The power of collaborative systems
The power of collaborative systems
The need to exchange meaningful information in a timely manner and to create a common operational picture is at the center of emerging net-centric command and control operations. A clearly related and critical problem is that of supporting and enhancing the tactical decision making capabilities of distributed collaborative groups. In particular, such groups need tools with which to assess, share, and integrate decision-relevant information for the purpose of evaluating options by analytical methods.
We developed and successfully tested one such tool under an ONR-sponsored STTR Phase I project conducted together with the MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Department. The resulting Decision Information Icon (DICON) will form a useful component of our Tactical Group Decision Analysis System (TGDAS) tool suite, being developed under several related programs to support both military and non-military planning and decision making.
Our primary motivation behind DICON design and development was to improve on the functionality and usability of MIT’s Decision Making Constructs in the Distributed Environment (DCODE) concept for knowledge elicitation, which originated at US Navy SPAWAR. We based our improved design on configural principles and human factors considerations. Computer implementation included specification of consistent scenario-based semantics for DICONs and specification of scales for measuring different aspects of information uncertainty portrayed by DICONs. We also developed algorithms for computer generation of DICONs.
An experimental usability study strongly validated the basic DICON concept. DICONs are designed for use in collaborative decision making situations. In our usability evaluations, we presented the DICON as a means of helping a decision team to answer several important questions about information related to the team’s position regarding a critical portion of the decision. The quantitative test results were very positive – high accuracy and low solution time despite the relative difficulty of the tests and the relatively short amount of preparation. In summary, the DICON concept provides a unique collaborative tool by integrating an improved DCODE system functionality with the TGDAS infrastructure, resulting in a module fully capable of rapid transition to operational users.
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