Criteria for the assessment of representation methods as vehicles for handling change

This paper describes the development of a set of criteria for assessing representation and design methods as vehicles for handling change. The approach taken is to identify a set of common change management problems, to appraise methods of representation for their contribution or resilience to these problems and thereby identify a set of issues on which the criteria are based. Two categories of criteria are developed. Firstly there is a set of criteria that are applicable whatever the context. Secondly there are specific sets of criteria for each of the three strategies employed for reducing the impact of change, namely avoiding change, driving it out early in the lifecycle and facilitating its incorporation.