Wargaming Effectiveness Its Conceptualization and Assessment
Information
Date
March 2006
Summary
Wargaming arguably is the most important collective activity occurring during operational planning. The need to understand, develop, and support battle staff wargaming has never been greater than it is now. The purpose of the present research was to determine the constructs that comprise effective wargaming and to explore methods for assessing these constructs. Cognitive task analysis was used to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the knowledge, skills, and other attributes that comprise the individual and team-related determinants, processes, and outcomes of effective wargaming. This framework was used as the basis for designing and implementing assessments. This initial exploration indicates that assessments derived from the wargaming conceptual framework can be feasible to administer and be reliable and valid assessments of their related psychological constructs. If extended and applied, this work could escort operations command and control teams into the future through a better understanding of how to develop and support their collective mission planning competence.