Cognitive information capture in systems analysis

A primary failure of systems analysis activity is not capturing essential information used in the operation of the system under study. We look at a subset of this overlooked information and demonstrate through theory drawn from cognitive psychology, and representative examples that it cannot be captured through normal systems analysis techniques. We call this information "automatic information" because it is acquired through an inattentive learning process. We have generated four general categories of automatic information which we illustrate through case histories of systems development. We describe a set of methods for capturing such information in the systems analysis stage, based on techniques in use in cognitive psychology. We close with suggestions for future work.<>