A Value Focused Thinking Approach to Software Interface in a Complex Analytical Domain

The intelligence community is faced with an extensive amount of data. Software programs are being developed to examine this issue of data overload and to develop solutions. The responsibility of making the final software decision lies on the analyst, therefore, the interface is the key to linking the intelligence data to the processing and results. If the interface is difficult and complex, the software will be less likely to be used. A methodology must be created which can objectively evaluate the effectiveness of the interface. This methodology will also measure the improvements in the interface's effectiveness that result when various changes are made to the original software interface. Value focused thinking (VFT) is a proven methodology that can be applied to this problem. VFT provides an objective methodology to identify the values of an organization. Its hierarchical structure is well suited for handling multi-objective problems, such as identifying the values of software interfaces. The values can be measured and put to a common scale, allowing their contribution to the overall objective to be evaluated. By assigning quantifiable measurements to the components, the multiobjective goal can be evaluated and insight can be provided to the decision makers involved with the intelligence software. VFT was applied to determine what is valued in software's interface to members of the intelligence community. With these values identified, a software that is under development was evaluated against the hierarchy. This provided insight into where improvements could be made to the interface that would provide the greatest benefit. The VFT process also allows for the decision maker to continually reevaluate the software against the hierarchy, enabling continual improvement on the interface while maintaining the values of the intelligence community.