ABSTRACT
An analysis of the planning process found that workstations really only supported two parts effectively, namely the editing of the Warning Order and writing up of the Requests For Information for higher command. Analysis of the Distributed Situation Awareness during the planning phases revealed questions about the timeliness and accuracy of information, the tempo of planning in digital MP/ BM, the accuracy of information from digital MP/BM and the poor support for the different Situation Awareness requirements in the different planning cells. Emergent behaviours arose in which 'something stupid', in this case a highly simplistic Free Text facility, 'bought something smart'. Whether this was an attempt by users to restore the mismatch between their net-centric approach and their corresponding cold-war style problem is debatable, but in either case it tells systems designers that users favoured a 'simple system that enabled them to do complex things' rather than a 'complex system that only enabled them to do simple things'.
