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THE CULTURE TOOL
Dr Carys Siemieniuch and
the research team at Loughborough University are working on a Systems Engineering
for Autonomous Systems Defence Technology Centre (SEAS DTC) project SER006 "Impact
of Different Cultural Attribute Sets on S/AS Decision structures and interfaces".
This project has produced
a web-based prototype tool - the
Culture Tool - and the team would like
a) some data from the tool
to see whether our analysis approaches will generate the sort of results we
would expect and
b) some feedback on the
usability and usefulness (or otherwise of the tool itself. In order to obtain
this we are asking a series of colleagues to interact, or in non-technical terms,
play with the tool and then submit results and feedback to the Loughborough
Team.
Naturally confidentiality
will be respected and anonymity guaranteed.
The final version of the
tool is to be targeted at mission planners who are required to put together
a system (comprising human and technical components) to carry out an operational
requirement in a particular environment. For example one question it might help
answer: is a particular configuration of military assets, tasked with carrying
out a mission, capable of demonstrating appropriate decision making. information
processing, communication and adaptive skills & behaviour in an environment
where the command style is control free, authority is delegated, operational
tempo is unpredictable and the battlespace is ill defined.
It is recognised that
this trial run will not address these sorts of military issues. However, even
though much of the language in the tool has a military flavour, the tool should
work reasonably well in the civilian domain as has been proved by an (even)
earlier prototype.
On opening the tool the
user will see a series of tabs:
- The Culture Tab provides
a basic introduction to the notion of culture and its affects
- The Attributes Tab
introduces the cultural attributes or soft factors used in the tool
- The Tool tab allows
access to the tool and lists a series of FAQs. Within the tool there are a
series of 'Need Help?' buttons. Alternatively the user is directed to the
User Manual Tab
- The User Manual Tab
provides guidance and instructions on the use of the tool and can be left
open in a separate window while the user is interacting with the tool
- The Links and Contacts
Tabs are provided as additional sources of information
It is suggested that the
user reads the information on Culture and Attributes before entering the Tool
and keeps the User Manual window open during use of the Tool. Once you have
provided the required input and select the 'results' button at the end of the
Tool you will be provided, on screen, with graphical representations of the
outcomes which should highlight areas where conflict between individuals, teams
and their organisation may occur.
Once you have finished interacting with the Tool, pressing the Close Tool button
will submit the full set of data to the Loughborough Team and allow us to carry
out further analysis:
a) to analyse the degree
of conflicts that may arise;
b) to see how the results
may impede or facilitate certain decision making behaviour,
c) to see whether the results
would impede or facilitate an individual/team/ organisation/ system's ability
to function in particular types of environments and
d) how much change do we
need to make to the structure, content, interface etc of the tool. The Culture
Tool is linked to a scoring system, not visible to the user which we will use
to analyse the data.
You may interact with the Culture Tool in different ways, adopting different
persona if you will.
- As an individual, group
or organisation who wish to quantify their current position on any/all soft
factor pairings against a desired to-be position. This would enable the tool
user to identify the key areas where change in soft factor attributes were
required or seen as desirable.
[Not so useful for the project at this point ]
- As an individual who
will enter current values for self, the team or group he/she works in and
for the organisation in which they work. This would, from a subjective individual
perspective, highlight similarities or conflicts in soft factor values that
exist between the various levels.
- As a team. In this
case identify the team and individuals with an appropriate reference and each
individual enters their individual current values only. The team may then
in agreement enter the team or group current values and then provide a consensus
value for the organisation level.
- As a System or Organisation
(i.e. combination of human and technical sub systems), which is a variation
on 3 above, where one or more of the 'individuals' is a technical sub system.
In this case identify the system (under team or group) and human individual/technical
subsystems with an appropriate reference. Then each (human) individual enters
their individual current values only. Values for the technical sub-systems
are input at the individual level in the tool either by a nominated individual
or by the team as a whole. After this the team agrees a value for the team
or group current values, which is entered at the team/group level in the tool
and then the team also provides a consensus value for the organisation level.
[Please note that the selected team or organisation can be at any level
eg org could be the MoD, BAE SYSTEMS, or a business unit and the group could
then be BAE, Hawk, IPT etc. Alternatively the organisation could be DTC Research
Programme, Loughborough University, Dept and the group University, Dept, Project
Team - your choice.]
In short, interact with the tool individually, see the results and submit for
further analysis or select a number of other individuals/technical sub systems
to form a team/group/system, interact with the tool as a group, see the results
and submit for further analysis.
Completing the tool as
an individual will take about 15 mins + reading time. Selecting a group and
working together will take a little longer but may provide more interesting
results for you. Reports on the analysis of all the results and refinements
to the tool will be published and available to DTC members in the usual way
in June/July 2007 and at the DTC conference.
It should be emphasised
at this point that the tool is far from complete and many changes to the user
interface or the contents of the tool are likely to be required after this first
general evaluation round.
The Loughborough Team
will be very grateful for your help and data - we are hoping this exercise will
answer many queries the team has, clarify a lot of gray areas, prove our basic
hypothesis and allow us to refine the prototype to a position where it can be
taken out to military stakeholders and subject matter experts for more stringent
testing.
The Culture Tool is located at
http://www-staff.lboro.ac.uk/~ttgaln/Culture_web/
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