Task Managed Watchstanding - Concepts for 21st Century Naval Operations

Watchstanding in a command center includes work requirements for U.S. Navy shipboard crews to complete time-critical and externally paced task assignments in an accurate and timely manner. Requirements for optimized crew sizes in newer ships are forcing system designers to give increased consideration to task and workload demands in a multiple task work environment. The multi-task environment is characterised by multiple mission job demands and parallel task goals of varying time duration. Design concepts for a watchstation work environment were created which support a variety of cognitive and visual requirements for multiple tasks. The user support tools include a concept of imbedded “Task management” within the watchstation software. This paper presents the requirements and design concepts for imbedded task management user support, and the implications for improved user performance.