CVD is a Wicked Problem

What is a Wicked Problem?

The term wicked problem was first introduced by Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber in 1973. The term was used to describe a class of social system problems that are ill-formulated, where the information is confusing, where there are many clients and decision makers with conflicting values, and where the ramifications in the whole system are thoroughly confusing. The term wicked is used, not in the sense of evil, but rather in the sense that these problems are tricky and difficult. The term wicked problem is used to describe a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize.

For a broader discussion of wicked problems, see the Wikipedia article on Wicked Problems.

H. W. Rittel and M. M. Webber, "Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning," Policy Sciences, vol. 4, no. 1973, pp. 155-169, June 1973.

Because of the complexity of coordinating vulnerability disclosure, we consider it a wicked problem. The following table lists the characteristics of wicked problems. Anyone familiar with the CVD process will likely recognize these characteristics in both the individual cases and the overarching process itself.

Characteristics of Wicked Problems	Description
1. No definitive formulation	solving the problem is analogous to understanding it.
2. No stopping rule	the problem has no intrinsic criteria to indicate that a solution is sufficient; solutions depend rather on the planner deciding to stop planning.
3. Not true-or-false, but good-or-bad	the judgement of a solution's fitness by parties involved will be filtered through their values and their predisposed ideology.
4. No immediate and no ultimate test	solutions can have far-reaching and not always clear effects in both time and scope.
5. One-shot operation	actions taken in response to the problem affect the options available to future solutions.
6. No enumerable set of potential solutions	it is not possible to demonstrate that all possible solutions have been considered or even identified.
7. Essentially unique	despite long lists of similarities between a current problem and a previous one, there always might be an additional distinguishing property that is of overriding importance.
8. A symptom of another problem	every identified cause leads to a "higher level" problem of which the current problem is a symptom.
9. The choice of explanation determines the nature of the problem's resolution	The way a problem is described influences the solutions proposed.
10. The planner has no right to be wrong	The goal of a solution is not to find an ultimate truth about the world, rather it is to improve conditions for those who inhabit it.