ENVISIONING EVOLVABLE WORK-CENTERED SUPPORT SYSTEMS:EMPOWERING USERS TO ADAPT THEIR SYSTEMSTO CHANGING WORLD DEMANDS

摘要

Work-Centered Support Systems (WCSS) provide visualizations that reveal domain constraints andaffordances based on software agent technology to support cognitive and collaborative work. Here weargue for a need to incorporate facilities that enable users to adapt these systems to the changingrequirements of work-e evolvable work-centered support systems. We recently developed a WCSS forweather forecasting and monitoring in an airlift organization that is currently used in their operationscenter. As part of the development process we conducted field observations both prior and subsequent tosystem introduction. A striking finding was the constant changes that operations personnel faced (changesin goals and priorities; changes in scale of operations; changes in team roles and structure; changes ininformation sources and systems). We describe the changes in workplace demands that we observed andthe modifications we needed to make to the WCSS in response. Our findings are presented as a casestudy to illustrate the challenges confronted in designing a WCSS to s support a constantly changingenvironment. For today's fielded systems, making changes that are responsive to users changingrequirements in a timely manner is seldom possible.