Decision maker perception of information quality in a net-centric military command and control environment: A case study of feed-forward control within a system of systems

Perception of one's environment is the first level in Endsley's three-part situational awareness (SA) development process critical for effective decision making. However, technological advances allow decision makers removed from the environment upon which they base their decisions to be increasing dependent upon indirect observations, or cues, provided by complex system of systems. One aspect of indirect cueing is that contextual cues, such as information quality criteria (e.g., accuracy, relevance, timeliness, completeness, usability, brevity, security, etc.) associated with cues from direct observation, are lost if the contextual meta-data are not also generated by the system. A novel information flow model incorporating the process of feed-forward control (FFC) allows for the detection of contextual meta-data anomalies based on user requirements able to feed mitigation control actions and contextual cue creation to facilitate decision maker perception.