Cognitive Work Analysis

Cognitive Work Analysis (CWA) is a framework developed by Jens Rasmussen for analyzing the constraints that shape human work in complex systems. Rather than starting with the task as given, CWA begins with the system's goals, the physical and organizational constraints, and the strategies that competent operators develop. It treats expertise not as a fixed property of individuals but as an emergent property of the interaction between the operator, the tools, and the work domain.

The framework's central tool is the abstraction hierarchy — a multi-level representation that maps from physical form (what the system is made of) through functional purpose (what the system does) to normative constraints (why it must do it). This hierarchy makes visible the deep structure of the work domain and the degrees of freedom available to operators. It is not a task analysis but a constraint analysis: it asks not what