Social Factors Relevant to Capturing Design Decisions

We present results from a qualitative study of design decision making that used interviews, observations and participatory observations to describe inherent traits of software design decision makers. We find that designers do not always strive for optimal design solutions, that designers do not always consider alternatives when making design decisions, and that alternatives are considered more often in groups of people having a casual conversation. We highlight that tool support for capturing design rationale and intent should first recognize the way decisions are inherently made in software environments and we provide a summary of our results as an indicator of requirements for such tools.