The emergence of language consensus - Intensifying language interaction in information systems development

As language is the venue for the concretisation of concepts and entities in information systems development (ISD), language unambiguousness is understood as an ideal basis for the success of the consolidation process in information systems development. In contrast, a fundamental postulation of language theories is the inherent ambiguity of natural language. Therefore, the analysis of how language consensus can be reached in an effective manner is of particular interest for collaborative ISD. We claim that the effectiveness of ISD depends on the ability to manage the question of how people deal with language in practice and reach consensus in the concrete ISD process. This requirement leads us to the point of emergence of language: the language interaction setting. Hence, we analysed the language interaction in an ISD project and identified different language interaction levels which serve as orientation for specific interventions in an interaction setting, enabling an intensification of consensus negotiation