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Improving computer-supported work through scenario-based evaluation

An 18-month study by Penn State researchers of a collaborative system for managing and maintaining 800 military vehicles has helped identify how to make the multi-million-dollar system even more useful and efficient.The researchers drew their conclusions after analyzing use scenarios of the integrated digital environment (IDE) that helps the U.S. Marine Corps manage its light-armored vehicles (LAVs) deployed worldwide. The scenarios describe the actual contexts in which the study's participants-representative engineers, scientists, logisticians, managers and others-use the IDE system.