A formative approach to establishing work requirements for a future C2 system

Developing concepts to support cognitive work in a future complex sociotechnical system requires an approach, and supporting analytical tools, with the power to provide design insights for first-of-a-kind systems. This work explored using a work-centred, constraint-based design framework to identify design requirements and propose design concepts for a future, optimized Joint Fires Coordination (JFC) capability for the Canadian Forces. The approach builds on adapting techniques from Cognitive Systems Engineering to model the work constraints of the JFC system and on using the information to systematically identify several hundred design concepts related to its process, technology and organizational structure.