good translation, usually done by the BA acting as a of management of cultural context among IT workers and
requirements translator, from the natural language of the workplaces is related to the interactions among groups of
users to the graphical language of the IT models. people with different worldviews [18]. It seems that a
At this point, we can assume that a good IS multicultural competence is much more than the ability to
requirement is a direct consequence of a good deal with foreigners. We also support the idea, raised by
communication process involving managers, users, Canen & Canen [7], that every organization is
Business Analysts and the whole system developing team. multicultural per se and, because of this, should develop
The BA should interpret business requirements from competences to deal with people that have different
several sources of information to prepare formal writing perceptions of the world. That being so, the development
documents based in IT standard models. This writing of abilities of communication, understanding and
documents will drive all IS development activities from interpretation of the culture of one person that is
this phase up to the system implementation. The describing a system requirement can lead to a system that
translation of needs and the process of writing down the is better aligned with the customer’s needs and desires.
requirements are, consequently, very critical and can be a Distinct domains of knowledge and cultural identities
source of misunderstandings [13]. Therefore, we support within an IT project should develop what Hofstede [10]
Davis et al [15] when they stated that the “effective call as “collective programming of the mind which
requirements elicitation depends upon the ability of user distinguishes one group or category of people from
and analyst to understand and appreciate one another’s another”. Each organizational or project group is able to
world”. Even considering a homogeneous cultural develop its own culture that should be perceived and
environment, the activity of requirements gathering, interpreted correctly by the IT developing team. The
elucidation, and communication should be performed authors agree with Hofstede statement that culture should
with sensibility and openness to the other points of view be understood as a construct that cannot be evaluated by a
besides one’s own beliefs and background. simple observation but inferred indirectly over verbal
statements and other behaviours. An assessment of one’s
Multicultural concepts and competencies culture can be very useful to predict a person’s behaviour
or reaction under certain circumstances or if a certain
Sensibility, openness, and multiculturalism, what event occurs. We defend the idea that the concepts of
could these concepts bring to IT projects? culture and diversity are very important to anyone within
Multiculturalism is taken here as cultural pluralism the IS initiative.
relating to or constituting several cultural or ethnic groups Several approaches were described to bring the
[16]. Bringing this concept to an IT project environment; multicultural concepts to and develop intercultural
if distinct cultures are present it means that the abilities in professional environments. Higgs [19] has
individuals should interact with other individuals of pointed out three areas that should be considered in order
different cultural identities. Hence, every project team has to get an effective management of international teams: (1)

4. identify the nature and implications of national cultural which the individual grew up and collected the life
differences within the team, (2) establish a basis for experiences. The usage of a classification based in the
building understanding and awareness of cultural nationality made the cultural identities evaluation feasible
differences and how they may be managed, (3) formulate however, it is important to say, that it should be used with
a framework for developing a high performing team, care because even within a country there could have been
which takes into account cultural differences and several cultural identities. The differences among national
leverages the diversity present. Canen & Canen [7] have cultures could be assessed over five bipolar-dimensions:
suggested a three-level framework to multicultural large versus small power distance, individualism versus
competence: cultural identity, workforce cultural diversity collectivism, masculinity versus femininity, strong versus
and potential customers’ and suppliers' cultural diversity. weak uncertainty avoidance and long-term versus short-
These frameworks highlight the necessity of an term orientation. Hofstede also has a framework to assess
educational process that “would necessarily imply not differences organizational cultures that are “located in the
only a knowledge of and sensitivity to cultural diversity, mental programmes of all members of the organization”
but also the deconstruction and challenging of stereotypes [20] and that sub-cultures could be found within an
and assumptions associated with cultural plurality” [8]. organization [21]. To identify cultural differences among
The intercultural communication learning, according to organizations or “business units”, he proposed six bipolar
Hofstede [10], could be developed through three phases: dimensions: process oriented versus results oriented,
(1) building awareness, (2) developing knowledge, (3) employee oriented versus job oriented, parochial versus
building skills. In the first phase, Hofstede suggests, professional, open system versus closed system, loose
besides the traditional study of culture characteristics and versus tight control and normative versus pragmatic.
language, a general learning of the cultural differences to Although dimensions are a partial interpretation and a
develop an awareness of the own culture and the relative simplification of the real cultural identity, these
difference to the other cultures. This should be followed frameworks could facilitate the development of a
by the development of the knowledge of how cultural cognizance of the distinct identities within a professional
differences can work together and, in the last phase, workgroup.
reshape ones´ own behaviour to achieve effective results
working with people from other cultures. All these three How can multicultural perceptions be
approaches seem to have common educational principles developed in system development initiatives?
that highlight the importance of ones own cultural self-
understanding and the knowledge of the others cultural The IS industry has developed a distinct “production
identities, and how they could interact one with another. way” from traditional businesses. In IT projects,
It is noteworthy that the timing is a very worthy asset outsourcing and partnership with several and small
in IT projects and the time available to develop a cross- organizations, or even “personal outsourcing” is very
cultural program might be very concise. In IS industry, common. Therefore, the size, characteristics, and types of
most members of the project team are technologic-driven stakeholders are very diverse and can be changed from
and have never studied theories and concepts about one stage to another in the project life cycle. The basis of
culture. The use of some standard and practical cultural a multicultural education approach in a IS developing
assessment framework could be very useful to facilitate context should consider the network organization model.
the understanding of the concepts of cultural identity, as The network model is a form of organization “consisting
well as establish a common base of analysis and promote of large numbers of functionally specialized firms tied
the exchange of perceptions among the group. Some together in cooperative exchange relationships” [22]. In
academics have developed bipolar dimensional the IS industry, several activities are developed in
frameworks that simplified the study of cultural identities temporary project teams with formal organizational
that make it possible to develop multicultural educational employees and individuals employed on temporary
and training programs outside the academic circle. contracts [23].
Besides other outstanding studies, Hofstede’s [10] works In this type of organization, each individual or
seem to be adequate to the main proposition of this study. teamwork can possess their own cultural identity and
This framework has been tested and discussed extensively have to deal, at same time, with several other individuals
among scholars of several areas and, up to now, has and groups that may have a distinct cultural identity. In
showed a strong consistence. Hofstede has two this context, the interactions are similar to the many-to-
dimensional frameworks, one to assess national culture many communication mode among individuals with
and other related to organizational culture. different cultural identities that the authors are proposing
According to Hofstede [10], the cultural identity is to define here as “many-to-many intercultural
related to fundamental values developed in each person interaction”. The “many-to-many” context is quite
since their childhood, within the social environment in different of the most usual situation of “one-to-another

5. interaction”, in which an expatriate worker would face a bipolar dimension and try to locate their own profile
distinct culture in a foreign country. In a “one-to-another between the two extremes. This activity is not intended as
intercultural interaction”, the interlocutor’s profile is well a precise assessment tool but rather create a perception
defined and, in most of the cases, well known. In a many- that ones can have different values from others, without
to-many interaction, there are several distinct any consideration of right or wrong. It is about just
interlocutors that should be identified, mapped and showing a different view on how common problems
assessed to improve the intercultural communication in IS should be handled. Here, Hofstede’s standard framework
initiatives. The basis for a multicultural educational is used to support the self-assessment and to make the
approach proposed here has three main stages: the first exchanging of experiences among the project team easier
one aims to improve the consciousness that the cultural in the next phase. After this second step, it is suppose that
diversity can influence negatively the project outcomes, the members of the project team are conscientious about
the second is to develop a cultural assessment among the the existence of intercultural issues and how to position
IT staff and project stakeholder, and the third to evaluate themselves in a multicultural work context.
the cultural differences among the IT project team and the The second step is to assess the stakeholders of the
key stakeholders. project. Several studies were developed looking for o
In order to simplify the understanding of the strategy good way to identify and evaluate all people and groups
proposed here to improve the cultural sensitivity, the that impact or are impacted by the information systems
authors suggest activities focusing separately on the IT [24][25]. A project stakeholder can be defined as
technical staff and the project stakeholders. To improve someone who has either something to gain or loose in
the cultural sensitivity within the IT technical staff, the financial terms, status or any other benefit regarding the
following steps are suggested: (a) develop an awareness result of the project [25]. It is also useful to bring some
of the importance of dealing with the cultural diversity in concepts from strategic studies, in which a stakeholder is
the project, (b) create a consciousness of each member defined as an individual or group that depends on the
own culture, (c) develop an understanding of the cultural “organization to fulfil their own goals and on whom the
diversity of IT developing team and (d) develop strategies organization depends” [26]. In other words, a stakeholder
to reduce communication problems among the team is much more than the user of the future system. In
members. To deal with the distinct cultural identities of addition, in a real and large IT project, it would be almost
the project stakeholders, the following activities can be impossible to perform a multicultural assessment of 100%
developed: (e) assess stakeholders influence and power, of the stakeholders; we would suggest that just the most
(f) develop an awareness of the cultural diversity of the important ones should be evaluated. This step aims to
main stakeholders and (g) develop strategies to deal with identify the key interlocutors that are taking part in the
the cultural differences of the major stakeholders. In the project should be assessed in cultural terms. Without
following paragraphs, the main points of these activities knowing the key individuals that an IT specialist is
are discussed. dealing with during the project, it would be impossible to
Firstly, the multicultural educational approach within develop any multicultural improvement initiative.
the IT staff aims to provide an awareness of one’s own Several methods to evaluate the stakeholder’s
cultural identity [8], or, as Hofstede [10] denominates importance and influence have been developed.
“building awareness of own culture”. Two activities can Woolridge et al [27] presented a method based on three
be developed in order to create an intercultural sensitivity: relationship attributes: power, legitimacy and urgency.
firstly a workshop as presented by Canen and Canen [28] Another useful method, the power & interest matrix was
can be developed, and second a qualitative self- proposed by Johnson and Scholes [26] that consisted of
assessment based on Hofstede’s dimensions could be the evaluation of two basic issues: the first one is related
done. Canen and Canen [28] have developed a nine to the interest of the stakeholder group to impose its
situation questionnaire that drives the workshop expectations on the organization’s choices and, the
participants to develop a consciousness about usual second relates to the power of the stakeholder groups to
multicultural issues faced within organizations. In each influence the decision over the possible choices. In this
activity, the participant is asked about their evaluation or method, the relation of stakeholders’ power and the extent
how they would act in a certain situation. This kind of to which they are likely to show interest is disposed
work can create a real perception that intercultural graphically in two segments and four quadrants. Taking
problems happen everywhere and almost everyday at Johnson and Scholes’s [26] issues and translating them to
work. The second activity can be developed using the IS developing initiatives, we can assume that in IS
Hofstede’s [10] bipolar-dimensional framework for projects, stakeholder’s importance can be assessed by:
national and organizational cultures. It would be a • How interested each stakeholder group is to
qualitative assessment that intends to be very personal, determine the systems requirements choice based on its
the individuals are asked to read the concepts of each own expectation.

6. • How powerful is a stakeholder able to influence Key question Developing tool
the system requirements definitions. the project team? cultural diversity in the IS
It is also necessary to understand what power really developing team based on
means. A powerful stakeholder could impose his own Hofstede’s dimensions [10]
culture characteristic over the whole project team in a The IT staff knows Identifying the major
positive way or with negative consequences. According who the major stakeholders, Power &
to Johnson and Scholes [26], the power of a stakeholder stakeholders in the Interest assessment using
group could be evaluated using four indicators: the status project are? method proposed by
(hierarchy, job grades, reputation, etc.), amount of Johnson and Scholes [26]
resources assigned to the project, representation in Does the IT staff Workshop, qualitative
powerful positions (i.e. board level, etc.), and symbols of understand the cultural assessment of the cultural
power like physical and other cosmetic opulent symbols. diversity among the characteristic of the main
Therefore, by looking at all four indicators it might be project stakeholders? stakeholders based on
possible to assess the stakeholder group power. It is not Hofstede’s dimensions [10].
too much to say, that power relations can be changed
from one project to another and also from one phase to It is important to say that there is no right or wrong
another in the same project. The most important message situation in activities described in this work because the
here is that any activity that depends on good main objective is to bring people to discuss
communication process in an IT project should be done multiculturalism, develop a consciousness and be able to
after the identification and broad assessment of all key improve their communication performance among people
interlocutors. We tend to say that an exercise of with a distinct cultural identity. It is clear that the
observation, identification and assessment of the exercises proposed here have focused much more in
individuals, with whom the analyst is dealing, is the project team awareness than to get a multicultural
beginning of the development of a multicultural assessment academically precise.
consciousness. Although this educational approach has not been tested
The third step is a direct consequence of the previous yet, this paper intention was to bring to the technologic-
two approaches and should have the objective to develop driven specialists in the IS industry the idea that IT
strategies to deal with the cultural differences within IS development initiatives can be improved also by a cross-
developing team and the major stakeholders. Here, a cultural perspective besides all technologies, models and
workshop can be placed to discuss the better strategies to programming languages development.
deal with the cultural differences. The bipolar dimensions
assessed in the previous steps can be put in to discussion, Conclusions
positioning the “perceived cultural profile” of the IT staff
and main stakeholders. Strategies can be discussed to deal This work has started with two main objectives; it
with the differences and to improve the communication firstly argues about the crucial role of the communication
process. The table 1 summarizes the key questions and process and the cross-cultural sensitivity in the
the main tools proposed here to improve the intercultural Information Systems (IS) projects. Secondly, this paper
communication in the requirements gathering and brought to discussion a possible approach to develop
eliciting phases of an IS project. intercultural communication consciousness in such
technologic-driven specialists of the IS industry.
Table 1: The key questions and developing tools to In the first topic, this work has shown the importance
improve intercultural communication in IS projects. of the requirements gathering and elicitation phase in IT
Key question Developing tool projects. The challenge in this phase is to coordinate and
Does the IT staff have Perceiving the most understand correctly a large variety of sources of
the consciousness common multicultural issues information, including the distinct business areas within
about the influence of within the organizations, the organization, partners, suppliers, and clients. This
cultural diversity in the workshop proposed by work has argued that the activity of requirements
projects outcomes? Canen and Canen [28]. gathering, elucidation, and communication should be
performed with sensibility and openness. The following
Does the IT staff have Qualitative self-assessment topic has debated how the concepts of sensibility,
the consciousness of based on Hofstede’s openness, and multiculturalism can be linked with a
ones own cultural dimensions [10]. successful IS initiative.
identity? The next discussion was about how a multicultural
Is the IT staff aware of Workshop to exchange educational practice could be applied to reduce the risk
the cultural diversity of individual perceptions of the associated to multicultural misunderstanding in IT

7. projects. This paper indicated that in the IS industry, IT References
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