Book Description

This report documents the results of an invitational workshop on User Acceptance and Implementation of Military Decision Support Systems held at Fort Leavenworth on January 28-29, 1987. It was sponsored by the U.S. Army Research Institute, the Joint Services Working Group on Decision Aiding, and the U.S. Army Combined Arms Combat Developments Activity at Fort Leavenworth. Participants included 14 representatives from the military, government, and government contractors. The objectives of the workshop were to (1) identify a list of user acceptance problems and develop strategies for addressing each of them; (2) discuss problems associated with involving users in aid design and evaluation; and (3) make recommendations for addressing these user involvement problems. The report lists 22 user acceptance problems identified during the workshop and discusses the recommendations made by participants. They included that most of the recommendations that were made could best be accomplished through careful organizational management of the design and implementation of the system. Other general recommendations included early and on-going user involvement in aid design and evaluation, identification of the appropriate user for design and evaluation, common interface across aids and systems, training and education, an evolutionary development cycle, and organizational mechanisms for formally linking the user and builder. Suggestions were made for other organizational mechanisms that would facilitate user acceptance. (KR).