How do cognitive biases show up in software engineering?

[aklima@]

Taking this into the context of software engineering, with technology advancing at an exponential rate, engineers are required to learn quickly so they can maintain and update the systems they build upon. To sustain a productive pace, making assumptions becomes inevitable because knowing anything with certainty takes time, which is limited. Therefore it becomes phone number list part of an engineer’s job to be able to identify and carefully consider what assumptions are being made. This is typically done during the solution design process and is accompanied by analyses of potential costs for failed outcomes. The difference between assumptions made in this manner versus ones resulting from cognitive biases, however, is that one is conscious while the other is unconscious. So in order to prevent the latter, we need to be aware of its existence.