Design of a Systems Theory Approach for the Evaluation of C2-Systems

The course of large-scale incidents as well as disasters can reveal weaknesses in command and control (C2) systems, which make adjustments necessary. Also, new technologies may require C2-systems to be adapted to achieve their full potential for improving incident command. This paper deals with an approach to enable the comparison and evaluation of different C2-systems or their adaptations in order to find the best possible customizations for C2-systems. To this purpose, systems theory is used to unify the approaches of different research disciplines. Within the C2-system boundaries, distinctions were made to represent three different levels of evaluation: “Physical Characteristics”, “Structures and Processes” as well as “C2-system-effectiveness”. During the implementation of the evaluation methods from the different research disciplines into the systems theory approach, it became apparent that the comprehensive approach is desirable, but that broad knowledge and expertise is necessary, especially at the highest evaluation level “C2-system-effectiveness”.