Output analysis research: why bother? A panel discussion

In the last two decades, many different techniques have been developed and investigated by researchers for summarizing the output and drawing conclusions from simulation experiments. The lack of practitioner interest in using these techniques has been ignored by some researchers but has become a source of great existential angst among others. Some have suggested that the root cause of this disinterest is a lack of communication between researchers and practitioners. It seems appropriate to look at the different views of output analysis research. This paper is an attempt to (i) determine the level of practitioner usage in the methods developed by output analysis researchers, (ii) find out how the output analytic research is perceived by practitioners of simulation, and (iii) find out what topics simulation practitioners think are important for further investigation or development by researchers. The intent is to discuss these three main issues as well as any other relevant issues.