Event Details
Cognitive Support in Software Engineering Tools
Presenter: Andrew Walenstein - University of Victoria, Canada
Supervisor:
Date: Fri, January 11, 2002
Time: 13:30:00 - 00:00:00
Place: EOW 430
ABSTRACT
Subject Description:
Software engineering is mentally challenging. We like to try to automate parts of it to make it easier, but it is not likely to be completely automated any time soon. In fact, we tend to be able to automate only the repetitious and mundane, and thus we leave the hard, creative thinking parts for the human developers to handle. All the more reason, therefore, to be concerned about making this mental work easier--to design tools which help humans think. Luckily, there are many ways in which tools serve to support human cognition. Sadly, these are under-appreciated and poorly studied. In this talk, I will provide an overview of many types of cognitive support and relate these to design issues for software engineering tools. I shall also summarize an effort to introduce a theoretical framework for systematizing our knowledge about how to design good cognitive support.