Self-Facilitating Group Decision Analysis and Tracking in Tactical Time Scales

We propose an innovative software system that offers the benefits of systematic group decision analysis, within tactical timescales and without requiring an expert facilitator. To accomplish this, our system will accumulate and index knowledge (e.g., variables, issues, constraints, and relationships) that recurs over the course of large numbers of problem solving sessions within a given domain (e.g., Military Operations on Urban Terrain (MOUT)). This knowledge, retrieved and adapted (potentially in a piecemeal fashion), will prime the decision modeling pump - moving decision makers to more complete/correct problem specifications in shorter time. In addition, our system will utilize an interactive coaching capability to facilitate the migration from qualitative problem descriptions to quantitative models in a stepwise manner that promotes emotional and cognitive commitment by participants, maintains links to individual contributions, and allows transition back-and-forth across the gap between qualitative and quantitative models. This approach will provide transparency to the content, inputs, and rationale associated with group decision analysis model(s), which in turn will support more efficient restructuring. Finally, we will employ two recently developed techniques to track the validity of decision assumptions in the face of new information. In Phase I we will prove the feasibility of this approach via prototype.