1. An unstructured situation is identified, along with the team of people who play the roles of investigator, subject matter expert, client, problem-owner and problem-solver. Research follows a taxonomy of question probes.

2. The investigator develops an ‘as-is’ “Rich Picture” to focus on structure, function, process, and environment. Ideally, existing applications and business processes have been captured in functional requirements documents and use cases. Or more realistically, the investigator may be working from raw interview notes, whiteboard sketches and assumptions.

3. Root definitions of “relevant systems” are written to describe Rich Picture elements of structure, function, process and environment.

4. The descriptions are analyzed and graphed as Conceptual Graph Structures (CGSs). Dynamic conversations and debate lead to consensus about concepts and goals, captured iteratively in CGSs.

5. IA comparison of the CGSs with the Rich Picture leads to iterations of the CGSs. Two types of knowledge emerge to inform the user interface:

· inconsistencies or problems with the existing situations/systems and
· new solutions/innovations for the user tasks.

From this phase, a list of preliminary requirements is made.

6. Systemically desirable and culturally feasible requirements are agreed upon. A key benefit of the CORE methodology is that team members are invested collaboratively in the requirements.

7. Requirements are translated into information architecture. These include changes to structure, function, process and environment of the situation as collaboratively defined. Changes in attitude and policy also may result.

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