Deconcentration of Attention: Addressing the Complexity of Software Engineering

TL;DR

This paper explores mental techniques for managing complex tasks in software engineering, framing the discipline as research on human thinking and emphasizing practical usability and the lack of standardized terminology.

Contribution

It introduces a new perspective by treating software engineering as human thinking research and discusses mental techniques for handling complexity.

Findings

Identifies mental techniques for complex problem-solving in software engineering.

Highlights the lack of common terminology in the field.

Proposes viewing software engineering as a study of human cognition.

Abstract

This article attempts to describe specific mental techniques that are related to resolving very complex tasks in software engineering. This subject may be familiar to some software specialists to different extents; however, there is currently no common consensus and popular terminology for this subject area. In this article, the area is charted from a practical usability perspective. This article also proposes to treat software engineering itself as research on human thinking because software is meant to simulate thinking.