A functional workspace for military analysis of insurgent operations

Abstract

Information overload has become a critical challenge within military operations. However, the problem is not so much one of too much information but of abundant information that is poorly organized and poorly represented. Here I report the development of a prototype functional workspace to resolve this issue. Development proceeded through a design sequence of cognitive analysis, knowledge representation and workspace design. The cognitive analysis focused on the specific information needed for analysis of insurgency operations. Abstraction–Decomposition matrices from the framework of Cognitive Work Analysis were used as design artifacts to represent knowledge acquired during the cognitive analysis. Additional design guidance related to workspace layout and format was drawn from operational and scientific literature. The workspace was structured in terms of dimensions of functional abstraction and functional decomposition; dimensions that are thought to characterize the fundamental structure of cognitive work. In this paper, I describe the analysis and how its products were integrated with insights drawn from operational and scientific literature to develop the prototype workspace. Relevance to Industry Visualization is often proposed as a solution to the challenges of cognitively intensive, information-rich work. This paper outlines principles and analytic procedures that can be used to develop a visualization for cognitive work.