Reusing processes and documenting processes: toward an integrated framework

This paper presents a cognitive typology of reuse processes, and a cognitive typology of documenting processes. Empirical studies on design with reuse and on software documenting provide evidence for a generalized cognitive model. First, these studies emphasize the cyclical nature of design: cycles of planning, writing and revising occur. Second, natural language documentation follows the hierarchy of cognitive entities manipulated during design. Similarly software reuse involves exploiting various types of knowledge depending on the phase of design in which reuse is involved. We suggest that these observations can be explained based on cognitive models of text processing: the van Dijk and Kintsch (1983) model of text comprehension, and the Hayes and Flower (1980) model of text production. Based on our generalized cognitive model, we suggest a framework for documenting reusable components

Reusing processes and documenting processes: toward an integrated framework

This paper presents a cognitive typology of reuse processes, and a cognitive typology of documenting processes. Empirical studies on design with reuse and on software documenting provide evidence for a generalized cognitive model. First, these studies emphasize the cyclical nature of design: cycles of planning, writing and revising occur. Second, natural language documentation follows the hierarchy of cognitive entities manipulated during design. Similarly software reuse involves exploiting various types of knowledge depending on the phase of design in which reuse is involved. We suggest that these observations can be explained based on cognitive models of text processing: the van Dijk and Kintsch (1983) model of text comprehension, and the Hayes and Flower (1980) model of text production. Based on our generalized cognitive model, we suggest a framework for documenting reusable components

Assessing the cognitive consequences of the object-oriented approach: a survey of empirical research on object-oriented design by individuals and teams

This paper presents a state-of-art review of empirical research on object-oriented (OO) design. Many claims about the cognitive benefits of the OO paradigm have been made by its advocates. These claims concern the ease of designing and reusing software at the individual level as well as the benefits of this paradigm at the team level. Since these claims are cognitive in nature, its seems important to assess them empirically. After a brief presentation of the main concepts of the OO paradigm, the claims about the superiority of OO design are outlined. The core of this paper consists of a review of empirical studies of OOD. We first discuss results concerning OOD by individuals. On the basis of empirical work, we (1) analyse the design activity of novice OO designers, (2) compare OO design with procedural design and, (3) discuss a typology of problems relevant for the OO approach. Then we assess the claims about naturalness and ease of OO design. The next part discusses results on OO software reuse. On the basis of empirical work, we (1) compare reuse in the OO versus procedural paradigm, (2) discuss the potential for OO software reuse and (3) analyse reuse activity in the OO paradigm. Then we assess claims on reusability. The final part reviews empirical work on OO design by teams. We present results on communication, coordination, knowledge dissemination and interactions with clients. Then we assess claims about OOD at the software design team level. In a general conclusion, we discuss the limitations of these studies and give some directions for future research

Organisation of design activities: Opportunistic, with hierarchical episodes

The paper is preceded by its "Executive summary", pp. 235-238International audienceThe organisation of actual design activities, even by experts involved in routine tasks, is not appropriately characterised by the retrieval of pre-existing plans, but is opportunistic (possibly with hierarchical episodes at a local level, but not globally hierarchical). Actually executed design actions depend, at each moment t, on the evaluation of actions proposed at t-1. These proposals can be made by pre-established plans, but also by other action-proposal knowledge structures. This position is supported by results from diverse empirical design studies. A major reason why design activities are organised opportunistically is that, even if designers possess plans which they may retrieve and use, the designers very often deviate from these plans so that their activity satisfy action-management constraints, of which the most important is "cognitive economy". Two types of variables underlying this opportunism are discussed: "situational" and "processing". If design is opportunistically organised, a support system which imposes a hierarchically structured design process will probably handicap designers. Suggestions for systems offering "real" support are formulated

Knowledge restructing and the development of expertise in computer programming

This thesis reports a number of empirical studies exploring the development of expertise in computer programming. Experiments 1 and 2 are concerned with the way in which the possession of design experience can influence the perception and use of cues to various program structures. Experiment 3 examines how violations to standard conventions for constructing programs can affect the comprehension of expert, intermediate and novice subjects. Experiment 4 looks at the differences in strategy that are exhibited by subjects of varying skill level when constructing programs in different languages. Experiment 5 takes these ideas further to examine the temporal distribution of different forms of strategy during a program generation task. Experiment 6 provides evidence for salient cognitive structures derived from reaction time and error data in the context of a recognition task. Experiments 7 and 8 are concerned with the role of working memory in program generation and suggest that one aspect of expertise in the programming domain involves the acquisition of strategies for utilising display-based information. The final chapter attempts to bring these experimental findings together in terms of a model of knowledge organisation that stresses the importance of knowledge restructuring processes in the development of expertise. This is contrasted with existing models which have tended to place emphasis upon schemata acquisition and generalisation as the fundamental modes of learning associated with skill development. The work reported here suggests that a fine-grained restructuring of individual schemata takes places during the later stages of skill development. It is argued that those mechanisms currently thought to be associated with the development of expertise may not fully account for the strategic changes and the types of error typically found in the transition between novice, intermediate and expert problem solvers. This work has a number of implications for existing theories of skill acquisition. In particular, it questions the ability of such theories to account for subtle changes in the various manifestations of skilled performance that are associated with increasing expertise. Secondly, the work reported in this thesis attempts to show how specific forms of training might give rise to the knowledge restructuring process that is proposed. Finally, the thesis stresses the important role of display-based problem solving in complex tasks such as programming and highlights the role of programming language notation as a mediating factor in the development and acquisition of problem solving strategies