Development of a Decision Taxonomy for the Marine Command and Control Environment. Volume I

Abstract : A decision aid selection methodology for the Marine Amphibious Brigade (MAB) decision making environment is presented. Built around a three-way taxonomy, the methodology allows the user to define a degree of merit for each decision aid with respect to a given decision situation. The MAB decision-making environment is first analyzed and the decision tasks pertaining to this environment identified. Decision tasks are then classified along three sets of descriptors: (1) information requirements, (2) attributes, and (3) functional requirements. Clusters of decision tasks with common characteristics are identified which leads to the MAB decision task taxonomy. Decision maker characteristics are identified, and the characteristics of potential MAB decision makers are analyzed, yielding the MAB decision maker taxonomy. The main finding is that decision aids cannot be tailored for individual decision makers, but rather should be adaptive to a number of decision-maker characteristics. Decision task taxonomy and decision maker taxonomy together constitute the decision situation taxonomy. The methodology gives a specific procedure for calculating the degree of merit of a decision aid with respect to a given decision situation. By dividing this degree of merit by the decision aid cost, a cost benefit measure for each decision aid is computed.