Collaborative Planning in Network-Enabled Co-Located and Distributed Environments

摘要

A defining feature of Army transformation will be the development of digital communications capabilities to support distributed battle command. To support new equipment development a realistic planning task is required which can yield an objective planning performance benchmark score. The Reactive Planning Strategies Simulation (REPSS) presents a group planning and resource allocation task that can be used to generate a benchmark performance score. The present research investigated whether a benchmark REPSS performance score could be established that demonstrates sensitivity to manipulations in planning task conditions, and planning group skills. Twenty-two groups of seven Soldiers (commander and three two-person teams) performed the REPSS planning task after being assigned to either a co-located or distributed team planning condition. Results indicated that the planning performance success score for groups in the distributed condition fell below the benchmark score for groups in the co- located condition. Participant group member characteristics (rank, planning experience, and previous deployments) were significantly related to successful performance for groups in the distributed planning condition. These results provide evidence that the REPSS simulation can be applied to develop a benchmark estimate of performance against which manipulations in task conditions and planning group expertise can be compared.