Using an Information-Driven Decision_Making Human Performance Tool to Assess U.S. Army Command, Control, and Communication Issues

• Published in: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting 2004-09, Vol.48 (20), p.2396-2400
• Main Authors: Plott, Beth, Quesada, Stacey, Kilduff, Patricia, Swoboda, Jennifer, Allender, Laurel
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1541-9312; 1071-1813; 2169-5067
• DOI: 10.1177/154193120404802005

The military command and control process is certain to change given the introduction of new information technology and new organizational structures. To predict how these changes will impact system performance, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory Human Research and Engineering Directorate (ARL-HRED) sponsored the development of a modeling environment in which one can develop multiple concept models for any sized organization, staffed by any number of people, performing any number of functions and tasks, and under various communication and information loads. This environment is called Command, Control, and Communication: Techniques for Reliable Assessment of Concept Execution (C3TRACE). Among the performance measures tracked are operator utilization, the number of tasks performed, and the quality of decisions made by the operators. Recently, C3TRACE was used to develop models of two Future Combat Systems (FCS) conceptual configurations. This paper discusses the theory and application of the tool.