Nothing is done in ECD that is at all contrary to good traditional
test development practice. Using ECD, however, aspects of the
process are specified in far greater detail than is usual in traditional
test development. If it is used wisely, ECD can help test developers
accomplish work more efficiently. On the other hand, slavish
adherence to aspects of ECD that are not necessary in some particular
set of circumstances can waste test developers’ time. Flexibility and
common sense are as important in the practical application of ECD
as they are in traditional test development. As readers of this article
will have noticed, much vocabulary is employed that may be
comfortable for cognitive scientists but is still novel and somewhat
opaque for most test developers. In response to the criticism that
ECD was just “a bunch of new words for things we are already doing,”
Mislevy and Haertel (2006, p. 23) wrote