Studying the role of narrative across aerospace knowledge management systems

Engineers use many "cognitive technologies" to bridge the gap between human cognitive limits and the requirements of complex, distributed, asynchronous and information-intense cooperative work. This paper examines the value of narrative in engineering work to improve the design of emerging diagram-based software tools for sensemaking and information navigation. These have been studied and even adopted by some aerospace organizations but they are not yet common. In some cases, these aim to replace more traditional, narrative documents, like textual reports, because graphs reflect better the hyperlinked, non-linear structures in both engineered systems and information repositories. It is critical, however, to determine what is lost and what is gained by that transition. This paper presents a case study of teams at an aerospace company as they begin regular use of Design Rationale editor (DRed) diagramming software. The engineers were observed and interviewed over several weeks. Results, structured and analysed using DRed and the cognitive dimensions framework, suggested that diagrams are a better way to build and organize work incrementally while narrative structure is valuable in verifying completeness of work and initially guiding users around documents. Further work will involve more detailed study and modification of DRed to exploit the value of narrative.