ABSTRACT
In the end, we decided to focus on only one application domain, process control. More
specifically, we chose a thermal-hydraulic process control microworld as our case study. There
are two significant disadvantages associated with this decision. First, it would have been better
to have at least two examples to show the diversity of the CWA framework. However, we
decided to take advantage of the fact that Rasmussen et al. (1994) had already presented
a detailed CWA for a “humanistic” application, namely library information retrieval
(that example is summarized briefly in chap. 12). The case study we chose is comple-
mentary in that it is representative of a “technical” application. Although this choice has
the disadvantage of cross-referencing across books, it does have the advantage of making
this book more concise and hopefully easier to read as a result. Second, although the case
study we chose is relatively rich and complex, it does a poor job of representing the social
demands of work. We could not find a case study that was broad enough to amply demonstrate
organizational factors, while still manageable enough to be explained concisely in detail.
