Cognitive Patterns : Problem-Solving Frameworks for Object Technology (SIGS: Managing Object Technology)

Rating:
Summary: Practical and theoretical insight into a complex problem
Review: This book introduces a method for explaining and comprehending complex IT systems--a critical part of building scalable and flexible systems that meet business goals. Start by using ethnographic interviewing techniques to identify priorities and context for the process that the system supports. Use task analysis and more interviewing to identify what people do with the system, the information they need and use, and what they do with that information. Map this to a known library of established "problem-solving patterns" or "templates" that have been identified as part of artificial intelligence research. Review, test, and refine the pattern. Map this "cognitive pattern" to the current or planned function of the system and you have developed a system for understanding, communicating, and modeling the system in terms that can be comprehended and tested by humans. This process resolves many of the problems with traditional modeling techniques that result in documentation and models created with varying levels of abstraction and detail and leave both systems architects and business modelers struggling to figure out how it all fits together. The process is far too complex to detail thoroughly in this small book, but it does an admirable job of outlining the entire process, and how it can be applied to meet a number of system and business modeling goals. It also identifies numerous information resources to take you to the next step. Readers should note that the first chapter contains some of the worst examples of gratuitous and useless artwork I've ever seen, and has many long academic sentences that are likely to make many people stop reading right there. But keep going...This book is definitely worth the read.