An Examination of the Key Concepts of the Five Phases of Cognitive Work Analysis with Examples from a Familiar System. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 50th Annual Meeting 2006

Cognitive work analysis (CWA) is recognized, principally, for work domain analysis. Relatively little research has been directed at the remaining four phases of CWA and, as a result, the concepts of these phases of analysis are less well understood. This paper examines the concepts of all five phases of CWA with examples from a single ‘system ’ – a home. A home is a highly familiar system that is characterized primarily by social or intentional constraints. The examples in this paper, therefore, complement the case study provided by Vicente (1999) of DURESS, a thermo-hydraulic microworld simulation that is defined largely by physical or causal constraints. In addition, this paper provides a starting point for examining several issues relating to the later phases of CWA, including whether or not they are useful or unique, their relationship to other approaches for work analysis, and methodological shortcomings