Work Domain Analysis: Theoretical Concepts and Methodology

Abstract : This report contributes to the development of a coherent theoretical and methodological approach for work domain analysis (WDA), the first phase of cognitive work analysis. The report: (1) addresses a number of conceptual issues relating to WDA, including differences in the approaches of Rasmussen, Pejtersen, and Goodstein (1994) and Vicente (1999); (2) proposes a methodology for performing WDA; and (3) illustrates the theoretical concepts and methodology for WDA with a work domain of a home - a `system' that will be highly familiar to everyone. This research will help to: make WDA more accessible to researchers and practitioners who were not involved in the development of WDA or who cannot be apprenticed to experts in WDA; reduce the amount of time and effort it takes to perform WDA even for experts in WDA; and facilitate the application of WDA to large-scale industry projects. In addition, by making the methodology for WDA more explicit, this research will allow the methodology, or at least parts of the methodology, to be tested empirically.

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