Ideas, subjects, and cycles as lenses for understanding the software design process

In this paper, we provide an analysis of three pairs of professional software designers, each working on a provided design problem. To understand these sessions, we track the ideas that were generated, relate them to one another, and categorize them according to the subject being discussed. This data is then used to divide the sessions into design cycles, each of which represents a period of focus on a given aspect of the system being designed. We observe that the designers often consider two subjects at a time, and rotate through subjects in an effort to develop them evenly. The sessions are also characterized by a great deal of repetition, as the designers regularly reconsider previously stated ideas in new contexts.