How can the user get what he want? [Command support systems]

Some of the most complex and high risk information-decision-action systems are those demanded by the military and civil authorities as command and control information systems (CClS) or command support systems (CSS). A significant number of these systems have, in some sense, failed, due to cost overruns, late delivery and, most importantly, inability to satisfy the users´ requirements. Both the common causes of user dissatisfaction and the methods currently used by the authors during system implementation to ensure user satisfaction are examined. In particular, a method of determining the requirement for automated support to meet the specific organisational and procedural needs of military and civil headquarters by the use of a command support system demonstrator (CSSD) is described. The CSSD is a state-of-the-art distributed prototyping tool