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1999, Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting
Work domain analysis (WDA) is an approach developed by Rasmussen (1985) for representing the structure of complex work environments. Many examples of the approach have surfaced in the literature, predominantly of physically coupled causal systems (e.g., process control). For causal systems, the environment is strongly constrained by the laws of nature. This approach can also be used for representing intentional systems (e.g., military command and control), although there is some controversy on this issue. For intentional systems, the environment is strongly constrained by actors' intentions, values, and priorities of practice. This paper discusses the differences between causal and intentional systems and provides direction on how to proceed with a WDA for intentional systems. A WDA is presented for emergency ambulance dispatch management and military command and control to illustrate the approach. Finally, a discussion of the implications and future research recommendations are...
Human Factors, 2004
M. BISANTZ, University at Buffalo, Buffalo NY USA, and EMILIE ROTH, Roth Cognitive Engineering, Brookline MA USA. As methods in Cognitive Work Analysis (CWA) become more widely applied, questions regarding the impact of modeling choices, and similarities in modeling efforts across projects and domains are increasingly relevant. To date, however, an explicit comparison of models of similar systems has not been reported. This paper presents a comparison of two independently developed Work Domain Analysis (WDA) models of similar command and control environments that were developed independently.
IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, 2005
This paper presents an application of work-domain analysis (WDA) to the domain of the command and control of a multipurpose naval frigate—the Canadian Halifax Class frigate. This represents an application of this approach to a real system and, to the authors' knowledge, is the most extensive WDA of a naval work domain. In particular, and in contrast to other applications of cognitive work analysis, the authors extended the basic WDA framework to handle a multipurpose, loosely bound work domain. In addition, the naval domain is value driven, and this affects naval decision making. Values were incorporated as a social organizational analysis into the work-domain model and were represented as a type of soft constraint. A total of 38 submodels of the work domain were developed, whose primary models are discussed in this paper. From these models, 132 information requirements were extracted, substantiating that WDA is a worthwhile technique for supporting interface design. This paper makes a theoretical contribution by extending the WDA framework and a practical contribution by demonstrating the usefulness of the framework in a real design context. This paper concentrates on presenting WDA as a process, not as a finished product, showing intermediate levels of models and the design requirements that can be extracted from the early stages of the WDA.
Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science, 2004
The purpose of this note is to clarify the theoretical relationship between work domain analysis and task analysis, two classes of techniques that have been used by cognitive engineers to identify information requirements for systems design. The transformation from a work domain analysis to a task analysis (i.e., from a description of the object of control to a description of control itself) can be conceived as a discrete set of transformations. Work domain analysis identifies the set of all structural degrees of freedom that are available to any actor. Only a subset of these will be relevant for a particular context. At any particular point in time, actors will have to choose which of these relevant degrees of freedom to utilize. Finally, the utilized degrees of freedom will have a dynamic state that can usually be described quantitatively. Task analysis is the function that maps current states onto desired states via a set of human or automated control actions. By making these transformations explicit, the relevance of work domain analysis to worker (or automation) goals and actions becomes more clear.
2002
In complex socio-technical systems such as military Command and Control (C2), many individuals must work with distributed and dynamic information from diverse sources. C2 systems now in use have evolved from times when information available to command was less extensive and less dynamic. The resulting information systems are not as efficient or effective as they need to be for our contemporary, information-rich environments. Typically, they are overmanned, with an unsystematic distribution of functionality and poor (even nonexistent) representations of global situation status, high level purposes and interactive dependencies between distinct functions. Cognitive Work Analysis is a formative analytic method that supports a revolutionary approach to design of complex systems. In this paper I discuss the approach of Cognitive Work Analysis and detail the use of one of its tools, Work Domain Analysis, in the design of an Ecological Interface for the USAF work domain of Special Assignment Airlift Mission planning.
2007
This paper explores two underlying philosophical traditions that are relevant to the design and analysis of complex human-technological work systems -i.e., organizations of people and technology that deal with complex problem spaces in today's society. The first tradition (classical/positivist) dominates the design of information system technology. The second tradition (sensemaking/constructivist) enjoys a prominent place in the scientific study of human behavior at the individual and social level. These two traditions reflect radically different views of data, information, tacit knowledge, shared knowledge, and so forth. This paper explores these two traditions and summarizes their implications many of the core constructs that must be considered by the systems engineer. By adopting the latter tradition, the systems engineer is able to gain further insight into the nature and functioning of complex human-technological work systems.
1990
The taxonomy is a conceptual framework for analysis of cognitive activities as they actually unfold in a complex work situation. It has emerged through years of studies in process plants, electronic maintenance workshops, libraries, hospitals, and manufacturing companies. The present approach to a taxonomy is shaped by intention to create a tool that can serve the design of advanced information systems by making it possible to match system properties to the users' actual, cognitive activities, resources, and preferences and to predict the kind of changes to be expected in the behavior of individuals and organizations in response to new information systems.
Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 2018
Interactions between systems are a necessity, a source of opportunity, and a source of difficulty and complication in building, implementing, and maintaining IT-reliant systems in organizations. This paper presents system interaction theory (SINT), a theory for analysis that covers almost all intentional and unintentional interactions between work systems that may be sociotechnical or totally automated. SINT is a broadly applicable theory that encompasses interactions between the types of systems that are central to the IS discipline. To minimize redundancy, this paper summarizes SINT immediately after introducing the research goal and, thereby, provides a context for the many distinctions and references that follow. A discussion of SINT's domain and scope explains why SINT views interacting entities as work systems rather than as tasks, components, or software modules. The literature review positions SINT in relation to topics under headings that range from general systems theory and computer science to human computer interaction and organization science. Topics in SINT include relevant characteristics of systems and system interactions, purposes and/or causes of system interactions, system interaction patterns, direct effects of system interactions, responses to direct effects, and outcomes related to system interactions. The paper discusses a variety of potential contributions to theory, practice, and research.
Work (Reading, Mass.), 2012
Work in organizations requires a minimum level of consensus on the understanding of the practices performed. To adopt technological devices to support the activities in environments where work is complex, characterized by the interdependence among a large number of variables, understanding about how work is done not only takes an even greater importance, but also becomes a more difficult task. Therefore, this study aims to present a method for modeling of work in complex systems, which allows improving the knowledge about the way activities are performed where these activities do not simply happen by performing procedures. Uniting techniques of Cognitive Task Analysis with the concept of Work Process, this work seeks to provide a method capable of providing a detailed and accurate vision of how people perform their tasks, in order to apply information systems for supporting work in organizations.
This paper presents a current, accessible, and overarching view of work system theory. WST is the core of an integrated body of theory that emerged from a long-term research project to develop a systems analysis and design method for business professionals called the work system method (WSM). After discussing WST's basic premises and its two central frameworks, this paper summarizes the relationship between WST and WSM. It shows how experience with early versions of WSM led to three extensions of WST that addressed limitations-inuse in one of the central frameworks in WST. After comparisons with related theories, this paper closes with an evaluation of progress to date, new directions for research related to WST, and implications for the IS discipline. The two appendices summarize the long term research from which WST emerged and use a positioning map to show how WST is related to other topics in the IS discipline.
2000
Shipboard command and control presents unique challenges for decision support. Command decisions require an understanding of your own ship's capabilities as well as the capabilities and the intentions of friendly and hostile parties. While some actions can be pre-planned, naval decision makers will always be faced with unanticipated situations resulting from unknown variables in the environment or unexpected changes in their own equipment or technological capabilities. Decision support for these unanticipated situations demands that these operators be provided with as complete and flexible a model of the situation as possible. Ecological interface design is a design paradigm for unanticipated situations that has evolved from the domain of nuclear power, that bases its design on a cognitive work analysis (CWA) that is developed from work domain models. In this paper, we applied this approach to the domain of command and control for the Canadian Halifax-class frigate. In all, 38 work domain models were developed, from which we generated 132 information support requirements. This paper presents the first iterations of those models and discusses the application of this approach to the domain of command and control
Ecce, 1996
Modeling an existing task situation is often a first phase in the (re)design of information systems. For complex systems design, this model should consider both the people and the organization involved, the work, and situational aspects. Groupware Task Analysis (GTA) as part of a method for the design of complex systems, has been applied in a situation of redesign of a Dutch public administration system. The most feasible method to collect information in this case was ethnography, the resulting task model needed the GTA formalism to be adjusted to situational aspects of the work. The study shows that GTA as an approach is feasible in complex design cases, and that the formalism allows adjustment to cover situational aspects, while still keeping its cognitive ergonomic value for design.
Applied Ergonomics, 2019
Cognitive Work Analysis is an original method that seeks to describe work systems made up of nested sets of constraints, from ecological constraints imposed by the work domain to cognitive constraints. This top-down approach starts with a work domain model in order to analyze and specify contexts of activity. To complement this method, we propose a bottom-up version of Cognitive Work Analysis focusing on contexts of activity and depicting how operators adapt to the ecological constraints. Based on Rasmussen's Dynamic Safety Model, the ecological constraints involved are those bounding the workspace in which operators dynamically navigate with control loops, strategies, work organization, and competencies. This analysis relies on the simulation of specific contexts of activity. A first illustrative application of this framework to a simulated medical emergency situation with a team of nurses and nursing aids shows that this framework can help identify design issues.
Cognition, Technology & Work, 2000
Air traffic control (ATC) is currently undergoing rapid changes as new technology is being introduced. The introduction of new technology produces adaptations of how the system performs its computation with consequences and changes in the activity for both the individual and the system as a whole. Even if ATC is a highly structured and well-documented domain, the analysis of changes and evolution in the work environment, in view of the design of new technologies, requires the definition of an appropriate-level analysis. This paper discusses two important issues related to the analysis of complex domains like ATC: the distinction between the normative task description and the actual human activity; and the choice of the unit of analysis for modelling real work settings. The paper presents a case study describing the application of distributed cognition and discusses findings and implications of this theoretical approach for the design of new technologies for ATC.
Proceedings of the United Kingdom Academy for Information Systems conference, 2021
This paper seeks to extend the Work System Method WSM of Steven Alter by means of a modelling notation and mechanism called ABC. This suggestion is made because it is often necessary to know (or at least to conjecture) how things, processes and events within a work system interrelate. Our contention, which we support by literature primarily derived from cybernetics, is that we must discern conceptual models, so as to understand and, potentially, to improve by design, active modelsspecifically, the information systems which support work systems. We do this in order to regulate work systems, whether actively by explicit control or implicitly by aiding learning, understanding and self-control by modellers and participants. This paper is not a definitive statement concerning ABC. Instead, it sufficiently introduces the modelling approach to enable the reader to understand some examples of the approach as applied to work systems. It can also serve in a tutorial approach to the ABC modelling of work systems.
Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 1999
Cognitive Work Analysis (CWA) is a systems-based approach to the analysis, modelling, and design of complex sociotechnical systems that is particularly useful when working with real-time work domains in which operator adaptation and flexibility may be needed (Rasmussen, Pejtersen, & Goodstein, 1994; Vicente, 1999). In this paper we argue that CWA can be used not only for design, with which it is most commonly associated, but also throughout the system life cycle. We present a table that shows the five phases of CWA crossed with different steps and activities in the system life cycle, and in the cells of the table we indicate how a particular phase of CWA informs the system life cycle activity in question. We illustrate this discussion with material from our own work using CWA in air defence environments, such as the use of work domain analysis in the tender evaluation for Australia's AEW&C system. CWA not only leverages and coordinates some previous human engineering techniques,...
This article presents work system theory (WST) as a body of theory for analysis, explanation, prediction, and design and action (Gregor, 2006) related to systems in organizations. It provides background about how WST evolved, summarizes major components of WST, and explains that each of the five types of theory identified by Gregor (2006) appears in WST. The discussion of WST emphasizes its overall contribution to knowledge by emphasizing areas in which it differs from commonly used terminology, frameworks, and beliefs within the IS field. In a discipline in which even basic terms such as system, service, implementation, and user have many contradictory meanings, a key goal of WST is to demonstrate the possibility of using an internally consistent set of assumptions, concepts, frameworks, and principles as a basis for analysis, explanation, prediction, and design and action.
Cognition, Technology & Work, 2015
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Synthesis Lectures on Human-Centered Informatics, 2015
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