A work domain model to support shipboard command and control

Shipboard command and control presents unique challenges for decision support. Command decisions require an understanding of your own ship's capabilities as well as the capabilities and the intentions of friendly and hostile parties. While some actions can be pre-planned, naval decision makers will always be faced with unanticipated situations resulting from unknown variables in the environment or unexpected changes in their own equipment or technological capabilities. Decision support for these unanticipated situations demands that these operators be provided with as complete and flexible a model of the situation as possible. Ecological interface design is a design paradigm for unanticipated situations that has evolved from the domain of nuclear power, that bases its design on a cognitive work analysis (CWA) that is developed from work domain models. In this paper, we applied this approach to the domain of command and control for the Canadian Halifax-class frigate. In all, 38 work domain models were developed, from which we generated 132 information support requirements. This paper presents the first iterations of those models and discusses the application of this approach to the domain of command and control.