Edsger Dijkstra defined intellectual distance as the distance between the real-world problem and the computerized solution to that problem. Richard Fairley argues that the smaller the intellectual distance, the easier it will be to maintain the software.
To do this, the structure of the software should as closely as possible mimic the structure of the real world. You can minimize intellectual distance using any design approach. Be aware that the structure of the real-world is not unique. As pointed out so well by Jawed Siddiqi in his March 1994 article in IEEE Software, entitled "Challenging Universal Truths of Requirements Engineering," different people often perceive different structures when examining the same thing and thus construct quite diverse constructed realities.
