Method

The Socio-Cognitive Engineering (SCE) method distinguishes three main components, each providing specific Research & Development outcomes (see Figure):

Figure: Socio-Cognitive Engineering method (SCE) with three main components (Foundation, Specification and Evaluation) and the underlying or abstracted behavioral & declarative design knowledge (resp. design patterns and ontology).

• The Foundation describes the
  • Operational Demands (e.g., stakeholders values and needs, problem scenarios, work context),
  • Technology that will be used and/or (further) developed (e.g., cloud computing, AI frameworks) and
  • Human Factors knowledge that should be addressed in the design and evaluation of the technology to meet the operational demands.
• The Specification defines the
  
  • Objectives: the target outcomes
  • Use cases: how the human-machine collaboration takes place, i.e., the structure and flow of actors' actions with the task allocations (who, when, where),
  • Function (requirement), i.e., what the machine shall do to serve the objectives in the corresponding use cases,
  • Claim, specifiying the expected Effect of the situated Function (i.e., situated in the use case) to provide the justification (why).
• The Evaluation provides the outcomes of the tests with the Prototype and/or Simulation.

The SCE method is iterative in nature, which means that usually several cycles of designing and testing are required to eventually arrive at a prototype or simulation. The generated behavioral and declarative design knowledge is formalized and maintained for re-use and sharing via, respectively, Design Patterns and a corresponding Ontology.

Detailed information on the methodology can be found in the publications section of this site.

¹Therefore, previous versions of the SCE methodology were called situated cognitive engineering. The current name is Socio-Cognitive Engineering to emphasize the focus on joint human-machine cognitive systems (e.g., incorporating hybrid collective intelligence).