- ### __Bias : __ - Search - ### __Definition : __ - An event may seem more frequent because of the effectiveness of the search strategy. - ### __OODA Class : __ - Observe Phase - ### __OODA Subclass : __ - Information Gathering - ### __Classification Reasoning : __ - The goal of the observe phase is to create a knowledge base for decision-making. Architects employ different search techniques for this purpose. Tendency is to gather information from sources which have higher frequency of certain search keywords which creates the illusion that the information being highly relevant in the context, even if it is not. - ### __Example : __ - Gathering information to select a technology for backend: Based on the current trends, Java and NodeJS are arguably the most popular backend technologies. However, there are other technologies such as Scala, Django, Ruby on Rails, Symfony and others which could be viable alternatives. When using search engines like Google, the information obtained depends on the usage of the search key terms. For example, searching for ‘high performance web application framework’ results in a direct link to Symfony being listed in the first page of Google results. While other links mention competing technologies, direct links to their home pages are noticeably missing from the first page. - ### __Impact : __ - It is quite common for developers to don the ‘hat of an architect’ especially in small companies with limited resources. Due to their inexperience they rely heavily on the information that can be found on the internet. Thus, the architecture decisions would then be driven by search results instead of having a more rational basis according to the scenario at hand. - ### __Debiasing Techniques : __ - Use different sources such as books, forums and other avenues to search for information. Document the search terms used by different members to analyze the search strategies used. - ### __Related Biases :__