Cognitive Processes in Object-Oriented Requirements Engineering Practice: Analogical Reasoning and Mental Modelling

Abstract

This paper presents a background in cognitive processes such as problem solving and analogical reasoning for considering modeling from an object-oriented perspective within the domain of requirements engineering. The paper then describes a research project and the findings from a set of four cases which examine professional practice from perspective of cognitive modeling for object-oriented requirements engineering. In these studies, it was found that the analysts routinely built models in their minds and refined them before committing them to paper or communicating these models to others. The studies also showed that objectoriented analysts depend on analogical reasoning where they use past experience and abstraction to address problems in requirements specification.