The issue-based information system is an argumentation-based approach to clarifying wicked problems—complex, ill-defined problems that involve multiple stakeholders. Diagrammatic visualization using IBIS notation is often called issue mapping. IBIS was invented by Werner Kunz and Horst Rittel in the 1960s. According to Kunz and Rittel, "Issue-Based Information Systems 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." Subsequently, the understanding of planning and design as a process of argumentation has led to the use of IBIS in design rationale, where IBIS notation is one of a number of different kinds of rationale notation. 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. The basic structure of IBIS is a graph. It is therefore quite suitable to be manipulated by computer, as in a graph database.
Overview
The elements of IBIS are: issues, each of which are associated with alternative positions, which are associated with arguments which support or object to a given position; arguments that support a position are called "pros", and arguments that object to a position are called "cons". In the course of the treatment of issues, new issues come up which are treated likewise. IBIS elements are usually represented as nodes, and the associations between elements are represented as directed edges. In 1988, Douglas E. Noble and Horst Rittel described the overall purpose of IBIS as follows: IBIS notation has been used, along with function analysis diagram notation, as an aid for root cause analysis.
Issue mapping
IBIS notation is used in issue mapping, an argument visualization technique closely related to argument mapping. An issue map aims to comprehensively diagram the rhetorical structure of a conversation as seen by the participants in the conversation, as opposed to an ideal conceptual structure such as, for example, a causal loop diagram, flowchart, or structure chart.
Dialogue mapping
Issue mapping is the basis of a meeting facilitation technique called dialogue mapping. In dialogue mapping, a person called a facilitator uses IBIS notation to record a group conversation, while it is happening, on a "shared display". The facilitator listens to the conversation, and summarizes the ideas mentioned in the conversation on the shared display using IBIS notation, and if possible "validates" the map often by checking with the group to make sure each recorded element accurately represents the group's thinking. Dialogue mapping, like a few other facilitation methods, has been called "nondirective" because it does not require participants or leaders to agree on an agenda or a problem definition. Users of dialogue mapping have reported that dialogue mapping, under certain conditions, can improve the efficiency of meetings by reducing unnecessary redundancy and digressions in conversations, among other benefits. A dialogue map does not aim to be as formal as, for example, a logic diagram or decision tree, but rather aims to be a comprehensive display of all the ideas that people shared during a conversation. Other decision algorithms can be applied to a dialogue map after it has been created, although dialogue mapping is also well suited to situations that are too complex and context-dependent for an algorithmic approach to decision-making. Some researchers and practitioners have combined IBIS with numerical decision-making software based on multi-criteria decision making.
History
Rittel's interest lay in the area of public policy and planning, which is also the context in which he and his colleagues defined wicked problems. So it is no surprise that Kunz and Rittel envisaged IBIS as the "type of information system meant to support the work of cooperatives like governmental or administrative agencies or committees, planning groups, etc., that are confronted with a problem complex in order to arrive at a plan for decision". When Kunz and Rittel's paper was written, there were three manual, paper-based IBIS-type systems in use—two in government agencies and one in a university. A renewed interest in IBIS-type systems came about in the following decade, when advances in technology made it possible to design relatively inexpensive, computer-based IBIS-type systems. In 1987, Douglas E. Noble completed a computer-supported IBIS program as part of his doctoral dissertation. Jeff Conklin and co-workers adapted the IBIS structure for use in software engineering, creating the gIBIS hypertext system in the late 1980s. Several other graphical IBIS-type systems were developed once it was realised that such systems facilitated collaborative design and problem solving. These efforts culminated in the creation of the open source Compendium tool which supports—among other things—a graphical IBIS notation. Another IBIS tool that integrates with Microsoft SharePoint is called Glyma. Similar tools which do not rely on a database for storage include DRed and designVUE. Since the mid-2000s, there has been a renewed interest in IBIS-type systems, particularly in the context of sensemaking and collaborative problem solving in a variety of social and technical contexts. Of particular note is the facilitation method called dialogue mapping which uses the IBIS notation to map out a design dialogue as it evolves.
