Conveying Work-Centered Design Specifications to the Software Designer: A Retrospective Case Analysis

Abstract

It has been noted that there is a gap between the analysis and products produced by cognitive engineers (CEs) and what is needed by software engineers who must implement CE-based requirements in the final product medium. In this paper, we report on a retrospective analysis of intermediate design artifacts that were produced from a CE and work-centered design perspective during the course of developing a successful work-centered support system software application. The analysis involved an examination of design analysis and synthesis artifacts produced by the development team that were made available to the software engineers. It concentrated on how work-centered information and requirements were conveyed and made useful to the software engineering staff. Based on this analysis, we suggest that a work-centered specification package needs to contain at least three classes of information: (1) work-centered descriptions of the work context, work activity, and support requirements, (2) principles and guidance specifying “work centeredness” and (3) detailed specifications of the aiding solution with links back to the support requirements.

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