Software Design 2e - DIM

32The software design processthat a designer needs to ‘predict a future state’ and so needs to assume the outcome ofthe design process in order to begin that process.So in many ways, the various approaches to supporting and structuring the softwaredesign process that we will examine in this book are largely concerned with thedifferent practices used for describing, constructing and elaborating models. Indeed,the knowledge that is needed to develop and assess such models can be considered asan important element in the designer’s portfolio. In the next section, therefore, weexamine this issue of knowledge transfer more fully and identify some of the otherfactors that may be involved in it.2.3 Transferring design knowledgeChapter 1 examined the nature of the general design process and showed that it is quiteunlike the ‘scientific’ approach to problem-solving. The act of designing is not basedupon an analytic strategy, aimed at identifying the one true solution to a problem, asdetermined by physical laws. Instead, it is a highly creative process, and certainly veryunlikely to lead to the identification of a single solution to any given problem.Experimental study of software designers and their practices suggests that, asmight be expected, some people are better designers than others (Curtis et al., 1988).However, since the number of truly great designers is very small, we need to seekways of providing appropriate design skills to a wider group in as effective a manneras possible.In Curtis et al., (1988), the exceptional designers were observed to possess threesignificant characteristics. As illustrated in Figure 2.3, these are:1. Familiarity with the application domain, enabling them to map between problemstructures and solution structures with ease. (A domain in this sense may be onesuch as data processing, real-time, telecommunication systems, and so on.)Figure 2.3The characteristics of an exceptional designer.