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|title=Transparency as a Requirement
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|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/refsq/HosseiniSPA15
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==Transparency as a Requirement==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1342/03-Posters.pdf
Transparency as a Requirement
Mahmood Hosseini, Alimohammad Shahri, Keith Phalp, and Raian Ali
Bournemouth University, UK
{mhosseini,ashahri,kphalp,rali}@bournemouth.ac.uk
The concept of transparency refers to the possibility of accessing information,
intentions or behaviours that are revealed through a process of disclosure [4]. It
is usually linked to accountability, openness, and efficiency [1]. Transparency
depends on the accessibility and availability of information and how this can
support users in the process of decision making [4].
In requirements engineering literature, socio-technical systems (STSs) are
typically seen as a set of inter-dependent social and technical actors, as is the
case with goal modelling and business process modelling. Amongst these actors,
transparency is generally considered to produce desirable e↵ects. For example,
transparency can result in a high level of resilience in STSs [3]. However, there
are instances where transparency may have adverse e↵ects. For example, in a
four-year organisational study, [2] discovered that transparency in the context of
a clinical risk management can act, perversely, to undermine ethical behaviour,
leading to organisational crisis and even collapse. Consequently, transparency
cannot be seen as a one-size-fits-all solution, and when implemented ine↵ectively,
it can lead to serious issues in STSs. Transparency may have multiple side-e↵ects
on the business goals of actors and their inter-relations. For example, it may
lead to information overload or create unnecessary bias and clustering amongst
actors. Transparency could be seen either as a special kind of requirement or as
a meta-requirement, i.e., to know how a requirement is being fulfilled.
In the domain of information systems and requirements engineering, mod-
elling similar social concepts such as trust, privacy and security [5] is motivated
by the concept of separation of concerns and modularity. However, despite the
importance of transparency, and the unique characteristics and special proper-
ties that should be identified with this concept, e.g., deciding the right trans-
parency level and predicting its side-e↵ects, there are no dedicated models, tools
or approaches with which to handle transparency. As a result, the fine line that
usually exists between balanced transparency, on one side, and the lack or abun-
dance of transparency, on the other, is an under-researched issue. Furthermore,
the conflicts that may arise when di↵erent stakeholders need di↵erent levels of
transparency are yet to be explored and researched.
Example. There are several websites which o↵er audio-to-text transcription
services. While users’ actual requirement is the transcription of their audio files
to text files, they may also want to know how their requirement is achieved,
e.g. whether the transcription is done via an automated process or by handing
it over to other people, and if so, how much these people are paid, etc. On the
other hand, the policies practised by the transcription service may prevent it
from disclosing such information to its users.
Copyright © 2015 by the authors. Copying permitted for private and academic purposes.
This volume is published and copyrighted by its editors.
222
Fig. 1: a) Information Transparency Model; b) Transparency Analysis
We aim to identify how transparency requirements should be modelled, in
order to best aid analysis of an STS and support for communication and collab-
oration among the range of actors. This would include consideration of how to
find the transparency level that suits an actor’s needs and also falls within their
personal, organisational and institutional limits and boundaries.
As an initial conceptual model, we consider transparency as being about in-
formation and how it flows among di↵erent entities. Such flows of information
can be broken down into constituent elements: information, information provider
(IP), information receiver (IR), information medium (IM), and information en-
tity (IE), as illustrated in our initial transparency model (Fig. 1a). Note that
here information is considered from the viewpoint of information providers, and
not information receivers. Such conceptualization is meant to enable us, amongst
other things, to consider three outcomes for transparency analysis: transparency
shortage, transparency coverage and transparency leakage (Fig. 1b).
Acknowledgments. The research is supported by an FP7 Marie Curie CIG
grant (the SOCIAD project), Bournemouth University through the Fusion In-
vestment Fund and the Graduate School Santander Grant for PGR Development.
References
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counting, Organizations and Society 38(1), 30–49 (2013)
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