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Abstract

Health care can be categorized as a complex socio-technical system. Often, similar projects or systems experience very different outcomes during implementation. To better understand the differentiating success factors when comparing projects or systems, we argue there is a need to systematically compare complex socio-technical systems. While Cognitive Engineering offers many methods for analyzing complex socio-technical systems, such as Cognitive Work Analysis, few methods support a comparison paradigm. We propose using Cognitive Work Analysis and using it to compare two similar socio-technical systems through Comparative Cognitive Work Analysis. Through parallel phases to Cognitive Work Analysis, the comparative method allows for the identification of differentiating factors, which we call Junctions, and allows practitioners to identify design opportunities to introduce success interventions into existing designs. Future work will involve further development of this concept and its application to healthcare problems.

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Using Comparative Cognitive Work Analysis to Identify Design Priorities in Complex Socio-Technical Systems

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