Complete thesis - Murdoch University

4 May ...I doubt that they’re strongly covered in design literature,which tends to assume that you have requirements before youstart, or that RE is relatively straightforward.I don’t think I’ve seen much on this in RE literature either,although it’s almost certainly covered in cognitive sciencestuff on problem solving and decision making...There are probably a number of reasons why it isn’t commonlydiscussed in the techo stuff (apart from the underwhelming psychcredentials for most REs).One of the most likely is that it’s not about what you *do* but how you *think*. I alsodon’t know how you would teach it....The user talks about something he does or needs and weautomatically see semi-analogieswith other work we’ve done, even though the actual work area maybe totally different. This allows us to understand and‘populate’ the larger domain much faster, and helps withcompleteness. It also allows us to jump to incorrectconclusions, which can remain uncorrected for the life of theproject - I’ve had one or two of these myself....I feel that it’s a very powerful technique (ortalent, because I’ve noticed only some folks can’t do it effectively no matter how hardthey try).Without it, we can take forever to understand the user domain.It also allows us to make useful comments and ask penetratingquestions even when our understanding is far from complete,which means the users are less frustrated with our obviousstupidity. I think this is one reason why REs with *broad*58