The Resource for Applied Cognitive Engineering and Systems Engineering- (TRACE-SE)

Future C4ISR capabilities must provide warfighters with the abilities to clearly and comprehensively understand the battlespace and quickly decide on appropriate COA. Future systems must account for cognitive capabilities and limitations of users, giving warfighters the ability to “leverage asymmetric advantages”. Better and faster decision making by warfighters is the ultimate goal; developing new systems to support this goals is part of the solution. Traditional systems engineering practices don’t expressly consider cognitive factors, or they consider them too late in the design process. Cognitive engineering methods must be embedded within the systems engineering process, but their application to systems design is a difficult and risky process, because it’s expensive to do a complete engineering process for a system. Intelligent designers with the best of intentions can create a system that is difficult to use. Designers with knowledge of usability pitfalls can develop a system that doesn’t support its users. We propose developing The Resource for Applied Cognitive Engineering and Systems Engineering (TRACE-SE), a web-based community of practice to be used in conjunction with the current Defense Acquisition System. By embedding cognitive engineering processes into systems engineering practices, TRACE-SE will help bridge the gaps between these disciplines.