Argumentative systems for IS design

The object under study in this paper is information systems design (ISD). The writer’s concern is how to institutionalise the powers of reasoned argument into the design process. Argumentation, well known to the decision‐making, communications, knowledge creation, problem solving, and research methods literature, is believed to need a more explicit presence in ISD. The evidence is provided to support this belief in the form of a suggested “court room” analogy, drawing on the management and decision‐making literature as well as the theory of knowledge philosophy. Argument has good support from philosophy, confronts the issue of uneven power relationships, is a social construction methodology, and provides structure and outcome to dialogue. Argument is not to be confused with quarrels nor pure logic. Reasoned argument (debate) places language and group interaction at the centre of knowledge acquisition, while still acknowledging the observer‐reasoning dialectic.