Beyond Reason: Uniting Intuition and Rationality in Software Architecture Decision Making

Abstract

Intuition and rationality, or System 1 and System 2 when speaking more broadly, are two modes of cognitive processing that all humans use when making decisions. System 1 is a type of thinking that involves faster, more holistic forms of processing that tend to use fewer mental resources, whereas System 2 tends to be slower, more deliberate, and more mentally taxing. Both System 1 and System 2 have been shown to be beneficial in a number of decision making contexts. Although it is clear that both System 1 and System 2 have their place in decision making, how and when to use each processing style in software architecture design decision making is a question that remains largely unanswered. Therefore, our research aims to fill this gap by: (i) determining what is actually known from published research regarding the use of System 1 and System 2 in software architecture design decision making, (ii) evaluating System 1 and System 2 empirically in terms of software architecture decision making performance, and: (iii) developing and validating a decision support model to support the use of System 1 alongside System 2 in software architecture design decision making.