Building a bridge with the customer to facilitate collecting and validating information in modeling sessions

Conference · Thu Jul 21 04:00:00 EDT 1994

OSTI ID:10176169

Eaton, S M

To build a bridge with customers, we balance the linear modeling process with the dynamics of the individuals we serve, who may feel unfamiliar, even confused, with that process. While it is recognized that human factors engineers improve the physical aspect of the workplace, they also work to integrate customers` cognitive styles, feelings, and concerns into the workplace tools. We take customers` feelings into consideration and integrate their expressed needs and concerns into the modeling sessions. After establishing an agreeable, professional relationship, we use a simple, portable CASE tool to reveal the effectiveness of NIAM. This tool, Modeler`s Assistant, is friendly enough to use directly with people who know nothing of NIAM, yet it captures all the information necessary to create complete models. The Modeler`s Assistant succeeds because it organizes the detailed information in an enhanced text format for customer validation. Customer cooperation results from our modeling sessions as they grow comfortable and become enthused about providing information.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 10176169
• Report Number(s): SAND--94-2010C; CONF-9408115--2; ON: DE94017338
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS
990200
COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DATA ACQUISITION
DATA BASE MANAGEMENT
HUMAN FACTORS
MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTERS
VALIDATION