Is knowledge the key? An experiment on debiasing architectural decision-making -- a pilot study

TL;DR

This pilot study investigates whether a simple presentation on cognitive biases can reduce their impact on architectural decision-making, finding it ineffective but suggesting modifications for future research.

Contribution

The paper introduces a debiasing treatment aimed at reducing cognitive biases in architectural decisions and evaluates its effectiveness through a pilot study.

Findings

Debiasing presentation was ineffective in this pilot.

Analysis suggests potential modifications for improved effectiveness.

Highlights challenges in debiasing cognitive biases in decision-making.

Abstract

The impact of cognitive biases on architectural decision-making has been proven by previous research. In this work, we endeavour to create a debiasing treatment that would minimise the impact of cognitive biases on architectural decision-making. We conducted a pilot study on two groups of students, to investigate whether a simple debiasing presentation reporting on the influences of cognitive biases, can provide a debiasing effect. The preliminary results show that this kind of treatment is ineffective. Through analysing our results, we propose a set of modifications that could result in a better effect.